No intel graphics with Nvidia Prime drivers

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1

I have a Nvidia GPU and proprietary prime drivers since I have an Intel CPU with an iGPU, but the iGPU is never used I think.
I don’t have the “prime-select” command, I can’t use it, it says bash: prime-select: command not found, and I’ve never seen any secondary GPU in configurations of the system, also I can’t see anything if I connect a secondary monitor to the motherboard HDMI. It’s like the iGPU is not there at all (it’s enabled in BIOS).

Output of lspci -v | less | grep “VGA”:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

I have several questions.
I used the Manjaro hardware tool to install this drivers, so idk why is this happening or what should I do.
Also, I’ve seen a lot of problems regarding this (I mean using both GPUs).

-Is it worth to even enable the iGPU at this point? (I’m on a desktop pc, not laptop) or will I have more problems than advantages?.

-What would I win using it? more performance? since some things will be loading on iGPU and the Nvidia GPU will be focused on heavy things?

-And will those “optimizations” happen easily or will I have to be coding and managing hard configurations to make the desktop render with iGPU and games with Nvidia for example?.

-And what do I need to do to use it? installing prime drivers is not enough?.

Please note that I’m not a professional programmer or Linux expert when you answer.

2

Hello @RBNMN :wink:

  1. Both GPUs are there and activated, since both are listed here:

This verify it:

sudo lspci -v -k | sed -n "/VGA compatible controller/,/Kernel modules/p"

  1. The main advantages are are: powersaving and maybe passthrough a card to a virtual machine.

  2. If both are active then the iGPU will be the main anyway by default (if no other configuration). So you have to run prime-run <command> to offload applications to the nvidia dGPU.

  3. Installing the nvidia prime drivers from MHWD should be enough for default.

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3

Yes, I can see “00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])” in your command output.

About the 3rd point, the thing is that all games I run are for sure using Nvidia GPU, because the performance is good and I see the GPU usage on Nvidia X Server Settings, also the desktop compositor using Opengl is also on Nvidia, so basically even if the iGPU is active, the whole system is only using Nvidia’s dGPU.

Edit: I tried disabling the dGPU on Lutris and even then, games always use dGPU for running. Also on Yuzu or Citra, both of them are using dGPU, so it’s not a Lutris/Wine thing.
Also, what about the second monitor? why I can’t use it when connected to the motherboard?.

4

Then you didn’t configure the iGPU for xorg and therefore it is there, activated, driver is loaded, but nothing use it, since xorg is not instructed to use it or anything else.

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5

So… it’s not enough to install Prime drivers?

6

Normally this should be enough…

Please show me your config:

for x in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/* /etc/X11/xorg.conf; do echo -e "\n---$x---\n$(cat $x)"; done

Run this on the terminal please.

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7 

---/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf---
# Written by systemd-localed(8), read by systemd-localed and Xorg. It's
# probably wise not to edit this file manually. Use localectl(1) to
# instruct systemd-localed to update it.
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "system-keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "XkbLayout" "es"
        Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection

---/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf---
##
## Generated by mhwd - Manjaro Hardware Detection
##

---/etc/X11/xorg.conf---
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 460.32.03

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 430.64

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG Electronics LG FULL HD"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 1060 6GB"
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On}"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "1920x1080_60 +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
    Option         "metamodes" "1920x1080_60 +0+0"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

If you see some other possible problems in the configuration tell me, I have tearing problems some times and this file could be the problem now that I see it.

8

What says:

echo -e "Possible:\n\n$(mhwd --list)\n\nInstalled:\n\n$(mhwd --listinstalled)"
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9 
Possible:

> 0000:03:00.0 (0200:10ec:8168) Network controller Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
         network-r8168            2016.04.20                true            PCI


> 0000:01:00.0 (0300:10de:1c03) Display controller nVidia Corporation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-prime            2021.07.28               false            PCI
video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-390xx-bumblebee            2020.11.30               false            PCI
          video-nvidia            2020.11.30               false            PCI
    video-nvidia-390xx            2020.11.30               false            PCI
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
            video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI


> 0000:00:02.0 (0300:8086:0412) Display controller Intel Corporation:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-prime            2021.07.28               false            PCI
video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-390xx-bumblebee            2020.11.30               false            PCI
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
            video-vesa            2017.03.12                true            PCI

Installed:

> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     video-modesetting            2020.01.13                true            PCI
video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-prime            2021.07.28               false            PCI
         network-r8168            2016.04.20                true            PCI


Warning: No installed USB configs!
10

Ok… I am bit confused why mhwd did not create a config at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf. Anyway… The problem here is that xorg is instructed to use the nvidia gpu only at /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Remove this file and reboot… then the Intel driver will configured first automatically. Nvidia needs always a config file and therefore xorg will not touch it.

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11

But do you think it’s worth? I mean, my system is not unstable or something, it works fine, I wonder if there is any sense in using the iGPU, and having to specify every time I want to run something with dGPU.

12

Maybe, maybe not… If you use your desktop computer normally without any tinkering and you use the nvidia screen outputs, then its not worth to touch it. I mean I have a Radeon iGPU on my Desktop and the only thing I do with it is just passthrough it to VMs for better performance (not for gaming).

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13

I don’t need VMs so much, so it’s probably not worth for me then.
Btw, in case that one day I want to do it, I noticed that there is a file called 90-mhwd.conf in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ that points to an empty file called nvidia.conf in /etc/X11/mhwd.d/. Is that a problem? if I just delete the file you said, it will work or do I need to delete this two files too?

14

There is a prioritization. Have look at the manpage:

man xorg.conf

In this case:

  1. /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  2. /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*.conf

So, if the first one is there, then the second path will be ignored. So it doesn’t matter if you delete it or not.

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15

But then if I delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf, the second one will be used, but since it’s an empty configuration file, there will be no configuration nor it will create a new xorg.conf file right?. Or did I misunderstood something?

16

Yes, only mhwd would create a new file 90-mhwd.conf if you remove the prime config and install the normal nvidia config, but it will never touch the xorg.conf file.

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17

Ok then, that’s all, thanks for your help!!!

18

BTW…

This for your tearing problem:

You removed it (commented it out). This option is there for a tearing problem. :wink:

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19

Oh, I disabled that long time ago because the system felt laggy (stuttering?), I’ll try it again, maybe they fixed something in newer drivers. Thanks!!.

20

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