Hello everyone.
I’ve recently moved from Windows 10 to openSUSE Tumbleweed XFCE on my laptop.
I always had an external monitor, connected via HDMI.
Unfortunately, after installing openSUSE Tumblweed, I’m not able to use the second monitor anymore.
So, I’ve embarked in a troubleshooting journey that I’ve documented.
Any help would be really appreciated.
My PC
x86-64
Hardware Vendor: Lenovo
Hardware Model: IdeaPad Gaming 3 15ARH05
Operative Stystem
6.17.4-1-default
openSUSE Tumbleweed with XFCE Desktop Environment
External Monitor
https://aoc.com/uk/products/monitors/27b2h-eu/specification
The DisplayLink route
First of all, I’ve tried to install DisplayLink:
zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:HEBH/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:HEBH.repo
zypper refresh
zypper install displaylink
Then rebooted and I would get stuck in the black screen with the blinking cursor, so I couldn’t login back.
So I’ved added the 3 option at the end of the linux line to boot with a console.
I’ve removed the displaylink driver:
zypper remove displaylink
Rebooted and I was able to work again
The hybrid graphics laptop
Working towards a solution
I’ve tried the command:
lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3a44
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia
--
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Renoir [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c6)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3a44
Kernel modules: amdgpu
05:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor
Which highlighted that I had a “hybrid” graphics laptop.
echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
Revelad that I’m on x11
I’ve checked also if secureboot is enabled or not:
mokutil --sb-state
SecureBoot disabled
The suse-prime path
So, I’ve installed sudo zypper install suse-prime
And then ran:
sudo prime-select get-current
No driver configured.
So, I’ve selected the Nvidia driver:
sudo prime-select nvidia
nvidia catched
Preparing first configuration
NVIDIA modules are loaded
Logout to switch graphics
I’ve logged out and…
Funny thing is that I had a black screen with the cursor on the laptop display and the external monitor was receiving a signal because the light was white instead of red, but nothing displayed.
So, I needed to reboot with the console option 3 and unset the prime-select setting:
sudo prime-select unset
Then, I’ve rebooted and I was back again to the initial situation.
So, I’ve dediced to run a sudo zypper dup
I didn’t see any major changes related to nvidia so it was just about the version:
openSUSE Tumbleweed 20251022-0 -> 20251024-0
prime-select offload: a broken solution
The last resort, I’ve tried to use the offload option in prime-select to handle my hybrid situation:
sudo prime-select offload
offload catched
Preparing first configuration
NVIDIA modules are loaded
Logout to switch graphics
Then logged out again.
Ok, both screens ‘work’, but… on my laptop display the mouse cursor disappears, while on my external screen it works but there are some rendering glitches/lagging.
A lot of lagging in general, maybe a synchronisation issue?
I’ve checked where the amdgpu driver is used:
isolveproblems@localhost:~> lsmod | grep amdgpu
amdgpu 15683584 0
crc16 12288 2 bluetooth,amdgpu
amdxcp 12288 1 amdgpu
i2c_algo_bit 24576 1 amdgpu
drm_ttm_helper 16384 2 amdgpu,nvidia_drm
ttm 126976 2 amdgpu,drm_ttm_helper
drm_exec 12288 1 amdgpu
gpu_sched 69632 1 amdgpu
drm_suballoc_helper 16384 1 amdgpu
drm_panel_backlight_quirks 12288 1 amdgpu
drm_buddy 28672 1 amdgpu
drm_display_helper 290816 1 amdgpu
video 81920 3 amdgpu,ideapad_laptop,nvidia_modeset
cec 98304 2 drm_display_helper,amdgpu
I had a look at the official openSUSE guide about Nvidia drivers and executed:
zypper addrepo --refresh https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/tumbleweed NVIDIA`
zypper install-new-recommends
Rebooting again to see if anything changed…
Nothing.
I’ve checked the driver version with nvidia-smi which is the 580.95.05
Posting here also the inxi command output:
isolveproblems@localhost:~> inxi -Gxxz
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile] vendor: Lenovo
driver: nvidia v: 580.95.05 arch: Turing pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8
ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: none bus-ID: 01:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:1f95
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir [Radeon Vega Series /
Radeon Mobile Series] vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A arch: GCN-5 pcie:
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1636
Device-3: HP HP 325 FHD Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-2:3 chip-ID: 03f0:664a
Device-4: Syntek Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-3:5 chip-ID: 174f:244c
Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.15 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0
driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia dri: kms_swrast
gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1-0 note: disabled pos: right
model: AOC 27B2G5 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 82 diag: 686mm (27")
Monitor-2: Unknown-1 mapped: None-1 pos: primary,left res: 1920x1080
hz: 60 size: N/A
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.2.5 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 21.1.3 256 bits)
device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
Info: Tools: api: glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings gpu: nvidia-smi
x11: xprop,xrandr
I’ve switched back to no driver with sudo prime-select unset to being able to use at least the laptop display to write this forum topic.