Enabling GeForce 720m

So i have an Asus 550CC laptop and i wanted to switch it to Linux, but i’m having trouble getting the Nvidia card to work. I’ve spent a week googling, following several tutorials, distro-hopping and whatever but i didn’t manage to get it working. This is my last resort, if anyone has the ability to help me succeed and wants to help, i will greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for any help provided

So your account is part of the bumblebee group and the bumblebee service is enabled and running?

id -Gn $(logname)
systemctl status bumblebeed.service

You can start with some system information; please post the output of the following command:

inxi --admin --verbosity=8 --filter --no-host --width

More information will likely be needed, but this should help others who might wish to help out.

I notice you have many graphics drivers installed. I assume you installed anything and everything that you could find, and now nothing seems to work. I’m sure someone will chime in soon enough to explain why that’s not a good idea. :wink:


Hi @goingloco and welcome to the Manjaro community.

As a new forum user, please take some time to familiarise yourself with Forum requirements; in particular, the many ways to use the forum to your benefit. To that end, some or all these links will be invaluable:

Last, but not least, the Update Announcements, which you should check frequently for important update related information.

An issue may be directly related to a particular update; these announcements should generally be checked before posting a request for support.

[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2)
[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ LANG=C pacman -Ss nvidia | grep installed
extra/bumblebee 3.2.1-23 [installed]
extra/egl-wayland 4:1.1.13.1-1 [installed]
extra/libvdpau 1.5-3 [installed]
extra/libxnvctrl-390xx 390.157-4 [installed]
extra/linux515-nvidia-390xx 390.157-102 (linux515-extramodules) [installed]
extra/mhwd-nvidia 550.107.02-1 [installed]
extra/mhwd-nvidia-390xx 390.157-14 [installed]
extra/mhwd-nvidia-470xx 470.256.02-4 [installed]
extra/nvidia-390xx-settings 390.157-4 [installed]
extra/nvidia-390xx-utils 390.157-14 [installed]
extra/vulkan-nouveau 1:24.1.6-1 [installed]
extra/xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.17-3 (xorg-drivers) [installed]
multilib/lib32-libvdpau 1.5-2 [installed]
multilib/lib32-nvidia-390xx-utils 390.157-4 [installed]
multilib/lib32-vulkan-nouveau 1:24.1.6-1 [installed]
[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ id -Gn $(logname)
locoweed wheel lp sys network power bumblebee

[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ systemctl status bumblebeed.service
● bumblebeed.service - Bumblebee C Daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bumblebeed.service; enabled; prese>
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2024-09-21 20:26:31 WEST; 6min ago
 Invocation: f7bd4cc8485848ff8f141d221fbd17f4
   Main PID: 793 (bumblebeed)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 6409)
     Memory: 2.4M
        CPU: 14ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/bumblebeed.service
             └─793 /usr/bin/bumblebeed --use-syslog

set 21 20:26:31 Asus-550cc systemd[1]: Started Bumblebee C Daemon.
set 21 20:26:32 Asus-550cc bumblebeed[793]: /usr/bin/bumblebeed 3.2.1-21-g0851d>
lines 1-13/13 (END)

Yes, and yes. Also here’s updated info as i just made a fresh install

And what about actually using bumblebee to engage the nvidia?

primusrun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
optirun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ primusrun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
primus: fatal: Bumblebee daemon reported: error: [XORG] (EE) No devices detected.

[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ optirun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
[ 1331.126074] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) No devices detected.

[ 1331.126140] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.

:confused:

Please provide general system info

inxi -Farz

We also have not seen mhwd yet so

mhwd -li -l

Alright… take a look here: [SOLVED] Bumblebee "Cannot access secondary GPU" / Installation / Arch Linux Forums

File: /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
More information:

[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ primusrun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GT 720M/PCIe/SSE2
[locoweed@Asus-550cc Desktop]$ optirun glxinfo | grep 'renderer string'
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GT 720M/PCIe/SSE2

So, in theory it is working?
After a bit more googling i managed to launch a 3D game for the first time :partying_face: so that should mean something. Performance wasn’t the best though so how do i make absolutely sure i am using the nvidia card?
Also, it seems bumblebee does not support vulkan but i’m guessing theres not much that can be done about that as i probably need bumblebee anyway.

Bumblebee and that card are legacy.

You get what you get and wont be expecting it to change much.

You now need to use primusrun whenever you want to use the nvidia.

In the case of steam you dont launch steam itself with it, but use game launch options, ex;

primusrun %command%

Further reading if needed…

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bumblebee

Performance of bumblebee is known to be subpar.

You will likely get better returns from one of these other options if you are willing to use them;

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Nvidia-xrun

I really thought that the only way i could make my card work with Linux was through Bumblebee. Now that you pointed me in another direction i decided to try Optimus Manager.

So i uninstalled Bumblebee, popped in the 390xx nvidia driver and Optimus Manager, added optimus-manager.startup=nvidia to Kernel parameters in /etc/default/grub, changed Proton version to 6.3-8, and set the PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% in Steam Launch Options.

And.It.Works. cries

Performance is now on par with Winblows so thank you cscs and everyone else for the help as well!

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