Arch Linux

archippos

Member

Registered: 2018-06-18

Posts: 2

[Solved] bumblebee not working in kernel 4.17.2

I have a Dell XPS 15 9550 with GeForce GTX 960M. After upgrading to kernel 4.17.2 bumblebee stops working. optirun --status shows "Discrete video card is on" and optirun -vvv pwd shows:

[  469.106143] [DEBUG]Reading file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[  508.844459] [DEBUG]optirun version 3.2.1 starting...
[  508.844480] [DEBUG]Active configuration:
[  508.844489] [DEBUG] bumblebeed config file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[  508.844494] [DEBUG] X display: :8
[  508.844499] [DEBUG] LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /usr/lib/nvidia:/usr/lib32/nvidia:/usr/lib:/usr/lib32
[  508.844504] [DEBUG] Socket path: /var/run/bumblebee.socket
[  508.844509] [DEBUG] Accel/display bridge: auto
[  508.844514] [DEBUG] VGL Compression: proxy
[  508.844518] [DEBUG] VGLrun extra options: 
[  508.844523] [DEBUG] Primus LD Path: /usr/lib/primus:/usr/lib32/primus
[  508.844577] [DEBUG]Using auto-detected bridge virtualgl
[  569.040470] [INFO]Response: No - error: [XORG] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA GPU at PCI:1:0:0.  Please

[  569.040487] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA GPU at PCI:1:0:0.  Please

[  569.040490] [DEBUG]Socket closed.
[  569.040502] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.
[  569.040506] [DEBUG]Killing all remaining processes.

Furthermore the laptop becomes very hot and battery level drops quickly. The problem disappears upon downgrading to the following set of packages:

linux 4.16.11-1
bbswitch 0.8-139
nvidia 396.24-7

(In my trial & error I discovered that the same problem is present on 4.16.13, 4.17 and 4.17.1. The problem also disappears on 4.16.12 but suspend doesn't work properly there.)

I looked at the journal for bumblebeed and it suggests reading Xorg.8.log. It does appear that there is some sort of failure on 4.17.2:

/var/log/Xorg.8.log on kernel 4.17.2: http://ix.io/1dSM
/var/log/Xorg.8.log on kernel 4.16.11: http://ix.io/1dSN

Here is my dmesg (the one for 4.17.2 is before I tried various workarounds but the problem persists the same):
Kernel 4.17.2: http://ix.io/1dST
Kernel 4.16.11: http://ix.io/1dSU

The workarounds at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bu … iled.21.29 don't work; another thread suggests removing xf86-input-mouse and xf86-video packages but this doesn't work for me either:

$ pacman -Qs xf86
local/lib32-libxxf86vm 1.1.4-2
    X11 XFree86 video mode extension library (32-bit)
local/libxxf86dga 1.1.4-2
    X11 Direct Graphics Access extension library
local/libxxf86vm 1.1.4-2
    X11 XFree86 video mode extension library
local/xf86-input-libinput 0.27.1-1 (xorg-drivers)
    Generic input driver for the X.Org server based on libinput
local/xorgproto 2018.4-1
    combined X.Org X11 Protocol headers

I am running kernel 4.16.11 for now as a temporary solution but I'm hoping to find a solution that will work on the latest kernel. Thanks to all.

Last edited by archippos (2018-07-06 08:01:54)

archippos

Member

Registered: 2018-06-18

Posts: 2

Re: [Solved] bumblebee not working in kernel 4.17.2

An update: I was running powertop on startup; disabling powertop fixed the issue and everything works as expected now.

This is on 4.17.4-1. I tried enabling powertop with this kernel version and the problem comes back. For now I will disable powertop on my system.