[SUSE-Prime] Installing Nvidia driver packages take forever, is it common?

English Hardware
1

Hi all,

I am new to Linux, (literally have openSUSE installed yester day), and I’m introduced to suse-prime as an alternative to bumblebee (though I have installed either). I followed the guide here http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2016-02/msg00482.html . It asks me to install the drivers from here https://build.opensuse.org/project/subprojects/home:Bumblebee-Project:nVidia . I downloaded the latest subproject and had no idea which packages should I install. I installed x11-video-nvidia, it took me 2 hours. when I tried to do “sudo prime-select nvidia”, it shows command not found. Then I downloaded all the 8 packages and tried to figure out which ones to install. I started with cuda-7.5. The installation has taken 4 hours and only 50% is finished. PID 17442 and 17518 are showing 100% CPU usage. Apparently there’s something unexpected going on.
My 2 questions are:

  1. What exactly are the packages am I supposed to install from https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:Bumblebee-Project:nVidia:latest ? I have a geforce GTX 970m.
  2. Is such amount of time elapsed common? If not, what should I do to overcome the issue?
    Thank you.

Regards,
dr_anvil

2

cuda is a program to allow you to use the NIDIA GPU as a co-processor. In general you do not need it and it is uncertain to work with bumblebee

Not at ll understanding why you are using the build service page??? AFAIK it only has the drivers built for bumblebee nor bumblebee

Since you say you use tumbleweed I suggest using

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/512260-Leap-42-1-Optimus-system-with-nvidia-prime-instead-of-bumblebee

Tumbelweed constantly is changing (tumbling) So you must use the hard way to install the NVIDIA driver. That means ever kernel change you must reinstall the drivers.

3

Not sure to understand what you are really doing, but please note that Bumblebee and suse-prime are alternative methods of driving the nvidia chip, as advised in your reference too, so to install the latter you should uninstall bumblebee first.

It asks me to install the drivers from here Subprojects of home:Bumblebee-Project:nVidia - openSUSE Build Service . I downloaded the latest subproject and had no idea which packages should I install. I installed x11-video-nvidia, it took me 2 hours. when I tried to do “sudo prime-select nvidia”, it shows command not found. Then I downloaded all the 8 packages and tried to figure out which ones to install. I started with cuda-7.5. The installation has taken 4 hours and only 50% is finished. PID 17442 and 17518 are showing 100% CPU usage. Apparently there’s something unexpected going on.
My 2 questions are:

  1. What exactly are the packages am I supposed to install from Show home:Bumblebee-Project:nVidia:latest - openSUSE Build Service ? I have a geforce GTX 970m.
  2. Is such amount of time elapsed common? If not, what should I do to overcome the issue?
    Thank you.

Downloading the nvidia .run file and compiling kernel modules takes some time, but nowhere as much as you are seeing, unless your machine or network is slowed down dramatically by something unusual.
When using Tumbleweed and Bumblebee I downloaded packages from here http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/Bumblebee/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/
I don’t understand why you were directed to the “subprojects” page…
I didn’t test suse-prime yet, so cannot help on that part, sorry.

4

Sorry for the basic question, but just to confirm: it IS a optimus system, i.e., two video cards, nvidia and intel?

5

You only need x11-video-nvidia from there, it should install the kernel modules nicely. Then you should install suse-prime-alt after this.

Bo

6

Yesterday evening I did a successful install my machine of the drivers, so stuff does still work out.

Bo