Optimus notebook - nvidia driver does not load

[Charlie Brown]

In the meantime that one is called ddm.log (in case you don't know, cause you won't see anything like nvidiaxxx.log)

[jury]

I wish you booted with MX-23.2 "while you're at it" and run "Nvidia Driver Installer" and post the log (either manually from /var/log/ or using the "Quick System Info" from menu) .. (or at least on MX-21)

You were right, nvidia 390 legacy drivers are available in MX23 (probably through /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list). I have fully installed MX23 and so far I have only done Nvidia Driver Installer from MX tools. Here is a log from its its installation process (translated to english with DeepL service, looks rather much ok'eish):

Edit: geez, not ok, I will try to find other service. Will be back...
Edit2: ok, this time translation should be good:

https://pastebin.com/q2sbjS0v

Now inxi -G does not show any nvidia failed:

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915
    v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT
    620M/625M/630M/720M] driver: nvidia v: 390.157
  Device-3: Bison Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW
    GT2)

BumbleBee was also automatically installed, but so far the switching does not work, strange message about missing directory, which of course exists. I will try to read on this error and maybe will find solution, as BumbleBee would be fine for me also.

[Charlie Brown]

Glad to hear that. You know, Nvidia will be used either when needed (automatically by the system) or when called by you. So, try these:

Code: Select all

optirun -b none nvidia-settings -c :8

Code: Select all

nvidia-run-mx inxi -G

Code: Select all

optirun inxi -G

Code: Select all

primusrun inxi -G

( ... And check this part: API: OpenGL ... renderer: Mesa Intel ... )

Code: Select all

optirun glxspheres64

[jury]

Thanks a lot so far! It looks way better than the previous try, but unfortunately most of those commands do not work.

Code: Select all

optirun -b none nvidia-settings -c :8

Above starts nvidia-settings, but there is only a message "You do not appear to be using NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file (just run 'nvidia-xconfig' as root) and restart the X server" :(

Code: Select all

nvidia-run-mx inxi -G

Gives:

Code: Select all

nvidia-run-mx inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915
    v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT
    620M/625M/630M/720M] driver: nvidia v: 390.157
  Device-3: Bison Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: i915
    resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: N/A renderer: N/A

Code: Select all

optirun inxi -G

and

Code: Select all

optirun glxgears (as I have no glxspheres64)

Those two commands give the mentioned message about a missing (which exists!) directory:

Code: Select all

[ 7713.540345] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) Unable to locate/open config directory: "/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d"

I have seen quite some results when searching for this message in some web engine search. Will read upon this.

Code: Select all

primusrun inxi -G
( ... And check this part: API: OpenGL ... renderer: Mesa Intel ... )

Gives:

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915
    v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT
    620M/625M/630M/720M] driver: nvidia v: 390.157
  Device-3: Bison Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: i915
    resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
  API: OpenGL Message: No GL data found on this system.

[Charlie Brown]

The only good thing (or improvement) is that 2 of them makes it show:

Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: nvidia

... However it still shows gpu: i915 (other than API: OpenGL v: N/A renderer: N/A )


Shortly, there's something with the Bumblebee thing (and of course that's not due to something you did wrong)

[jury]

Shortly, there's something with the Bumblebee thing (and of course that's not due to something you did wrong)

I would say its the other way around, there is something wrong on with ... well, I have no idea, hardware, drivers, configuration ... and Bumblebee repaired it a little bit, but not enough. Of course I could be 100% wrong, but I played with this more and it seems so (al least to my understanding) Currently I decided to go just one step at the time and after each step check it all the way I can and do not go with next step when the current one is not resolved, so, here is what has been done:
- I have installed fresh MX-23
- then I installed nvidia driver from Debian repository (not the one from MX Tools, as it installs Bumblebee alltogether, and that would be more than one step at the time):

Code: Select all

apt install linux-headers-amd64
apt install nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver

- after reboot, inxi -G shows:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M]
           driver: nvidia v: 390.157
           Device-3: Acer Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: modesetting,nouveau
           unloaded: fbdev,vesa failed: nvidia resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A

Now, what card is it using? Before nvidia proprietary drivers installation, it was using Intel card, so OpenGL: renderer section was showing properly and now it is empty, so is it using nouveau drivers now? If so, it means those are broke also?

Now, in Xorg.0.log there is:

Code: Select all

[    33.731] (EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)

but at the beginning of this log it seems that GLX extensiond for nvidia loaded properly, right?:

Code: Select all

[    30.422] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libglx.so
[    31.614] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[    31.614] 	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[    31.614] 	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[    31.646] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  390.157  Wed Oct 12 09:19:15 UTC 2022
[    31.653] (II) Applying OutputClass "nvidia" to /dev/dri/card1

And if I would install Bumblebee now (what I did before) it would fix this a little, as inxi -G shows nvidia as loaded, but the swithing of course still does not work. So, whats wrong with the nvidia proprietary installation and how to fix it?

Here is the full nvidia-bug-report:

https://pastebin.pl/view/d18f56cc

Edit:
Ok, I think I found an answer for my question on what card and driver is being used when doing above "inxi -G" in "lspci -v":

Code: Select all

01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Lenovo GeForce 820M
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at 4000 [size=128]
	Expansion ROM at b2000000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=512K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidia

But then, how can it be using nvidia driver if it is not loaded? A bug in inxi?

[Charlie Brown]

Yes but this is already what you tried at the very beginning with MX-21.

The weirdness is that "Nvidia Driver Installer" does everything needed (blacklisting / removing blacklist / installing Bumblebee etc..), just Bumblebee doesn't work for some reason. However it seems to be not specific to you or MX, but a known "Lenovo G710" issue in general.

After installing with NDI we could try acpi_osi string (parameter) as the last resort however it already seems to load nvidia driver, just the automatic usage of cards (Bumblebee) doesn't work. Probably it'll be the same no matter what distro you try.

[jury]

Yes, this acpi osi string did not make any difference.

But, I've played with this more and the best so far:
inxi -G (looks ok):

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] 
           driver: nvidia v: 390.157 
           Device-3: Acer Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.5

primusrun inxi -G (looks almost ok, just no "nvidia" in loaded [so how the heck is it showing nvidia if the module is not loaded?]):

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] 
           driver: nvidia v: 390.157 
           Device-3: Acer Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 820M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.157

Now, if I go with "nvidia-modprobe", then primusrun inxi -G looks better, I would say ideally:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] 
           driver: nvidia v: 390.157 
           Device-3: Acer Lenovo Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: nvidia resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 820M/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.157

but ...
If I start a GPU hungry game ("WINEPREFIX=/home/mikan/gry/wine/fallout_new_vegas primusrun wine FalloutNVLauncher.exe") than in console I see:

Code: Select all

Xlib:  extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
Xlib:  extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib:  extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
^C0150:fixme:console:default_ctrl_handler Terminating process 12c on event 0

clearly that it is using Intel GPU. Also if I go into Options menu I only see and can choose Intel graphics card + the performance on the lowest details is not good, so definitely its not using nvidia driver. Also nvidia-smi does not show any usage. So even thou inxi -G shows all fine, nvidia is not used :(
Xorg.0.log looks ok to me:

https://pastebin.com/XSgFbZvM

[Stevo]

We are more than just a repackaged Debian Bookworm.