Arch Linux

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Hi snack,
I can not find the linux-ck-skylake and nvidia-ck-skylake packages. From which repo are they?

Can you provide the output of

lsmod | grep nvidia

after running enablegpu.sh please?

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

@Yann: thanks for the reply. The ck packages are from the ck repo. I rebooted my system and here's what I observe:
1) On first lauch of enablegpu.sh I get the following output:

$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
2:nvidia              17637376  0
9:ipmi_msghandler        65536  1 nvidia

2) Disabling and then re-enabling the gpu seems to work fine:

$ sudo scripts/disablegpu.sh 
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
2:nvidia              17637376  0
3:ipmi_msghandler        65536  1 nvidia

3) after using the gpu once the disable/enable process is broken:

$ optirun glxinfo
[output omitted but it looks ok]
$ sudo scripts/disablegpu.sh 
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$

All the above is with the "modprobe nvidia" line enabled in enablegpu.sh. If I comment that line out (as it is currently in the script version posted on the XPS 15 9570 wiki page) then the driver is not loaded:

$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ optirun glxinfo
[   74.064965] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: Could not load GPU driver

[   74.065003] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I did not know about Repo-ck, looks great.

Could you show the content of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf please? Is there

blacklist ipmi_msghandler
blacklist ipmi_devintf

in there?

Could be good to check

lsmod | grep ipmi

as ipmi* come together with nvidia.

Moreover, could you show out your enablegpu.sh file, that looks strange that nvidia is not loaded and you have no error logs for the last test.

Could you try uninstalling linux-ck-skylake and nvidia-ck-skylake and try with the "normal" linux and nvidia packages. Just to see if the problem comes from these packages (could be).

I did have the impression that ck-skylake is for Intel 6th generation, I supposed you have a Intel 8th generation. I don't know if it's important.

Last edited by Yann (2019-04-28 15:46:28)

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I did some other checks and the issue seems to happen in a random fashion (at least, I didn't find any correlation yet). I rebooted many times, and each time I could see a different behavior ranging from perfect behavior, even after running unigine valley benchmark, to errors in enabing the gpu at the first try. The only thing that seems reproducible is that when enabling the gpu fails then  launching again the enable script seems to fix the situation:

$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
mv: cannot stat '/etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf': No such file or directory
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
2:nvidia              17637376  0
3:ipmi_msghandler        65536  1 nvidia

About Yann's requests:

1) Content of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
blacklist nv
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nvidia-drm
blacklist nvidia-modeset
blacklist nvidia-uvm
blacklist ipmi_msghandler
blacklist ipmi_devintf

2) lsmod | grep ipmi*

$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device
$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
2:ipmi_msghandler        65536  0
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
mv: cannot stat '/etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf': No such file or directory
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
3:ipmi_msghandler        65536  1 nvidia
$ sudo scripts/disablegpu.sh 
$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
$

3) enablegpu.sh:

$ cat scripts/enablegpu.sh 
#!/bin/sh
# allow to load nvidia module
mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable

# Remove NVIDIA card (currently in power/control = auto)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/remove
sleep 1
# change PCIe power control
echo -n on > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:01.0/power/control
sleep 1
# rescan for NVIDIA card (defaults to power/control = on)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan
# someone said that modprobe nvidia is needed also to load nvidia, to check
modprobe nvidia

4) Test with vanilla linux and nvidia: I will try later and report the results here.

Thanks again for the support.

Last edited by snack (2019-04-28 16:11:53)

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Ok, it's hard to say. Everything looks good.
I would wait for the same tests with vanilla linux and nvidia. Could be the responsable of the strange/random behavior.

When doing it, don't forget, at first, to comment

modprobe nvidia

Last edited by Yann (2019-04-28 16:24:47)

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

@Yann: here's the log from a fresh boot to the vanilla linux 5.0.9 and after commenting "modprobe nvidia" in enablegpu.sh:

$ uname -a
Linux stryke 5.0.9-arch1-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Apr 20 15:00:46 UTC 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
9:ipmi_msghandler        65536  0
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
9:ipmi_msghandler        65536  0

It seems that the nvidia driver is not loaded. Enabling the "modprobe nvidia" line I get:

$ lsmod | grep ipmi*
9:ipmi_msghandler        65536  0
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
mv: cannot stat '/etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf': No such file or directory
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
2:nvidia              17637376  0
10:ipmi_msghandler        65536  1 nvidia

So I get the same behavior reported in my last post for the ck kernel. I really don't know where to look at, nor what's going on: I'm really puzzled by the fact that in my first tests I got a random behavior and sometimes everything seemed to work fine, while now it behaves consistently as described in this post. At least I can enable the gpu by launching enablegpu.sh twice...

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Ok, lets fix that with the vanilla packages. Then you will go back with the ck ones.

ipmi_msghandler seems to be loaded at startup as you haven't already launched enablegpu.sh. It should not, but as it is in the blacklist modules, I don't know why.

mv: cannot stat '/etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf': No such file or directory

seems that you don't have this file.

In /etc/modprobe.d/ I have:

blacklist.conf
disable-ipmi.conf
disable-nvidia.conf

Do you?

Are you using systemd? What is your X server? What is your window manager?

Last edited by Yann (2019-04-29 06:40:37)

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I actually have the file /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf:

$ ls /etc/modprobe.d/
audio_powersave.conf  blacklist.conf  disable-ipmi.conf  disable-nvidia.conf

The error just stems from the fact that enablegpu.sh is launched twice, so on the first run /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf is renamed to /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable, and thus on the second run the renaming gives the error.
I am using systemd, the X server version is 1.20.4-1 and my window manager is KWin (KDE Plasma).

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

The error just seems from the fact that enablegpu.sh is launched twice

Yes, you are right, that makes sens.

ipmi_msghandler is also loaded at startup on my system. Everything looks good on your side.

Sorry asking you that, could you go back on the wiki and check "one more time" all the steps. Just to check there is not a stupid mistake somewhere such as that one.

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I just went through the wiki instructions to check for possible mistakes, and found nothing major. The only thing that slightly differs on my system is the bumblebee setup: in the wiki it is said that it must be set as:

# [driver-nvidia] section
Driver=nvidia
PMMethod=none

but in my machine the file template has a KernelDriver parameter in  [driver-nvidia], rather than Driver which is instead in [bumblebeed]. Anyway, I set KernelDriver=nvidia, renamed KernelDriver to Driver, set also Driver in [bumblebeed] and all the possible permutations, to no avail.

In the meantime the general behavior changed again: now I can't enable the gpu anymore, even launching enablegpu.sh twice:

$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device
$ sudo scripts/enablegpu.sh 
mv: cannot stat '/etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf': No such file or directory
modprobe: ERROR: Error running install command for ipmi_devintf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia': No such device

In this thread it is said that the error could be generated by some other component like bbswitch killing the gpu power supply before the nvidia module is loaded. But I don't have bbswitch on my system.

I began to suspect a hardware fault, so I removed the Optimus configuration leaving only the nvidia driver installed. The system booted fine, the driver was loaded on boot and the gpu worked perfectly with unigine-valley. So no hardware fault, fortunately, but also still no clue.

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

If you don't have bbswitch installed and bumblebeed installed, everything should be good.
As your NVIDIA graphical card works fine without optimus, your hardware seems good too.

there is my /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf if you want to compare:

# Configuration file for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes

## Server options. Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f' will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the driver-specific sections below)
Driver=
# Directory with a dummy config file to pass as a -configdir to secondary X
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d

## Client options. Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# Acceleration/ rendering bridge, possible values are auto, virtualgl and
# primus.
Bridge=auto
# The method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
# List of paths which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1 when using
# the primus bridge
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/primus:/usr/lib32/primus
# Should the program run under optirun even if Bumblebee server or nvidia card
# is not available?
AllowFallbackToIGC=false


# Driver-specific settings are grouped under [driver-NAME]. The sections are
# parsed if the Driver setting in [bumblebeed] is set to NAME (or if auto-
# detection resolves to NAME).
# PMMethod: method to use for saving power by disabling the nvidia card, valid
# values are: auto - automatically detect which PM method to use
#         bbswitch - new in BB 3, recommended if available
#       switcheroo - vga_switcheroo method, use at your own risk
#             none - disable PM completely
# https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Comparison-of-PM-methods

## Section with nvidia driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nvidia
[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia
#PMMethod=auto
PMMethod=none
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia:/usr/lib32/nvidia:/usr/lib:/usr/lib32
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

## Section with nouveau driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nouveau
[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=auto
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau

Otherwise, I begin to run out of ideas.. I will think more about that during the day..

Last edited by Yann (2019-04-29 08:34:02)

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all different - all equal

snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Thanks Yann for all your efforts, I really appreciate. Your bumblebee.conf is identical to mine, except for a completely missing [bumblebeed] section. Mine:

# Configuration file for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes

## Server options. Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f' will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the driver-specific sections below)
Driver=nvidia
# Directory with a dummy config file to pass as a -configdir to secondary X
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d

## Client options. Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# Acceleration/ rendering bridge, possible values are auto, virtualgl and
# primus.
Bridge=auto
# The method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
# List of paths which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1 when using
# the primus bridge
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/primus:/usr/lib32/primus
# Should the program run under optirun even if Bumblebee server or nvidia card
# is not available?
AllowFallbackToIGC=false


# Driver-specific settings are grouped under [driver-NAME]. The sections are
# parsed if the Driver setting in [bumblebeed] is set to NAME (or if auto-
# detection resolves to NAME).
# PMMethod: method to use for saving power by disabling the nvidia card, valid
# values are: auto - automatically detect which PM method to use
#         bbswitch - new in BB 3, recommended if available
#       switcheroo - vga_switcheroo method, use at your own risk
#             none - disable PM completely
# https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Comparison-of-PM-methods

## Section with nvidia driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nvidia
[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia
PMMethod=none
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia:/usr/lib32/nvidia:/usr/lib:/usr/lib32
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

## Section with nouveau driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nouveau
[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=auto
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Sorry, I made a mistake when copying/pasting the /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf.
It's indeed like yours. I have the [bumblebeed] section.

You are welcome, sorry for not being able to help you more. I hope someone else will show up. Let us know if you make some progress.

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I made some progress. In this wiki page it is stated that the error I get is due to bad PCIe power management, and to disable it through the kernel parameter pcie_port_pm=off. I had that parameter actually set to on, a leftover of a suggested configuration in an old version of the XPS 15 9570 wiki page. Removing that option from the kernel command line does not help, but setting it to off seems to fix the problem (I made some tests and it seems reproducible, but I said this too many times now so I won't bet on it). With this setting however I have an idle power consumption of about 12-13 W, regardless of the gpu being enabled or not, and this is not acceptable for my use case.

I'd say that my problems probably stems from a bad PCIe power management, so I wonder if there are specific settings for this that I might be missing. For reference, my kernel command line parameters currently are:

rw  quiet mem_sleep_default=deep pcie_port_pm=off elevator=mq-deadline nmi_watchdog=0

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Very interesting. Where did you add this? In your /etc/default/grub? That would make sens.

About the consumption, have you played a little with powertop yet?

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

After a lot of tests here are my latest  findings:

1) it seems that on my machine the removal of the gpu (echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/remove) and the rescan of the PCIe bus (echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan) have to be done AFTER disabling the power saving settings for PCIe (echo -n on > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:01.0/power/control). In this way I can enable and disable the gpu both on battery and on AC, with pcie_port_pm=on, and get a consumption of 5W in idle with the gpu disabled. So now my enablegpu.sh looks like:

#!/bin/sh
# allow to load nvidia module
mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nvidia.conf.disable

# change PCIe power control
echo -n on > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:00\:01.0/power/control
sleep 1
# Remove NVIDIA card (currently in power/control = auto)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:01\:00.0/remove
sleep 1
# rescan for NVIDIA card (defaults to power/control = on)
echo -n 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan
# someone said that modprobe nvidia is needed also to load nvidia, to check
modprobe nvidia

2) after fixing enablegpu.sh as in 1), still the gpu enable fails from time to time. This might be due to the known (at least under Windows) USB-C power management bug with old BIOSes. I'm on BIOS 1.3.1 and I have a USB-C adapter with HDMI, ethernet etc. I noticed that unplugging the adapter the gpu enable failure is fixed. Re-plugging the USB-C afterwards does not seem to always impact the enable/disable capabilities.

Maybe is the USB-C bug that is causing all of this to my machine. I really hope that this is the end of the story, and that he above two points are the final fix. And thanks again to Yann for the help.

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

okay. Indeed, seems there is something to dig with the USB-C. I think I have read lots of issues/complications about the USB-C for the XPS-15 9570.
You should make some more tests to figure out. Updating the bios and playing with the usb-c could fix the optimus problem.

You are very welcome, let us know what you observe and your conclusions, the wiki might deserve to be updated on some parts.

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snack

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2009-01-13

Posts: 874

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I don't think that I will dig further if what I currently understand (i.e. when enabling the gpu fails it is sufficient to unplug the USB-C and disable/enable the gpu again) proves to be correct in the future. I'm happy with BIOS 1.3.1 and every subsequent version  fixes one problem and introduces a couple of new issues. So I'm not inclined to update it, especially now that I probably found a way to cope with this Optimus problem. I will update the wiki if my findings prove to be stable in a few days. Thanks again

Yann

Member

Registered: 2017-11-23

Posts: 235

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Perfect snack. Happy that you finally figured out!! That's Great!!

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Artyom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-27

Posts: 68

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Hi guys,
I've got a Defiance V from pc specialist (clavo 960RN) with a 2080 max-q.
I configure the second option on the first page.
The nvidia seems to not be use by the systemes but the battery level is worse than if i let it running natively.
Also the fan is always running.
How do you think i could resolve my problem?
In fact i just wan't the GPU to be shutdown when not used in nvidia-xrun, if not automaticaly then manually.
Also something strange on my config is that I get three additional "things" on my pci port:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104M [GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 10f8 (rev a1)
01:00.2 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1ad8 (rev a1)
01:00.3 Serial bus controller [0c80]: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1ad9 (rev a1)

I don't know if this can cause the probleme. I had them to the script but nothing works.

LazyLucretia

Member

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 39

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

By "second option", do you mean the Bumblebee solution with enableGpu/disableGpu scripts? If so, you shouldn't even need nvidia-xrun.

oddsocks

Member

Registered: 2008-12-08

Posts: 47

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I just wanted to point out that NVIDIA have recently added PRIME offloading to their driver (available via nvidia-beta), and using a PKGBUILD from one of the NVIDIA devs (at his gitlab), I was able to get PRIME offloading working, with Vulkan support. NB - the xorg-server package has to be from the gitlab for now, as the particular patches have not been merged with the main branch AFAIK.

i followed this documentation on getting it enabled, and using the Xorg conf files suggested on the reddit thread

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-display.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "ServerLayout0"
    Screen 0   "Screen0"
    Option     "AllowNVIDIAGPUScreens"
    Option     "ignoreABI" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "iGPU"
EndSection

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/intel.conf:

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "iGPU"
    Driver        "modesetting"
    BusID         "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option        "AccelMethod"    "glamor"
    Option        "DRI"            "3"
EndSection

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf:

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier    "nvidia"
    MatchDriver   "nvidia-drm"
    Driver        "nvidia"
    Option        "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    ModulePath    "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Nvidia Card"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option         "Coolbits" "31"
EndSection

Note you have to uninstall bumblebee and reverse any blacklisting you may have done for the other methods from earlier in this thread for this to work. As far as I can tell, this method doesn't appear to have a huge battery drain at rest.

If you've set it up appropriately, xrandr --listproviders should list two display providers, and to run an application with the dGPU, you prefix the command with __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1.

Please let me know how people find this to work with your laptops. I got this method working on my XPS 15 9570, and was able to run vkcube and Vulkan games on steam.

Last edited by oddsocks (2019-08-18 11:49:12)

LazyLucretia

Member

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 39

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

How is battery life with this method? I assume the nvidia card is always on by default and it consumes some power, am I right?

yaworski

Member

Registered: 2018-08-05

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

If they didn't do anything with power management, as soon as the Nvidia driver is loaded, idle power consumption almost doubles in case of my 9570. So it would probably still require some module loading/unloading for optimal power usage.

oddsocks

Member

Registered: 2008-12-08

Posts: 47

Re: [SOLVED] Dell XPS 9570 bbswitch not working, Nvdia won't power off/on

I'll check on powertop when I can and let you guys know, I was getting about 11W with the script method before with my 4k touchscreen model with the touch screen enabled.