Arch Linux

SofieSasao

Member

Registered: 2024-03-03

Posts: 9

[SOLVED] Cannot setup NVIDIA drivers for Xorg

I'm running Arch with i3+LightDM on the HP Victus 15-fa1000 laptop.
I didn't install any graphics drivers manually earlier, so I wanted to setup hybrid graphics. This instruction list says I need to setup NVIDIA drivers first.

Before I did it boot process looked like this:
1. Grub menu is displayed.
2. "Arch linux" selected.
3. Two lines appear at the top of the screen for a brief moment:

Loading Linux linux ...
Loading initial ramdisk ...

4. Plymouth loading animation starts.
5. Plymouth prompts for encryption passphrase.
6. Plymouth loading animation continues.
7. Black screen for a brief moment.
8. LightDM greeter is displayed.

I followed this instructions to install NVIDIA drivers.
To be precise, I installed nvidia-dkms package (since I have both linux and linux-lts installed), removed kms hook, rebooted and run nvidia-xconfig.
Generated /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Unfortunately, after reboot the boot process started looking like this:
1. Grub menu is displayed.
2. "Arch linux" selected.
3. The same two lines appear at the top of the screen, but for much longer time.
4. Plymouth loading animation does not start.
5. Plymouth prompts for encryption passphrase.
6. Plymouth loading animation starts.
7. Black screen for a brief moment.
8. The last frame of the Plymouth animation is displayed and stuck on the screen forever.

After removing xorg.conf I was able to login again. I tried reducing generated config to the "minimal configuration" for Xorg suggested on the wiki page, but it didn't change anything.
I also could not fix the issue with the plymouth animation. I suppose it appeared after removing the kms hook, but I still cannot figure out the solution.

Last edited by SofieSasao (2024-03-13 20:37:06)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,811

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot setup NVIDIA drivers for Xorg

Remove the config, you don't need it and it will generally break on hybrid setups.

You actually want the effect of the kms hook, but limited to the GPU driver of your integrated card, so add i915 as well as nvidia nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset to the MODULES= array with i915 being first instead, like

MODULES=(i915 nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)

and regenerate the initramfs.

Your display and the early boot phase will generally run on the integrated rather than the nvidia card, so that's why you should keep it loaded early (... the nvidia wiki page should probably make this clearer for the hybrid gpu cases)

Last edited by V1del (2024-03-13 19:23:21)

SofieSasao

Member

Registered: 2024-03-03

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Cannot setup NVIDIA drivers for Xorg

You actually want the effect of the kms hook, but limited to the GPU driver of your integrated card, so add i915 as well as nvidia nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset to the MODULES= array with i915 being first instead, like

MODULES=(i915 nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)

and regenerate the initramfs.

Thank you!
There is some information on wiki about this if anyone's curious.
I also added this to kernel parameters:

nvidia-drm.modeset=1

as suggested here (point 3.1.A).

You are right, it definitely fixed the issue in terms of plymouth animation.
Unfortunately, those "two lines" still stay on the screen longer than they did before and screen has become a bit flashy showing different things while booting (screen with just my laptop logo was also added to the plymouth animation).
Do I understand correctly, that there is nothing I can do to make it smoother at this point?

UPD:
Anyways, I'd consider the original issue solved.

Last edited by SofieSasao (2024-03-13 20:36:40)