Problems with Nvidia Geforce 310M (Optimus)

[Georg Denk]

Dear all,

I've got a new laptop, an Asus K52JC-EX356V with an Nvidia Geforce
310M in combination with an Intel graphics card (the so-called Optimus
technology). I installed Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit, and everything worked
perfectly. After installation, Ubuntu offered me to install the
proprietary Nvidia driver to improve graphics performance. I did, and
after installation I was stuck with a black screen.

So I did some Google research and found out that the Optimus setup
with an Intel graphics card combined with the Nvidia card is not
supported at all. I was not able to get rid of the Nvidia driver (for
some strange reasons it is not possible to get any virtual tty via
ctrl-alt-F1), so I did a complete re-install --- of course without
installing the Nvidia driver again.

Now I would like to learn about the options I have with this laptop. I
don't need the automatic switching between the two cards, I do not
mind rebooting while switching graphics card.

* Is it possible at all to use the Nvidia card?

* Is it possible to switch off the Nvidia card using only the Intel
  part (for saving some power)?

* Will things improve with Ubuntu 10.10?

The information I found on Internet was confusing me and it did not
work for me either (e.g. blacklisting the Intel driver). Do you have
any hints for me? (I'm not really a Linux expert so I would appreciate
some verbosity ...).

Many thanks in advance,

Georg