[SOLVED] Can't blacklist NVIDIA

pknox · 2020-04-17 17:09:32

I'm really confused about what's going on behind the scenes and need your help.

I have a Xiaomi Mi Air 13.3 2016. It has hybrid GPUs (Nvidia and Intel) and I want to disable the NVIDIA to reduce the battery consumption.

I did the same of all steps mentioned here. But it didn't help. I can still see "nvidia" in the output of lsmod:

$ lsmod | grep -i nvidia
nvidia_drm             53248  0
nvidia_modeset       1118208  1 nvidia_drm
nvidia              20467712  4 nvidia_modeset
ipmi_msghandler        73728  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia
drm_kms_helper        237568  2 nvidia_drm,i915
drm                   557056  10 drm_kms_helper,nvidia_drm,i915

I appended that into the grub kernel parameters:

nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0

But didn't help and it started to keep the sddm from starting (just after the typing the correct password for the lvm device at startup, before starting the display manager. I didn't forget to regenerate the related kernel stuffs with:

$ mkinitcpio -p linux
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Also:

$ sudo modprobe -r nvidia
modprobe: FATAL: Module nvidia is in use.

Last edited by pknox (2020-04-20 18:41:58)

V1del · 2020-04-17 17:12:54

Post your

sudo journalctl -b

and those files you should have created if you actually followed these steps.

Did you do something else in relation to this like installing optimus-manager/bumblebee ?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-04-17 17:19:20

I don't have any NVIDIA hardware but have you tried adding the nvidia_modeset and nvidia_drm modules to the blacklist?

And did you remember to regenerate the initramfs after creating the blacklist configuration file?

Another option is to use the install command to run a custom command instead of loading the module, like this:

# /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-blacklist.conf
install nvidia /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_modeset /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_drm /usr/bin/true

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

pknox · 2020-04-20 18:33:17

V1del wrote:

Post your
sudo journalctl -b
and those files you should have created if you actually followed these steps.
Did you do something else in relation to this like installing optimus-manager/bumblebee ?

No, I did not installed them.

I don't remember all the steps I took, but I'm sure on that I first followed the given instructions and they didn't work for me. Then I started searching workarounds and solutions. Since none of them worked and made the sddm can't start (like bootlooping or freezing), I reverted all the files and things back to their respective previous states as I remember.

Here's the files I created:

$ cat nouveau.conf 
blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidia

$ cat bbswitch.conf 
options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=0

Here's the output you wanted (I got this output at the time you wanted to see it, but publishing now):
[removed] - see my edit below

One extra note that may be important:
When I created an Xorg configuration file, like the one mentioned here, it also keeps the SDDM from starting. I mean that just after entering the password to unlock lvm device, instead of starting the SDDM, it just waits.

I don't know what is the problem. But I remember that I could create an Xorg configuration file without a problem on my previous Arch Linux installation. I always use the same Arch linux guideline I created for my device, and I use the exact same commands. So the installation is the same of previous ones.

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

I don't have any NVIDIA hardware but have you tried adding the nvidia_modeset and nvidia_drm modules to the blacklist?
And did you remember to regenerate the initramfs after creating the blacklist configuration file?
Another option is to use the install command to run a custom command instead of loading the module, like this:
# /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-blacklist.conf
install nvidia /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_modeset /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_drm /usr/bin/true
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting

Yes, I've also tried to blacklist the nvidia_modeset and nvidia_drm, since I had seen them in the lsmod output which also shows me the modules that started the blacklisted nvidia module.

Here's the latest version of my blacklisting file:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
blacklist acer_wmi
blacklist btusb
blacklist uvcvideo
blacklist bluetooth
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
blacklist nv
blacklist nvidia_modeset
blacklist nvidia_nrm
blacklist nvidia
options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=0

I also regenerated the initramfs besides the GRUB as I stated in my first post.

I will try the method using the install keyword instead of blacklist.

Edit: Yes, "install" keyword worked perfectly. So I guess I can assume that I made a typo somewhere in a module name while blacklisting, so it caused the nvidia module starting again. Hope that helps others.
Edit2: Maybe the type was the "nvidia_nrm", it should be "nvidia_drm".

Last edited by pknox (2020-04-20 18:41:37)

Arch Linux

#1 2020-04-17 17:09:32

[SOLVED] Can't blacklist NVIDIA

#2 2020-04-17 17:12:54

Re: [SOLVED] Can't blacklist NVIDIA

#3 2020-04-17 17:19:20

Re: [SOLVED] Can't blacklist NVIDIA

#4 2020-04-20 18:33:17

Re: [SOLVED] Can't blacklist NVIDIA

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