Short intro: I was a long time Gentoo user and now returning to Linux. I use Debian on some servers at the company I work at and since Debian 9 went stable I've been using it on my laptop as well, with KDE Plasma 5.8.6. Everything works splendid. No tearing, no freezes, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my integrated dedicated Nvidia 980M working. It's a clean install with some software like Firefox Quantum, Tor, some games like Dink Smallwood and Endless Skies.
This is my first time trying to setup a system with two GPU's, one dedicated and one "standard".
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uname -a
Linux BTO 4.9.0-5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux
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# inxi -F
System: Host: BTO Kernel: 4.9.0-5-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: N/A Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
Machine: Device: laptop System: Notebook product: P65_P67SG
Mobo: Notebook model: P65_P67SG UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.03.07 date: 03/05/2015
Battery BAT0: charge: 38.0 Wh 100.0% condition: 38.0/40.7 Wh (94%)
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-4720HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
clock speeds: max: 3600 MHz 1: 2637 MHz 2: 2600 MHz 3: 2641 MHz 4: 2600 MHz 5: 2616 MHz 6: 2600 MHz
7: 2630 MHz 8: 2608 MHz
Graphics: Card-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
Card-2: NVIDIA GM204M [GeForce GTX 980M]
Display Server: X.org 1.19.2 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: modesetting
tty size: 150x40 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Audio: Card-1 Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Card-2 Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Card-3 Logitech Webcam C270 driver: USB Audio
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.0-5-amd64
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8168
IF: enp3s0f1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 80:fa:5b:15:5a:93
Card-2: Intel Wireless 7265
IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2250.5GB (1.0% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 250.1GB
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: M3_Portable size: 2000.4GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 15G (42%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-2: /boot size: 735M used: 79M (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 238 Uptime: 38 min Memory: 1961.7/15934.9MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5
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Apt tweaks:
/etc/apt/preferences.d/00_all
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 1000
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 2
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/etc/apt/preferences.d/01_Firefox
ackage: firefox
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: libfontconfig1
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: fontconfig-config
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: libnss3
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1001
https://wiki.debian.org/Bumblebee
The Bumblebee howto with nvidia drivers (sudo apt-get install bumblebee-nvidia primus)
With the i:386 packages for compatibility with steam etc.
The setup gave me the message which I come across online a lot; that the setup of nvidia warns about nouveau but that a reboot should fix it.
But then after reboot, the screen is black. No keyboard response, no mouse, only a forced shutdown works.
After purging everything nvidia and bumblebee like from the rescue command line, I could log back in to plasma.
So I thought maybe manually installing the Nvidia drivers from the website might work, same result.
so I --uninstall'd the drivers and, I got things working again.
Figuring out how to restore took me a while and I tried several small things along the way which I can't remember. Nothing too fancy. It seems that the dance of installing the bumblebee-nvidia package, then discovering the system halts on next boot and purging everything nvidia, is something that a lot of people go through. I decided to install primus bumblebee without nvidia, this seemed to work since I can
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cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch
This post helped me get the Intel driver up, since I noticed that wasn't even the case
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... e&start=15
I added:
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/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection
Earlier on I followed this howto:
https://www.pcsuggest.com/install-and-c ... in-debian/
Which told me to install virtualgl as a bridge, I'm going to try removing it and reboot. See what happens.
Seems like after the reboot I have the same effect. X server restarts, nothing happens.
So I tried bumblebee-nvidia again and this time when I reboot, the screen stays black but I do have the option to go to TTY1-7, where 7 is just blank.
I tried startx, which complained about kdeinit(5) having trouble. After purging nvidia again and rebooting into X, my panel was on the wrong monitor and I had to reconfigure a new one.
So... Seems like I'm missing something crucial to get to the sweet spot. Some configuration file or a combination of config files?
Apologies upfront if I forgot to post anything relevant to the issue. Just ask and I'll deliver!
Anyone like to help?