X doesn't start with nVidia Drivers with GT 550M (nVidia Optimus)

English Hardware
1

Hi All,

I’m trying to install nVidia drivers (285.05.09) on Dell XPS 17 (l702x) with nVidia GT 550M (3GB Video RAM no 3D) and running OpenSUSE 12.1 64bit. This system has nVidia Opimus.

It is newly installed system, with no extra repositories added. System has been updated with the latest patches. System does boot and Intel video drivers are fine for generic desktop use, but I cannot get by external monitor to work (connected to HDMI). I suppose that is because laptop screen is directly connected to Intel Video and HDMI output is controlled by nVidia GT 550M.

I’ve tried installing nVidia drivers the easy way (1-click install) and the Hard Way following instructions on SIMPLE HOWTO INSTALL NVIDIA DRIVER OPENSUSE 12.1

I’ve tried booting with nomodeset and without it, but result is always the same - X does not start and I only get to login into console.

Xorg.0.log is here -> SUSE Paste
xorg.conf is here -> SUSE Paste

Any guidance in getting nVidia drivers installed and dual screen running is appreciated. (I suspect I will be pointed towards Bumblebee, so I appreciate links to some solid tutorials/instructions)

2

Based on this, your nVIDIA chipset is not being found and may not be switched on…




  1.     76.731] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia" 
  1.     76.732] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so 
  1.     76.732] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation" 
  1.     76.732]    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0 
  1.     76.732]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver 
  1.     76.732] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  285.05.09  Fri Sep 23 17:33:35 PDT 2011 
  1.     76.732] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs 
  1.     76.732] (--) using VT number 2 
  1.  
  1.     76.733] (EE) No devices detected. 
  1.     76.733] 
  1. Fatal server error: 
  1.     76.733] no screens found

I suggest you look around for “nVidia Opimus on linux” and you will find links like this one.

[Phoronix] NVIDIA Optimus Unofficially Comes To Linux](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTQxNg)

When you have multiple graphic personalities (as in more than one graphics system) there has to be some way to pick one of them for Linux to use that is supported by your chipset. I don’t know myself how to make this work in openSUSE.

Thank You,

3

I don’t have personal experience with this Optimus hardware, but I think the solution will involve using bumblebee.

software.opensuse.org: Search Results

Install using the ‘1-click’, then I think its just a matter of launching a graphics intensive app with the ‘optirun’ command (to invoke the nvidia driver)

optirun <name-of-program>

There’s not much in the way of 'openSUSE specific documentation yet, but this will give you the idea:

The Nerd Lifestyle

This brief blog may (or may not) assist with getting KDE desktop effects working with bumblebee installed:

Dell XPS 17 running Ubuntu/Kubuntu 11.04 - nvidia issues

Good luck.

4

I don’t have personal experience with Optimus hardware, but I think the solution will involve using bumblebee.

software.opensuse.org: Search Results

Install using the ‘1-click’, then I think its just a matter of launching a graphics intensive app with the ‘optirun’ command (to invoke the nvidia driver)

optirun <name-of-program>

There’s not much in the way of 'openSUSE specific documentation yet, but this will give you the idea:

The Nerd Lifestyle

This brief blog may (or may not) assist with getting KDE desktop effects working with bumblebee installed:

Dell XPS 17 running Ubuntu/Kubuntu 11.04 - nvidia issues

Good luck.

5

Thank you for the replies and the links. it has only confirmed what I had in the back of my mind… I have two distinct problems here:

  1. Getting proprietary nVidia drivers to run
  2. Getting applications to use nVidia instead on Intel (after the drivers are running)

I’ve installed bumblebee and run glxgears and optirun glxgearss. With glxgears I’m getting about 60FPS with optirun glxgears getting about 380FPS. Looks like bumblebee devs did a rely nice job and it can run apps on nVidia hardware but it can’t give me my external monitor back…

So, back to the topic - how do I get nVidia proprietary drivers to run?

6

I’ve installed bumblebee and run glxgears and optirun glxgearss. With glxgears I’m getting about 60FPS with optirun glxgears getting about 380FPS. Looks like bumblebee devs did a rely nice job and it can run apps on nVidia hardware but it can’t give me my external monitor back…

Well, I’m assuming that the nvidia driver (and GPU) is in use when you run the ‘optirun’ command. So, it appears that it is working. I’m not sure how the external monitor ties in with this technology though.

From what I can gather Optimus technology differs from other hybrid graphics systems, in that the process of enabling the NVIDIA GPU can be done dynamically, and in the case of Windows OS, it is managed automatically, depending on the application’s needs. The Linux ‘bumblebee’ solution (at this stage), is more basic, and relies on activation via the ‘optirun’ command. There is no way to completely disable the Intel hardware AFAIU. Even when the NVIDIA GPU is activated for GPU-intensive apps, the final image output to the display is still handled by the Intel integrated graphics processor (IGP).

This Optimus White Paper explains how it all works.

7

Have a read of this discussion too:

https://github.com/MrMEEE/ironhide/issues/66

It looks to me that bumblebee does not yet support external display devices, but they’re working on it.

8

Im running fresh openSUSE12.1 install with nueveau drivers.

9

Unfortunately ironhide is a branch of bubmblee (created by the author of the bumblebee) for Ubuntu only

10

Unfortunately ironhide is a branch of bubmblee (created by the author of the bumblebee) for Ubuntu only

Yes, at this stage, that is the case. Hopefully, with further development, we should see it become available for other distros as well.

I see the instructions for installing bumblebee on openSUSE here:
https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee

Now, 12.1 has only just been released, so maybe there are issues with the nvidia driver for this version, but did you try installing via the repository as recommended in the guide?

11

Yes, I have bumblebee installed

I have tried 1-click way. But that’s the same a repository way, but for lazy people like me - right?
and I’ve tried “the hard way”, which is installing from runlevel 3

but both before having bumblebee installed. I suppose I could try installing drivers again with bumblebee already installed…

12

If you installed the driver using the .run file, then you can uninstall with

 sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-xxx.xx.xx.run --uninstall
13

RaveNBlack, I could be wrong…
…but…

Can you please check the following?

A. Start openSuSE in Safe Mode
B. Disable desktop effects

Do you still have issues starting X?

14

Unfortunately - no such luck… even with desktop effects disabled it falls back to console

15

You should also remove the xorg.conf file the nVidia installer created and furthermore uninstalling the nVidia driver installed “the hard way” is not enough to get full functionality back for the Intel chip, you must also reinstall the package xorg-x11-server.

16

Thanks for the input, but uninstalling is not an issue. My system has no data or applications or custom settings, so I can just reinstall OS when things go pearahape and try again.

17

So… reinstalled open SUSE 12.1 last night gain. To start clean. Updated it, downloaded 290.1 nVidia drivers released on 22/11/2011, added nomodeset to grup menu, installed nvidia drivers the hard way and ended up in console again.

Then I looked into /etc/X11 folder and notices that there is xorg.cong.nouveau file. Since I know that opensuse runs OK with nouveau drivers I’ve replaced nouveau with nvidia in the file and renamed it xorg.conf. It’s here -> SUSE Paste

Surprise surprise - while laptop is booting - everything is being output to the laptop screen, but once it reaches a point of loading KDM: laptop screen goes black and output switches to external monitor (hdmi). Resolution of external screen is detected and set correctly, even desktop effect are working. glxgears (run without bumblebee) show output of over 11000FPS, glxsphere shows about 900FPS at 100Mpxs. Also glxinfo output is here -> SUSE Paste and My Computer on kde shows

Display Info
Vendor: Intel Corporation
Model:
2D driver: nvidia
3D driver: NVIDIA 290.10

So, drivers seem to have installed correctly and get loaded on boot, it’s Xorg.conf that needs manual configuration. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to do that, maybe there is someone with experience and could tell me how to enable both monitors?

18

So, drivers seem to have installed correctly and get loaded on boot, it’s Xorg.conf that needs manual configuration. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to do that, maybe there is someone with experience and could tell me how to enable both monitors?

Have you tried configuring dual display configuration with nvidia-settings (with root privileges) yet?

sudo nvidia-settings
19

Good point! I haven’t… I suppose after so many times not being able to get X running with nVidia drivers I forgot this tool is available to me. I’ll try tonight

20

sudo nvidia-settings unfortunately didn’t help. Nvidia settings tool would only detect external monitor defined in xorg.conf file.

No I’m back to fresh openSUSE 12.1 with nouveau drivers and bumblebee from unstable 12.1 branch

It appears that xorg.conf.nouveau is being installed by bumblebee as it was not present in X11 folder on freshly installed openSUSE.

I’m going to sidetrack a bit. Default openSUSE install does not use xorg.conf to start and use intel and nouveau drivers, but Nvidia proprietary drivers do need xorg.conf. Obviously, there are (at least two) different methods to control video output/load drivers. Can someone give some direction into what these are?