NVIDIA Card detected but not used by Gnome

Hello,

I have an issue with my Gnome on manjaro. After a reboot, my GPU is not used anymore by Gnome. The driver is correctly installed and used(?) but Gnome is still using my chipset as the Graphical device. For the past 2 days, I tried ton find why by myself while reading several topics on the subject. Sadly, nothing seems to work and i can’t figure out why. I think I’m badly understanding something because i tried a lot of different methods.

inxi -Fza >

      Kernel: 5.8.18-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
      parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.8-x86_64 
      root=UUID=67fea7b5-7e7d-4699-a380-360cd0b881a8 rw quiet apparmor=1 
      security=apparmor resume=UUID=eea01c57-b57e-41c9-a5f3-3d023d567113 
      udev.log_priority=3 
      Desktop: GNOME 3.38.1 tk: GTK 3.24.23 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM 3.38.1 
      Distro: Manjaro Linux 
    Machine:
      Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac13,2 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
      Chassis: type: 13 v: Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4 serial: <filter> 
      Mobo: Apple model: Mac-FC02E91DDD3FA6A4 v: iMac13,2 serial: <filter> 
      UEFI: Apple v: 287.0.0.0.0 date: 06/13/2019 
    CPU:
      Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3470S bits: 64 type: MCP 
      arch: Ivy Bridge family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21 
      L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
      flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 23154 
      Speed: 1597 MHz min/max: 1600/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1629 2: 1783 
      3: 1743 4: 1717 
      Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
      Type: l1tf 
      mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
      Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
      Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
      Type: spec_store_bypass 
      mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
      Type: spectre_v1 
      mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
      Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
      IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
      Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
      Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
    Graphics:
      Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GTX 660M Mac Edition] vendor: Apple 
      driver: nvidia v: 418.113 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus ID: 01:00.0 
      chip ID: 10de:0fe0 
      Device-2: Apple type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 3-1.1:3 
      chip ID: 05ac:8511 serial: <filter> 
      Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.9 compositor: gnome-shell driver: nvidia 
      note: display driver n/a - try sudo/root FAILED: nvidia 
      resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
      OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.1 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.1 
      compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
    Audio:
      Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio 
      driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
      Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel 
      v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0e1b 
      Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.18-1-MANJARO 
    Network:
      Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM57766 Gigabit Ethernet 
      PCIe 
      vendor: Apple driver: tg3 v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
      chip ID: 14e4:1686 
      IF: enp3s0f0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
      Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n 
      vendor: Apple AirPort Extreme driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A modules: bcma 
      port: 2000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:4331 
      IF-ID-1: br-80f1d5c67961 state: down mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-2: br-cb0f7fceccde state: down mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-3: br-dc4cbad48270 state: down mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-4: docker0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-5: veth3b76f73 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full 
      mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-6: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-7: virbr0-nic state: down mac: <filter> 
      IF-ID-8: wlp4s0b1 state: down mac: <filter> 
    Drives:
      Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 99.51 GiB (10.7%) 
      SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends 
      ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-21WN4A0 
      size: 931.51 GiB block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B 
      speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: GPT 
    Partition:
      ID-1: / raw size: 922.42 GiB size: 906.94 GiB (98.32%) 
      used: 99.51 GiB (11.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
    Swap:
      Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.80 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) 
      priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3 
    Sensors:
      System Temperatures: cpu: 57.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 52 C 
      Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
    Info:
      Processes: 248 Uptime: 8m Memory: 31.30 GiB used: 2.16 GiB (6.9%) 
      Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 Packages: 1547 pacman: 1539 
      lib: 406 flatpak: 8 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 running in: gnome-terminal 
      inxi: 3.1.08

mhwd -l -d >

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> PCI Device: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 (0300:10de:0fe0)
  Display controller nVidia Corporation GK107M [GeForce GTX 660M Mac Edition]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  > INSTALLED:

   NAME:	video-nvidia-418xx
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2020.10.04
   INFO:	Closed source NVIDIA drivers for linux.
   PRIORITY:	5
   FREEDRIVER:	false
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	video*nvidia-* 
   CLASSIDS:	0300 0302 
   VENDORIDS:	10de 



  > AVAILABLE:

   NAME:	video-nvidia-418xx
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2020.10.04
   INFO:	Closed source NVIDIA drivers for linux.
   PRIORITY:	5
   FREEDRIVER:	false
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	video*nvidia-* 
   CLASSIDS:	0300 0302 
   VENDORIDS:	10de 

   NAME:	video-nvidia-390xx
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2020.10.04
   INFO:	Closed source NVIDIA drivers for linux.
   PRIORITY:	4
   FREEDRIVER:	false
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	video*nvidia-* 
   CLASSIDS:	0300 0302 
   VENDORIDS:	10de 

   NAME:	video-nvidia-340xx
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2020.10.04
   INFO:	Closed source NVIDIA drivers for linux.
   PRIORITY:	3
   FREEDRIVER:	false
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	video*nvidia-* 
   CLASSIDS:	0300 0302 
   VENDORIDS:	10de 

   NAME:	video-linux
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2018.05.04
   INFO:	Standard open source drivers.
   PRIORITY:	2
   FREEDRIVER:	true
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	-
   CLASSIDS:	0300 0380 0302 
   VENDORIDS:	1002 8086 10de 

   NAME:	video-modesetting
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2020.01.13
   INFO:	X.org modesetting video driver.
   PRIORITY:	1
   FREEDRIVER:	true
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	-
   CLASSIDS:	0300 
   VENDORIDS:	* 

   NAME:	video-vesa
   ATTACHED:	PCI
   VERSION:	2017.03.12
   INFO:	X.org vesa video driver.
   PRIORITY:	0
   FREEDRIVER:	true
   DEPENDS:	-
   CONFLICTS:	-
   CLASSIDS:	0300 
   VENDORIDS:	* 


Warning: no configs for USB devices found!

mhwd -li >

mhwd -li                                                                 
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    video-nvidia-418xx            2020.10.04               false            PCI

I’m actually on this Kernel version : Linux 5.8.18-1-MANJARO

My graphic card : GeForce GTX 660M Mac Edition

My CPU : Intel® Core™ i5-3470S CPU @ 2.90GHz × 4

My Gnome “About” :

Can't link an image, but I'm 64Bit, X11, 32Go RAM, and it use llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.1, 256 bits) for graphics, and that's probably the issue

I hope someone can help me about this issue, if you need anymore informations, feel free to ask for them !

Hello,

I think you installed more than the nvidia driver. From terminal or from MHWD you can check and remove any other driver.
mhwd -li
remove the video-vesa video-modesetting or video-linux if are installed. Also, once you have done that reinstall the nvidia one so all entries in /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd-gpu.conf :

blacklist nouveau
blacklist ttm
blacklist drm_kms_helper
blacklist drm

and /etc/modules-load.d/mhwd-gpu.conf :

nvidia
nvidia-drm

are there, or add them manually without reinstall … Reboot after that.

Hello, thanks for the fast reply. I checked once again which driver is installed on my system and it’s seems there is only one :
mhwd -li >

mhwd -li                                                                 
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    video-nvidia-418xx            2020.10.04               false            PCI

Also my /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd-gpu.conf and my /etc/modules-load.d/mhwd-gpu.conf are exactly the same than the ones you posted before.

(I added the mhwd -li output to the main post)

I resolved the issue. It was an Xorg configuration related issue.

If someone reading this got this error, you need to edit EVERY (Maybe only one, but i done this with 2 different files) Xorg configuration on your system. Also check the /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd-gpu.conf and /etc/modules-load.d/mhwd-gpu.conf.

For /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf and /etc/X11/xorg.conf add this section at the end of the files :

Section "Files"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Also, ensure that your drivers are correctly installed before doing this, i tried this method before patching my drivers issues and it doesn’t. If the driver you want (and only this one) is correctly installed, those 4 lines should work like a charm.

Issue solve for me !