[SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-04 13:35:19

I have recently entered the following into my terminal:

lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D"

Which gave an output of:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
0a:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] (rev a1)

I noticed that there was no "VGA Controller" for my nvidia gpu, and I don't believe that's normal.
Some applications have also taken to using the igpu, so I believe this might be the issue.
Is there any way I can fix this?

Here's my specs:

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.74-1-lts arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
  Desktop: Hyprland v: 0.54.0 Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC
    v: 098C110000404100000610180 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 2166 v: 29.40 serial: <superuser required>
    Firmware: UEFI vendor: Insyde v: F.42 date: 12/04/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 21.3 Wh (100%) condition: 21.3/21.3 Wh (100%)
    volts: 16.82 min: 14.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i7-4500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2694 min/max: 800/3000 cores: 1: 2694 2: 2694 3: 2694
    4: 2694 bogomips: 19162
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: nvidia v: 470.256.02 arch: Kepler-2 bus-ID: 0a:00.0
  Device-3: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    bus-ID: 1-3:3
  Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 24.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: Hyprland v: 0.54.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: i915
    resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,nvidia,swrast platforms:
    active: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: device-2
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 470.256.02
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M/PCIe/SSE2
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.74-1-lts status: kernel-api
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.10 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Ralink RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 08:00.0
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 bus-ID: 09:00.0
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: CloudflareWARP state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Ralink RT3290 Bluetooth vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A
    bus-ID: 08:00.1
  Report: This feature requires one of these tools: hciconfig/bt-adapter
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 128.59 GiB (53.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda model: SSD-256G size: 238.47 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot size: 1022 MiB used: 98 MiB (9.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 4 GiB used: 768 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 66.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.69 GiB used: 2.19 GiB (28.5%)
  Processes: 231 Uptime: 1h 2m Init: systemd
  Packages: 1488 Compilers: clang: 21.1.8 gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.9
    inxi: 3.3.40

Last edited by forestoner42174 (2026-03-06 12:06:35)

Scimmia · 2026-03-04 13:37:59

What are we trying to fix? What actual problems are you having?

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-04 14:23:55

I don't believe this behavior is normal, and there might be a few applications using my igpu that I am not aware of.
I'm trying to properly configure my gpu so that no applications resort to using my igpu.
I couldn't find anything to help me do this, so I'm asking for help with the topic.

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-04 15:35:21

Your laptop uses Hybrid Graphics .

Simply put the video outputs the laptop offers are connected to the primary gpu . Secondary GPUs can only output stuff by using the primary gpu .
lspci lists GPUs with their own outputs as VGA Controller, the ones without outputs are listed as 3D Controller.

Many laptops use this setup and there are also desktops that do.

Is it normal : unfortunately the answer is yes, and very common

The PRIME wiki page has details how to use this type of setup.

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-04 16:32:46

Thank you, I appreciate the explanation and the link.

I believe that "Nvidia X server" has a setting under "Prime Profiles" that uses my dedicated gpu for everything, but those settings aren't showing up, even while using X11.
Is there something I can do to fix this?

Lone_Wolf · 2026-03-05 09:29:31

Desktop: Hyprland

You're running on wayland, not on X .

Is nvidia-prime installed ?

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-05 15:07:01

I have a gnome de installed along with hyprland in case I run into any issues.
I do have nvidia-prime installed, but I'll reinstall it and let you know what happens.

EDIT: reinstalling didn't do anything.

Last edited by forestoner42174 (2026-03-05 15:14:20)

seth · 2026-03-05 16:40:33

EDIT: reinstalling didn't do anything.

Of course not…

glxinfo -B
prime-run glxinfo -B

Since the nvidia GPU is a 3D controller w/o crct *everything* will use the IGP.
The idea is to run normal daytime stuff on the IGP for maximum battery and then do sth. like "prime-run superturboturkeypuncher³" for maximum FPS
Steam is supposed to pick your GPU by default, other clients might require case-wise nudging (because it's also hard to tell what should and should not use the GPU, nb. there's not only battery overhead but also the framebuffer copying can become a problem for eg. video players that don't benefit from the GPU at all but are very vblank sensitive)

Have you read the prime wiki article?

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-05 18:43:26

I have read the most of the wiki article I believe.
from there I tried to configure bumblebee, but I had a few errors that I couldn't resolve because of some sort of xorg start up issue. (I tried using the wiki for that as well)
I tried using envycontrol, no errors, but it didn't set all applications to run on my dedicated gpu after setting the mode to "nvidia".

so for every application that is not set to my main gpu at default should be launched with "prime-run"?
I do have rofi installed, perhaps there's a way I can configure it to use "prime-run" for all applications on default...

I will keep you all updated.

seth · 2026-03-05 20:24:19

from there I tried to configure bumblebee … I tried using envycontrol

Don't.
Bumblebee is an early attempt to facilitate optimus support and X11 only, not sure about envycontrol but your system will *exclusively* work in hybrid mode - unless you can deactivate the IGP in the UEFI settings to soft-rewire the outputs to the nvidia GPU.

Don't make this more complicated than it is.

I do have rofi installed, perhaps there's a way I can configure it to use "prime-run" for all applications on default...

Why would you even want that? What to you think are going to be the benefits of running random stuff on the nvidia chip?
The Haswell IGP isn't "great" but more than capable of running even basic GL stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem
What *actual problem* are you trying to solve here?

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-06 05:38:12

I've been experiencing a lot of ui glitches with game engines like unity and godot. I found out that unity was using my igpu to run, but I can't be sure about godot since I can't find the log files.
unity is no longer using my igpu by the looks of it, but it is still experiencing some ui issues in different windows. (this also happens in my gnome installation) I thought that this might be because my laptop is using the igpu for those windows. (which is not supported for unity) I want to find a way to stop it from doing that and check if godot runs better without the igpu enabled.

basically, my problem is ui glitches with game engines, that's the problem I'm trying to solve.

TartilupA · 2026-03-06 06:08:21

0a:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] (rev a1)

u have GT 740M and that is way too old for wayland. try X11 with xfce4.
and you see intel on vga because you have old HP laptop that the nvidia card isn't even connected to screen.
because intel send data to gt 740m and send it back to intel and intel displays it on screen.

only option is to install x11 and xfce or dwm or anything that runs x11. but because i see u use hyprland try dwm or i3.

Last edited by TartilupA (2026-03-06 06:25:25)

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-06 09:48:37

alright, thanks for the advice.
I'll let you know if this solves my problem.

EDIT: I've encountered a new problem launching xcfe4, should I create another topic?

Last edited by forestoner42174 (2026-03-06 10:08:33)

TartilupA · 2026-03-06 11:50:13

I will help you in a minute

TartilupA · 2026-03-06 11:56:45

And yeah you should make a new topic so other can find solution

forestoner42174 · 2026-03-06 12:04:27

I'll mark this as solved since I know why my nvidia vga controller is missing by now...

WorMzy · 2026-03-06 12:09:12

TartilupA wrote:

I will help you in a minute

Please do not empty post. These forums are not a realtime chat, there is no need to telegraph your intent to do something before you do it.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … mpty_posts

Last edited by WorMzy (2026-03-06 12:09:26)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-03-04 13:35:19

[SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#2 2026-03-04 13:37:59

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#3 2026-03-04 14:23:55

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#4 2026-03-04 15:35:21

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#5 2026-03-04 16:32:46

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#6 2026-03-05 09:29:31

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#7 2026-03-05 15:07:01

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#8 2026-03-05 16:40:33

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#9 2026-03-05 18:43:26

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#10 2026-03-05 20:24:19

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#11 2026-03-06 05:38:12

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#12 2026-03-06 06:08:21

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#13 2026-03-06 09:48:37

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#14 2026-03-06 11:50:13

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#15 2026-03-06 11:56:45

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#16 2026-03-06 12:04:27

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#17 2026-03-06 12:09:12

Re: [SOLVED] Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

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