You are not logged in.

#1 2016-03-29 12:46:55

pentix
Member
Registered: 2016-03-29
Posts: 9

No clue which nvidia driver to use

Hello

I've been sticking to my Dell XPS17 for some time now and about 2 years ago when I switched from distro
to distro I discovered ArchLinux to which I still stick to. My Laptop includes a Nvidia Geforce GT 550M.

The output of

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"

shows:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 04b8
        Kernel driver in use: i915
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106M [GeForce GT 550M] (rev a1)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 04b8
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau

Because of graphics performance reasons I'd like to switch from using nouveau to the official (proprietary) nvidia driver.
I checked out the installation instructions in the Arch Wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NV … stallation) but I did something
wrong somehow:

Here is what I did:
1. Checked if my graphics card was on the nvidia legacy list. (http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html, Link copied from the Arch wiki)
  => Could not find it there so I guessed my the latest nvidia driver should work.
2. Installed nvidia, nvidia-libgl using pacman.
3. Rebooted my system.
4. After login (I don't use sddm, so after text-based login and startx) I could only see a black screen with the default KDE cursor. (I could move the cursor) Some seconds passed until I could read several info boxes with a message box like "Could not start plasma" (<- Translation, probably not 1:1)
5. I chose another tty, logged in as root there and executed startx again. Again, I was able to see the same black screen and cursor. I got another message box: Plasma could not be started because OpenGL 2.0 did not work properly (<- Translation, not 1:1)
6. I removed the nvidia packages again and re-installed the mesa-libgl package again.
7. Rebooted my system and everything worked fine again.


Could someone please tell me which driver package I'd have to install in order to be able to use the nvidia driver?

Any support is greatly appreciated! smile
Thanks in advance!



PS: I'm new on this Arch Linux Board: The way they implemented security questions using date, hashes and sed is awesome! big_smile

Offline

#2 2016-03-29 13:02:39

Trilby
Inspector Parrot
Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,441
Website

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

You have an integrated intel video card and discrete NVIDIA.  If you want to use just the NVIDIA card, you need to disable the integrated video card in your BIOS/firmware settings.  Otherwise you'll need to set up optimus:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

Offline

#3 2016-03-29 13:04:47

Lone_Wolf
Member
From: Netherlands, Europe
Registered: 2005-10-04
Posts: 11,866

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

Your GeForce GT550 M is from the "GeForce 500M Series (Notebooks)" family and does work with the latest nvidia driver.

Your system is using a hybrid graphics setup with 2 graphic cards: intel +nvidia .

Do you have the xf86-video-intel driver installed ?
if not, do that first.

for the intel+ nvidia driver setup, check Bumblebee in wiki.
for intel+nouveau drvier, check PRIME page.


Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.


(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

Offline

#4 2016-03-29 17:24:01

pentix
Member
Registered: 2016-03-29
Posts: 9

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

Thank you very much for your answers!

@Trilby
Yes the Intel "video card" is on my i7 CPU. I'm not sure whether I should disable it... Thank you for your Optimus link!


@Lone_Wolf
Yes, xf86-video-intel was already installed.

The Bumblebee wiki states: (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bu … l.2FNVIDIA)

nvidia or nvidia-340xx or nvidia-304xx - Install appropriate NVIDIA driver. For more information read NVIDIA#Installation.

Am I right in the assumption I have to install nvidia?

Thank you both very much for your fast responses!

Offline

#5 2016-03-29 17:34:36

pentix
Member
Registered: 2016-03-29
Posts: 9

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

I proceeded as the wiki stated, my computer had no blackscreen, it works fine but the lspci output is a bit confusing now:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 04b8
        Kernel driver in use: i915
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106M [GeForce GT 550M] (rev a1)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 04b8
        Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia

Shouldn't nouveau be blacklisted? smile

Last edited by pentix (2016-03-29 17:35:15)

Offline

#6 2016-03-29 17:43:26

Xabre
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2009-03-19
Posts: 749

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

No, it is just a suggestion on which kernel modules may be associated with the device.
Try using:

lspci -k | grep -A 3 -E "(VGA|3D)"

which will grep one extra line ("Kernel driver in use: nvidia" as I presume)

Last edited by Xabre (2016-03-29 17:44:23)

Offline

#7 2016-03-29 17:54:54

pentix
Member
Registered: 2016-03-29
Posts: 9

Re: No clue which nvidia driver to use

Oh yes, you're right!

Kernel driver in use: nvidia

Thanks smile

Seems to work very fine using optirun smile (Tested with glxgears and I'll soon try to measure the fps rate in some steam games)


Edit: For those interested in the measurements:

Without optirun

root@XPS17-Arch pentix]# glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
303 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.558 FPS
299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.798 FPS

With optirun

[root@XPS17-Arch pentix]# optirun glxgears
7795 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1558.997 FPS
7863 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1572.586 FPS

Last edited by pentix (2016-03-29 17:58:36)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB