Arch Linux

czepluch

Member

Registered: 2011-04-11

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Problems with nvidia after upgrading (Dell XPS 15 9550)

See solution at bottom

Yesterday I upgraded my system and it seems that some problems with the nvidia driver has occurred after that.

I have a Dell XPS 15 (9550) 4k display with an integrated GPU and a dedicated nvidia GPU (GFX 960M). I use bumblebee and have been doing so with no problems since I got the laptop early December.

When I upgraded yesterday the nvidia packages got updated. `nvidia`, `nvidia-utils` and `nvidia-settings` all got updated to version 378.13-3. This made my screen have a lot of tear when scrolling and made xbacklight unresponsive. Furthermore when I resumed the system from suspend the screen was just frozen. All of these things are known issues with the Dell XPS 15, but I just haven't experienced any of them previously which of course gives me reason to think that the nvidia upgrades are the source.

By uninstalling the nvidia driver (downgrade is not allowed sine `linux<4.10` is required and linux package was also upgraded yesterday), and downgrading `nvidia-utils` and `nvidia-settings` the screen tearing, resume from suspend and xbacklight are now fixed. Naturally bumblebee is not working since nvidia is not installed. Upgrading `nvidia-utils` and `nvidia-settings` to newest version without installing `nvidia` causes the problems to return.

I am a bit lost in regards to how to move forward from here, since I would like to have bumblebee up and running again without the screen tearing etc.

Has anyone else experienced this since the latest upgrade and has somebody found a fix?

EDIT: It seems that resuming from suspend is only working (sometimes) if the power cord is connected when resuming.

EDIT2: Installing bbswitch and setting bbswitch as the default method for power management in /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf seems to fix the resume on suspend problem with bumblebee

EDIT3: It seems that nvidia driver is always being used. At least if I uninstall it, so that only the intel card is used, xbacklight and the tearing disappears. So maybe it's a bumblebee problem?

EDIT4: SOLUTION:
I don't remember if I had it before upgrading or if things for some reason just worked without it, but adding this fixed everything.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
	Driver      "intel"
	Option	    "AccelMethod"	"sna"
EndSection

For some reason even though `xf86-video-intel` was installed it was falling back to mode setting. But this solves it.

Last edited by czepluch (2017-03-17 11:35:57)

terrick

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Problems with nvidia after upgrading (Dell XPS 15 9550)

What is your output for

uname -r

It's worth double checking. I was still running the linux-lts kernel (4.9.xx) on my laptop which wasn't working with the new nvidia drivers, since they require a kernel version >=4.10

Last edited by terrick (2017-03-16 22:50:43)

czepluch

Member

Registered: 2011-04-11

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Problems with nvidia after upgrading (Dell XPS 15 9550)

What is your output for

uname -r

4.10.2-1. So this should be fine.

starfry

Member

From: Surrey, UK

Registered: 2010-08-18

Posts: 230

Re: [SOLVED] Problems with nvidia after upgrading (Dell XPS 15 9550)

I have similar symptoms on my system which isn't a Dell but I do have Nvidia. After upgrading (my uname is now 4.10.3-1-ARCH) I have this issue where the system is unresponsive when returning after a period away. It's fine whilst I am using it. I have found a vt switch fixes it (i.e  CTRL+ALT+F1 then ALT+F7). I will do another update tomorrow and see if that helps at all...