intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

aleksF · 2021-09-26 19:36:55

Hello everyone.
I just got the new XPS 15 9510 (no arch wiki page on it yet).

# Issue:

Erratically, the keyboard would lag the keys pressed in a terminal or in a browser. Tried different terminals and browsers. No issue on a tty out of i3/xorg (see setup below).
To clarify what happens, once every 2-30ish minutes, when I type "abcdef", I will see "a", then pause, nothing happens for half a second, then it vomits "bcdef", and since I usually retype what I don't see on the screen, I will have something like "abcdefbcdef" on my screen. Other times it seems a real stutter, meaning maybe it misses one keystroke or it doubles it. But it's erratic, long stretches of normal behavior for 2 or 30 minutes or anything between.

Also, sometimes using arrows to move a selection on rofi, using arrows, would lag.
Finally, the trackpad also seem to lag a bit intermittently, but that could also be a separate issue for which I have seen other reports ( here https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxhardware/ … s_15_9510/ )

Removing picom seems to diminish the "micro freezes" but I'm not sure, they are definitely still there.

Not seen reports about my issue, I'm afraid it might have to be with my configuration. How do I trouble shoot this?

# Specs:

Dell XPS 9510
15.6-inch 3456×2160 OLED
Intel Core i7-11800H
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
16GB RAM

# My configuration:

Arch stock kernel 5.14.7
nvidia-beta (aur - it's the 470.74, without it xorg gave black screen)
xorg
i3

Xorg configured with these exact config files, choosing the method "nvidia only" which should be the most stable:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA … phics_only

So NO xf86-video-intel, and creating the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf and adding this to ~/.xinitrc:

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

I transferred my dotfiles that work on 3 other machines (including an xps 13 same gen).
I'm also using linux-firmware, intel microcode, the usual stuff.

# Two xorg logs
Not sure if it helps
http://ix.io/3A4z
http://ix.io/3A4G

# Help
What can I do to troubleshoot this?
What is this problem exactly? Is it just the screen "dropping frames", so the input is being registered but it doesn't appear on my screen?
I can still return the machine if it is a hardware problem...

Last edited by aleksF (2021-09-26 19:56:53)

aleksF · 2021-09-28 17:23:17

I might have solved it doing the following:

- updated to latest kernel (5.14.8) and today's linux-firmware
- added a xorg config forcing full composition pipeline (see below)
- installed ndivia instead of invidia-beta

# this is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Section "Device"
        Identifier "Nvidia Card"
        Driver "nvidia"
        VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
        BoardName "GeForce GTX 3050 Ti"
	Option	"ForceFullCompositionPipeline"	"true"
EndSection

Remember, I also followed the arch wiki exactly on the optimus page prime linked in the original post, choosing "nvidia only" as "method" (the most stable).

Not sure which one of those things really fixed it
Currently seems to be a lot better. Will wait a couple of days before marking it as solved.

Last edited by aleksF (2021-09-28 17:28:14)

KorvinSilver · 2021-10-04 18:52:19

I have a very similar problem with a similar setup, bought this laptop not long ago.

Asus TUF Gaming F15 with
16 GB RAM
Intel Core i7-11800H
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti

In my case the cursor freezes are worse, they do last for probably less than a second but happen way too often, and the keyboard either freezes the same way or a single key gets stuck and repeats until I press any other. I'm looking for a solution for over a month but couldn't find anything. I also followed the Wiki for nvidia only setup and after reading through many, many forums that concluded to add things that can help, my config file looks like this.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf
----
Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "intel"
    MatchDriver "i915"
    Driver "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    MatchDriver "nvidia-drm"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
    Option "AllowIndirectGLXProtocol" "off"
    Option "TripleBuffer" "on"
    Option "ForceFullCompositionPipeline" "true"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

.xinitrc
----
xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

/etc/default/grub
----
# GRUB boot loader configuration

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 nvidia-drm.modeset=1 usbcore.autosuspend=-1"
[...]

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
----
# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES=(piix ide_disk reiserfs)
#MODULES=(crc32c-intel vmd)
MODULES=(crc32c-intel vmd nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)
[...]

`crc32c-intel vmd` is for encryption.

I even tried to use evdev instead of libinput but there's no difference.

Here's my Xorg.0.log earlier from today with evdev: https://0x0.st/-gVb.log
And my journal from that boot: https://0x0.st/-gVc.txt
Here's the current Xorg.0.log as I removed evdev: https://0x0.st/-gVd.log
And my journal since this last boot: https://0x0.st/-gVn.txt

This was the config file for evdev, backed up and deleted: https://0x0.st/-gVh.bak
And this is the one for libinput, put this in place of the evdev config: https://0x0.st/-gVF.conf

Also updated the BIOS yesterday but didn't help.

Happens under every DE I tried, but only with nvidia. If I remove the nvidia specific config and let the iGPU drive the graphics, there's no lag or freeze anywhere.

Last edited by KorvinSilver (2021-10-04 18:56:43)

phraktal · 2021-10-28 19:41:49

aleksF wrote:

Remember, I also followed the arch wiki exactly on the optimus page prime linked in the original post, choosing "nvidia only" as "method" (the most stable).
Not sure which one of those things really fixed it
Currently seems to be a lot better. Will wait a couple of days before marking it as solved.

I'm considering getting the 9510 as well and run arch on it.
How things have been with it for you ?
Any issues with hardware ? How is the wifi on this ?

I have an older xps13 with a killer wifi that has been a problem recently.

Thanks.

Fingel · 2021-10-29 15:29:57

phraktal wrote:

I'm considering getting the 9510 as well and run arch on it.
How things have been with it for you ?
Any issues with hardware ? How is the wifi on this ?
Thanks.

I have one, it's been a bit of a struggle. There seems to be a lot of issues with suspend/resume around the Nvidia card. I just posted a new topic actually:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2000105

Arch Linux

#1 2021-09-26 19:36:55

intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

#2 2021-09-28 17:23:17

Re: intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

#3 2021-10-04 18:52:19

Re: intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

#4 2021-10-28 19:41:49

Re: intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

#5 2021-10-29 15:29:57

Re: intermittent lag from keyboard in Dell XPS 15 9510 with xorg/nvidia

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