Latest update to optimus-manager broke my GUI

Hi, there!

The latest update to optimus-manger from Ver 1.4-1 to 1.4.3 left me with a black screen.

My system hardware is as follows:

Acer V3-571G Laptop
Intel i7 CPU with integrted Intel graphics and nVidia GEFORCE GT 640M grapics.

I did the usual Ctl+Al+F2 to get into a TTY and logged in.
I then issued the commands to enable gdm and start gdm – all to no avail.

Fortunately, I use TimeShift and was able to restore yesterday’s snapshot by using the sudo timeshift --restore command.
I then download the other updates, ignoring the optimus-manager update.

I’m wondeing if other users have had the same problem.

Regards,
Roger

Same problem. My screen flashes consistently with Finished TLP startup/shutdown.

I still think optimus-manager is hacky with consistent problems and the majority of people who use it dont really have a reason to.
Either problem could be related to its needed start-up augmentations (such as to SDDM).
Or python … or … just optimus manager.

If people want to disable one card or another … then they can do it any number of ways.
If someone wants to use their optimus (hybrid) graphics like, well, a hybrid system and use the iGPU by default and use the more powerful dGPU on things like games … then thats how PRIME already works.

I had this problem. I have Intel + Nvidia hydrid GPU in my Dell Inspiron 16 plus laptop. Unfortunately I do not have a fix for the constant trouble Nvidia poses.

What I did was simply blacklisted nvidia/nouvea drivers (wish Dell allowed disabling nvidia in the Bios) from loading and am running on Intel GPU only. The single best thing I ever did and it eliminated 90% of the trouble I had to deal with. I do not play games on Linux so Nvidia is pretty much useless to me.

In doing this my laptop now runs cooler & quieter, gained hardware acceleration in the browsers/youtube & offline videos, seamless flicker-free boot experience and 8 to 10 hours of battery life (as opposed to only 3.5 - 4 hrs before) without any loss of performance. The onboard Intel GPU in the laptop is a beast and handles everyday job without breaking a sweat.

1 Like

And here we have another example.
This is the kind of thing some people use Optimus Manager for … but there is no need.
Simply disable the other card (any number of ways … such as blacklisting the modules as you did) if thats what you want to do … no OM required.

seems to be a nice fix to as my dell insp 15 has a entry level mx330 which i don’t really use and it is causing a lot of problems lately with battery and sleep. better say goodbye to both nvidia and windows. please guide wherein bios i can disable it.

If you have an option in BIOS you are lucky … but it should be under the video section or just on the giant front page of it … BIOS menus vary wildly from model to manufacturer etc.

If not I would probably prefer using some boot options:

nvidia.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0

i don’t have a feature to turn that on or off though it shows a dgpu video controller.

there is a similar discussion here in dell forums and the user is using manjaro kde.

How to disable Nvidia graphic card? Inspiron 5501 - Dell Community

If your BIOS doesnt provide the option … then it doesnt provide the option.
Thats up to your manufacturer (or coreboot or whatever else if you installed a 3rd party one).
You can still use a number of methods such as blacklisting the associated modules like above.