Arch Linux

aytekinar

Member

From: Stockholm

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 25

Getting dedicated graphics card to work

Hey

I have an Alienware laptop with

# lspci | grep -i "vga\|3d"
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 520 (rev 07)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] (rev a2)

I have trouble activating the nvidia driver (i.e., running nvidia-xconfig and restarting with lightdm results in errors).

I have tried following the instructions in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus, but could not succeed. I also tried adding

options nvidia NVreg_Mobile=1

to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf and "blacklist nouveau" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

I would appreciate if someone helped me spot my problem. This thing is driving me crazy.

And by the way, the only reason I am trying to activate nvidia is to have HDMI support. For some reason, I can use "cuda" related features in my programs (I can compile and run programs on my GPU), but I cannot get an HDMI support through xrandr. Even if I attach the device, xrandr keeps giving "disconnected" all the time.

Izzette

Member

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 25

Re: Getting dedicated graphics card to work

Output from dmesg?

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: Getting dedicated graphics card to work

Perhaps you need bumblebee instead - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee

aytekinar

Member

From: Stockholm

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 25

Re: Getting dedicated graphics card to work

Output from dmesg?

I don't know what output to show from dmesg, but a couple of messages are listed below:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
blacklist i2c_hid
blacklist nouveau

cat /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf 
# options nvidia NVreg_Mobile=1

dmesg | grep -i hdmi
[    1.905130] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input13
[    1.905185] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input14
[    1.905240] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input15

dmesg | grep -i nv
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000003155a000-0x000000003155afff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000371f4000-0x0000000037b6ffff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000003155a000-0x000000003155afff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000371f4000-0x0000000037b6ffff] ACPI NVS
[    0.054421] smpboot: APIC(0) Converting physical 0 to logical package 0
[    0.417807] PM: Registering ACPI NVS region [mem 0x3155a000-0x3155afff] (4096 bytes)
[    0.417808] PM: Registering ACPI NVS region [mem 0x371f4000-0x37b6ffff] (9945088 bytes)
[    0.820389] rtc_cmos 00:03: alarms up to one month, y3k, 242 bytes nvram, hpet irqs
[    0.898463] nvme nvme0: pci function 0000:02:00.0
[    1.007835]  nvme0n1: p1 p2
[   56.921503] nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   56.921507] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[   56.927933] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
[   56.928089] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 241
[   56.928103] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  375.26  Thu Dec  8 18:36:43 PST 2016 (using threaded interrupts)
[   57.276556] nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms  375.26  Thu Dec  8 18:04:14 PST 2016

xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x49 cap: 0xb, Source Output, Sink Output, Sink Offload
crtcs: 4 outputs: 6 associated providers: 0 name:Intel
Section "Module"
  Load "modesetting"
EndSection

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf.bak
Section "Device"
  Identifier "nvidia"
  Driver "nvidia"
  BusID "PIC:1:0:0"
  Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
EndSection

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-intel.conf.bak
Section "Device"
  Identifier  "intel"
  Driver      "modesetting"
  BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
  Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
  #Option      "TearFree" "True"
  #Option      "Tiling" "True"
  #Option      "SwapbuffersWait" "True"
EndSection

since I have disabled the nvidia configuration from /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, I also commented out the corresponding modprobe.d/nvidia.conf file.

Perhaps you need bumblebee instead - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee

yes, I have just tried it, and it is working. I mean, when I followed the bumblebee instructions, I got different terminal outputs from

glxgears -info
optirun glxgears -info

still nvidia-xconfig not working, nor the HDMI output from my laptop.

any suggestions? I can live without the nvidia-xconfig (bumblebee is more than enough for me; not even needed). I am using my laptop for GPGPU computations, and I already have this working. I just want to have my HDMI working, and I can't understand why I cannot have it

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: Getting dedicated graphics card to work

I don't think you should be using nvidia-xconfig at all - isn't your main graphics driver intel?

For your HDMI problems, have you tried using the linux-lts kernel instead? If you use linux-lts, you will more than likely need the nvidia-lts version.