http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com/
A new job means a new laptop for me! My employer was kind enough to buy a new Dell XPS L502X for me so naturally I installed a Linux desktop OS (Ubuntu 11.10). This is a pretty sweet laptop you might say, except for one problem: Nvidia does not support Optimus hybrid graphics on Linux.
Currently Nvidia only supports Windows 7 is officially, however there
are open source projects that have made progress on supporting hybrid
graphics in Linux.
Nvidia Optimus basically makes use of a 'discrete' card for graphics heavy lifting while it can switch to using the 'internal' graphics card (Intel) to conserve power.
Bumblebee, supports Ubuntu and Arch Linux for now (Fedora and openSUSE on the way). It is developed by Lekensteyn,
Samsagax, ArchangeGabriel, pvriens(Fedora) and Ximi1970(openSUSE). The second one is IronHide, supporting only Ubuntu, developed by MrMEEE.
Bumblebee's latest version, 3.0 "Tumbleweed", supports power management although I still need to tinker with the settings because the battery lasts 2 hours after initial installation reboot. I am happy that the mini-display port (Intel) works easily in place of the HDMI port (Nvidia). Auto-switching between each graphics processors is not supported *yet* but any graphics intensive application can be invoked using optirun and the power consumption is much better.
I used these instructions with success:
installing-bumblebee-3-0-tumbleweed-on-ubuntu/
Details on the ATI and Nvidia hybrid graphics, Bumblebee and Ironhide projects here:
https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux
