Arch Linux

Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Double GPU recognition issues

Hi
My laptop has two GPUs: an intel haswell and a nvidia geforce. I've been trying to work out how to change the default OpenGL renderer to the more powerful nvidia chip. if i run:

 glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer" 

it shows that its the intel integrated chip being used at the moment. 
I've investigated pages such as the arch wiki page on Hybrid GPUs, which led me to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME
this recommended making sure i have both intel and nvidia drivers (i do) and then checking my xrandr providers using

 xrandr --listproviders 

this should return two providers, nvidia and intel, but for me it is empty. Why is this?
i have xf86-video-nouveau and xf86-video-intel installed

Thank you

Last edited by Sue_Perb (2022-03-20 16:07:19)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,281

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Please post your xorg log, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General for where to find it.

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Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Hi
I'm not sure what you mean - for what time/event should I post the log for? When I run xrandr --listproviders there is no extra log entry added.
I'm looking in /var/log/Xorg.0.log (there is no xorg directory for me in .local/share)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

You should post the entirety of the file so we can take a look at it.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,281

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

I'd like to see the entire xorg log for your current graphical session boot.

The start of the log should look similar to these from  my system :

X.Org X Server 1.21.1.3
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[   168.421] Current Operating System: Linux silverbolt 5.16.15-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:30:09 +0000 x86_64
[   168.421] Kernel command line: \\boot\vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=c05eefba-c885-41ff-94a7-c4e6394b5e86 rw initrd=\boot\amd-ucode.img initrd=\boot\initramfs-linux.img audit=0 pcie_aspm=off
[   168.421]  
[   168.421] Current version of pixman: 0.40.0

Some display managers (including gdm) don't create xorg log but send the log messages to the journal .
How are you starting the graphics environment ?

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Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Hi
I use GNOME so gdm, so here is the journal: (i used journalctl to get this, not sure if that's right)

http://0x0.st/oNjW.txt

i can use a different file share site if you want; i was going to use hastebin but the file is quite big.

Also, while looking through journalctl, i found this, is it of interest?

Mar 20 09:17:11 billy gnome-shell[786]: Running GNOME Shell (using mutter 41.4) as a Wayland display server
Mar 20 09:17:11 billy gnome-shell[786]: Device '/dev/dri/card0' prefers shadow buffer
Mar 20 09:17:11 billy gnome-shell[786]: Added device '/dev/dri/card0' (i915) using atomic mode setting.
Mar 20 09:17:12 billy gnome-shell[786]: Created gbm renderer for '/dev/dri/card0'
Mar 20 09:17:12 billy gnome-shell[786]: Boot VGA GPU /dev/dri/card0 selected as primary

Thank you

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

You are running a wayland session, which changes most of these things and I'm not sure how well dual GPU works on wayland in any capacity. If you are indeed still on the noveau driver the way to switch woulld be e.g.

DRI_PRIME=1 glxinfo -B

If you wanted to look at "proper" listproviders and the like you'd have to switch to login to Gnome on xorg rather than wayland.

Last edited by V1del (2022-03-20 13:29:39)

Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

ok thank you I will investigate using Xorg instead

Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Hi
After switching to Xorg (i'm now on i3), I've tried the steps to switch my opengl renderer again.

 xrandr --listproviders 

now shows 1 provider: the intel card. I definitely have the nvidia card: I've checked lspci and that shows

 3D controller: Nvidia Corporation GF177M... 

However to change my OpenGL renderer string i need to use xrandr --setprovideroffloadsink with the name/index of the provider, but the nvidia card simply won't show up as a provider.
How can I fix this?
Thank you

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Post your xorg.log which should now exist. FWIW there's no inherent need to run that xrandr command if you only want to change the renderer, doing it with the environment variable I mentioned is normally sufficient, but if it doesn't show up then you have a deviating configuration than what would happen by default which might set up things incorrectly.

Last edited by V1del (2022-03-20 16:46:29)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,955

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

However to change my OpenGL renderer string i need to use xrandr --setprovideroffloadsink

3D controller: Nvidia Corporation GF177M...

There's no offloading since this isn't a VGA device and there's no CRT.

=> https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/nvidia-prime/

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

nvidia-prime wouldn't work on that HW, and afaik listproviders should still list something in case xorg is properly started and aware of the secondary GPU regardless.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,955

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Fermi… and while the journal is kinda filtered, there's no trace of either nvidia nor nouveau.

=> So please post

pacman -Qs nvidia

(next to the xorg log)

Also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bumblebee

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Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Hi

here is the xorg log: (/var/log/Xorg.0.log): https://www.toptal.com/developers/haste … adomu.yaml

here is the output of pacman -Qs nvidia

local/egl-wayland 2:1.1.9+r3+g582b2d3-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/libvdpau 1.4-2
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/nvidia 510.54-5
    NVIDIA drivers for linux
local/nvidia-prime 1.0-4
    NVIDIA Prime Render Offload configuration and utilities
local/nvidia-utils 510.54-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.17-2 (xorg-drivers)
    Open Source 3D acceleration driver for nVidia cards

Thank you

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,944

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

Well yes. Remove all of these nvidia packages and use nouveau or if you intend to use the proprietary driver install: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?O=0&K=nvidia-390xx and from that list nvidia-390xx-dkms, {lib32-}nvidia-390xx-utils . Since you won't be able to use the modern PRIME offloading with that, your other options for using it will be outlined in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA_Optimus

Make sure linux-headers is installed so the module can be built for your kernel.

Last edited by V1del (2022-03-20 20:21:07)

Sue_Perb

Member

Registered: 2020-06-25

Posts: 32

Re: Double GPU recognition issues

ok thank you I will try that