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Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

[SOLVED] Use Vulkan with Optimus NVIDIA 390xx drivers

I have an XPS-17 laptop with NVIDIA Optimus. I can use the NVIDIA graphics perfectly either by using Optimus Manager or by simply using the NVIDIA graphics only (confirmed with glxinfo). However, I can't get Vulkan to work.

$ vulkaninfo
ERROR at /build/vulkan-tools/src/Vulkan-Tools-1.2.172/vulkaninfo/vulkaninfo.h:248:vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices failed with ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
$ vkcube
vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices reported zero accessible devices.

Do you have a compatible Vulkan installable client driver (ICD) installed?
Please look at the Getting Started guide for additional information.

I do have a file at /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/nvidia_icd.json:

{
    "file_format_version" : "1.0.0",
    "ICD": {
        "library_path": "libGLX_nvidia.so.0",
        "api_version" : "1.0.65"
    }
}

My GPU is a GeForce GT 555M, so I am forced to use the older NVIDIA 390xx drivers (which also means I can't use PRIME render offload as suggested elsewhere). I have the following packages installed.

nvidia-390xx
nvidia-390xx-dkms
nvidia-390xx-utils
lib32-nvidia-390xx-utils
vulkan-headers
vulkan-icd-loader
lib32-vulkan-icd-loader
vulkan-tools

I do not have vulkan-intel installed, and I am in group video. I am using KDE Plasma with SDDM. How can I get Vulkan working?

Last edited by Salkay (2021-06-25 13:33:48)

Lone_Wolf

Forum Moderator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,922

Re: [SOLVED] Use Vulkan with Optimus NVIDIA 390xx drivers

Is there a /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/nvidia_layers.json file present on your system ?

I suggest you post in nvidia-390xx AUR package discussion thread .

---

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

Salkay

Member

Registered: 2014-05-22

Posts: 619

Re: [SOLVED] Use Vulkan with Optimus NVIDIA 390xx drivers

Thanks for the reply Lone_Wolf

Is there a /usr/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/nvidia_layers.json file present on your system ?

No, this doesn't exist. On another of my Arch systems, this file is provided by the package nvidia-utils, but the equivalent package nvidia-390xx-utils here only provides /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/nvidia_icd.json, and not the other file.

I suggest you post in nvidia-390xx AUR package discussion thread .

Thank you for the advice. I wasn't aware of that thread, so I'll post there.