Arch Linux

dboardman3

Member

Registered: 2018-01-24

Posts: 8

Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

I just installed using `archinstall`. I have an Nvidia GPU and I selected the `"Nvidia (open kernel module for newer GPUs, Turing+)"` option.

Here is the output of `$ nvidia-smi`:

    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | NVIDIA-SMI 550.67                 Driver Version: 550.67         CUDA Version: 12.4     |
    |-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
    | GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
    | Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
    |                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
    |=========================================+========================+======================|
    |   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti     Off |   00000000:26:00.0  On |                  N/A |
    |  0%   48C    P8             14W /  200W |     545MiB /   8192MiB |     10%      Default |
    |                                         |                        |                  N/A |
    +-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

Here is the output of `$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE`:
   

    $ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE              
    x11  

# Attempted solution

I was trying to understand my issue before posting on here. Specifically, is Gnome intended to default to X11? It looks like it is possible that nvidia is running into an error with the open source drivers, and that would be evident in `journalctl -b`. I looked through the output of that command, and [here is the relevant nvidia section](https://pastebin.com/6213dfeK) (that I could find).

The whole file I linked has more info, but there definitely are warnings/errors:

    Apr 01 15:19:18 archlinux /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[656]: (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
    Apr 01 15:19:18 archlinux /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[656]: (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
    Apr 01 15:19:18 archlinux /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[656]: (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vesa
    Apr 01 15:19:18 archlinux /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[656]: (EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0) 

There is [a note about something similar in the wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GDM#Wa … DIA_driver), but this seems to be related to running wayland *specifically during GDM*, not necessarily making Gnome use Wayland as the compositor.

## Attempt #1

Attempted to replace the `nvidia-open` drivers with `nvidia`.

    yay -S nvidia

* selected `y` for removing conflicting packages `nvidia-open-dkms`
* restarted

This did not correct the issue.

    $ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
    x11

   
--------------------------

If anyone could point me in the right direction here, I would greatly appreciate that.

Last edited by dboardman3 (2024-04-01 21:35:52)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,104

Re: Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

Yes GNOME defaults to xorg when the nvidia driver is loaded unless you fulfill some conditions or tell GDM to ignore the relevant rule: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GDM#Wa … DIA_driver

Note that enabling KMS is mandatory, the other conditions are "nice to have" but not strictly necessary.

Also nvidia-open are still beta quality  consider that when running into trouble

Also note these boards use BBcode and not markdown, use [ code ][ /code ] tags without the spaces for code tags

dboardman3

Member

Registered: 2018-01-24

Posts: 8

Re: Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

Yes GNOME defaults to xorg when the nvidia driver is loaded unless you fulfill some conditions or tell GDM to ignore the relevant rule: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GDM#Wa … DIA_driver

Note that enabling KMS is mandatory, the other conditions are "nice to have" but not strictly necessary.

Also nvidia-open are still beta quality  consider that when running into trouble

Also note these boards use BBcode and not markdown, use [ code ][ /code ] tags without the spaces for code tags

> Note that enabling KMS is mandatory, the other conditions are "nice to have" but not strictly necessary.

Can you elaborate?

Is it a mistake to attempt to get gnome to run in Wayland, considering I use Nvidia?

dboardman3

Member

Registered: 2018-01-24

Posts: 8

Re: Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

Yes GNOME defaults to xorg when the nvidia driver is loaded unless you fulfill some conditions or tell GDM to ignore the relevant rule: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GDM#Wa … DIA_driver

Note that enabling KMS is mandatory, the other conditions are "nice to have" but not strictly necessary.

Also nvidia-open are still beta quality  consider that when running into trouble

Also note these boards use BBcode and not markdown, use [ code ][ /code ] tags without the spaces for code tags

One strange thing I noticed in the wiki is that it states:

As of GDM 42 and NVIDIA driver 510, GDM defaults to Wayland.

I have NVidia 550 and GDM version is 46.

ensarman

Member

Registered: 2012-11-20

Posts: 4

Re: Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

there is some people who asked the same as you some time before
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=218319

did you see the wiki?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME#Starting

Last edited by ensarman (2024-04-01 22:01:07)

dboardman3

Member

Registered: 2018-01-24

Posts: 8

Re: Fresh install: Gnome using X11 instead of Wayland

there is some people who asked the same as you some time before
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=218319

did you see the wiki?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME#Starting

They are asking the reverse of what I am asking. They have Wayland, and want to start in Xorg.

The documentation is very clear:

As of GDM 42 and NVIDIA driver 510, GDM defaults to Wayland.

I have newer versions of both of those packages. I also followed the documentation and ran:

sudo modprobe nvidia_drm modeset=1

and then i restarted.

I did

sudo cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset

This still results in `N`. I attempted this process twice.