Issue with nouveau driver

[MadderRed]

I recently bought a used Alienware m17x R2 laptop. I am trying to get gentoo running on it, but I am having an issue with the nouveau driver.
The graphics are dual nvidia.
From lspci:
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G92M [GeForce GTX 285M] (rev a2)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G92M [GeForce GTX 285M] (rev a2)

kernel 3.10.7-gentoo-r1

uvesafb works fine, boot splash works, fbcondecor works

When I compile the kernel and reboot with no splash options the boot is fine and automatically sets the console for 1920x1200. However when I try to execute startx and fluxbox starts the screen is unreadable, its all scrambled. Bootsplash is distorted, fbcondecor makes the console hard to read.

So I did some additional testing and compiled in boot logo support. The boot logos are also distorted.

Am I doing something incorrect or do I need to use the nvidia driver instead?

I followed the wiki for compiling the kernel with nouveau support.

[TomWij]

Same card here, but not dual; works (even reclocking works, for which I wrote a patch).

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G92M [GeForce GTX 285M] (rev a2)

Can you somehow (in BIOS?) disable one of both? I have no idea if Nouveau supports both at the same time; if I look for information, it doesn't appear to be so.

"If you have a laptop with dual Intel/Nvidia graphics, the Nvidia card may or may not be usable. The card may be selectable via vgaswitcheroo or a BIOS option, you should check those first. If neither works, you are probably out of luck. See the above link for Nvidia Optimus."

http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FAQ/
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/Optimus/

[chithanh]

uvesafb must remain disabled when you use nouveau. If nouveau does not give you a framebuffer console, chances are that some kind of Intel graphics are active as primary.