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MrFry

Member

Registered: 2018-03-16

Posts: 26

[Solved] Troubleshoot nVidia driver issue

Hello!

So I'm having a problem with my nVidia driver.

So one day I was messing with the GTK themes, and set a different font size. By messing I mean changing stuff in KDE system settings. Then I rebooted and I remember having font sizes way to big. I was suspicious of the nVidia driver breaking, because if somehow intel drivers are used then I got way bigger fonts. But I tought that the GTK theme changed that, because screenfetch showed GPU: GeForce 840M. Also nvidia-smi --query-gpu=utilization.gpu --format=csv always shows 0%. Before things broke it always showed some usage. I remember trying Wayland, but instantly removed it after. Don't remember anything strange after it.

Because of this I have no idea when it broke exactly, but I'm guessing on a nvidia driver update.

But after playing some gpu heavy game, I realized that something was wrong. It (Starcraft) even told me in the settings, that intel gpu is being used. And now I don't have any idea how to start fixing things. Of course wine is used to play it, but because nvidia-smi --query-gpu=utilization.gpu --format=csv does not show anything (0%), I'm sure that the gpu is not used at all.

So I would appreciate some help, or direction where to start.

Some info:

I have a laptop, with i7 cpu, and dedicated nVidia gpu. My setup was using the dedicated gpu for everything, no optimus stuff.

uname -a:

Linux frypc 4.18.11-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Sep 29 21:01:35 UTC 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux

pacman -Si nvidia:

Version         : 410.57-3

dmesg | grep nvidia:

[    0.000000] Command line: initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux.img root=PARTUUID=9e095dbf-43d3-804c-8c3a-85d2edb7c56a rw nvidia-drm.modeset=1 quiet loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=auto rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 scsi_mod.use_blk_mq=1
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux.img root=PARTUUID=9e095dbf-43d3-804c-8c3a-85d2edb7c56a rw nvidia-drm.modeset=1 quiet loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=auto rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 scsi_mod.use_blk_mq=1
[    3.949931] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[    3.990597] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 238
[    3.990896] nvidia 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
[    4.154646] nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms  410.57  Tue Sep 18 23:23:43 CDT 2018
[    4.158530] [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000300] Loading driver
[    5.880835] [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 20160202 for 0000:03:00.0 on minor 1

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log  | grep nvidia :

[     5.962] Kernel command line: initrd=\intel-ucode.img initrd=\initramfs-linux.img root=PARTUUID=9e095dbf-43d3-804c-8c3a-85d2edb7c56a rw nvidia-drm.modeset=1 quiet loglevel=3 rd.systemd.show_status=auto rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 scsi_mod.use_blk_mq=1
[     5.998] (**) OutputClass "nvidia" ModulePath extended to "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[     6.020] (II) Applying OutputClass "nvidia" to /dev/dri/card1
[     6.020] 	loading driver: nvidia
[     6.020] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 2
[     6.025] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[     6.026] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
[     6.032] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[     6.222] (II) Applying OutputClass "nvidia" options to /dev/dri/card1
[     6.223] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[     6.223] (II) Unloading nvidia

lsmod | grep nvidia:

nvidia_drm             49152  1
nvidia_modeset       1044480  1 nvidia_drm
nvidia              16850944  10 nvidia_modeset
drm_kms_helper        200704  2 nvidia_drm,i915
drm                   479232  12 drm_kms_helper,nvidia_drm,i915
ipmi_msghandler        65536  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia

Thanks for help

Reddit thread

Last edited by MrFry (2018-10-04 11:12:12)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,435

Re: [Solved] Troubleshoot nVidia driver issue

You cannot be using "no optimus" stuff, as that is the only way anything would remotely render on your screen while using the nvidia gpu. What you likely mean is that you don't use bumblebee but used the PRIME method, there was an change of configuration that accidentally  broke the default PRIME compatibility setup, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=240827 and https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/60102

Last edited by V1del (2018-10-04 11:04:03)

MrFry

Member

Registered: 2018-03-16

Posts: 26

Re: [Solved] Troubleshoot nVidia driver issue

Yea, thats it. Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes" solved it, thanks.