NVIDIA Optimus via PRIME on laptop not working

Development Deployments
1

Hi Maybe somebody can advise on how to setup correctly NVIDIA Optimus via PRIME for the new laptop.

Current Hardware Configuration:
Intel and Nvidia RTX 4000 on laptop

lspci | grep -i VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 3e9b (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1eb6 (rev a1)

nvidia-smi
Sun Sep 22 15:24:13 2019       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 435.21       Driver Version: 435.21       CUDA Version: 10.1     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  Quadro RTX 4000     Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   37C    P8     8W /  N/A |     98MiB /  7982MiB |      2%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                       GPU Memory |
|  GPU       PID   Type   Process name                             Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0      3346      G   ...bxhy9vnr16qpyn-xorg-server-1.20.5/bin/X    94MiB |
|    0      3484      G   /run/current-system/sw/bin/nvidia-settings     2MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+


xrander --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x28d cap: 0x1, Source Output crtcs: 4 outputs: 3 associated providers: 1 name:NVIDIA-0
Provider 1: id: 0x43 cap: 0x2, Sink Output crtcs: 3 outputs: 1 associated providers: 1 name:modesetting

Current NixOs Configuration

  hardware = {
    opengl.driSupport32Bit = true;
    nvidia = {
      optimus_prime = {                                             
        enable = true;                                                              
        intelBusId = "PCI:0:2:0";                                                   
        nvidiaBusId = "PCI:1:0:0";                                                  
      };
      modesetting.enable = true;
    };
  };

  services = {
    xserver = {
      enable = true;
#      videoDrivers = [ "intel" ];
      videoDrivers = [ "nvidia" ];

      layout = "us";
      xkbOptions = "eurosign:e";
      libinput.enable = true;
      desktopManager = {
        default = "none";
        xterm.enable = false;
      };
      displayManager = {
        lightdm = {
          enable = true;
          greeter.enable = false;
          autoLogin.enable = true;
          autoLogin.user = "xxxxxx";
        };
      };

      windowManager = {
        default = "i3";
        i3.enable = true;
        i3.package = pkgs.i3-gaps;
      };
    };
  };

nix run nixpkgs.nix-info -c nix-info -m
 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 5.3.0, NixOS, 19.09beta304.b66fb91f170 (Loris)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.3`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-19.09beta304.b66fb91f170"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

Issue: I can not switch between video card using

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource NVIDIA-0 modesetting

X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  35 (RRSetProviderOutputSource)
  Value in failed request:  0x28d
  Serial number of failed request:  16
  Current serial number in output stream:  17

The only option that is working without error is

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0

Note: I can’t see option for Prime Profiles in GUI nvidia-settings

Note: Only option to use Intel VGA is to swithch in configuration.nix between

  services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "intel" ];
  services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "nvidia" ];

and rerun “nixos-rebuild switch” after change every time need to change VGA device.

Is anything missing from my configuration to make change devices work with Optimus via Prime?

2 Likes
2

I don’t see any problem with setup, it looks like it’s working correctly. If you’re trying to perform offloading, PRIME sync doesn’t do that.

3

@eadwu

Thx for the reply.

As far as I know offload Prime sync was implemented in latest Nvdia drivers

4

Prime sync is not the same thing as prime render offload, and prime render offload hasn’t been implemented in nixpkgs.

Also, I would suggest reading the docs on prime render offload instead of running random commands hoping it would do what you want.

1 Like
5

I don’t think you understood the exact requirements.

  1. PRIME render offload is the ability to have an X screen rendered by one GPU, but choose certain applications within that X screen to be rendered on a different GPU
    Source: Chapter 35. PRIME Render Offload
    And to make it work you need to patch X server
  2. Requirements is to switch between GPU from Intel and Nvidia without modifying configuration.nix and running nixos-rebuild switch
    Chapter 34. Offloading Graphics Display with RandR 1.4
6

Like I said before PRIME render offload is not PRIME sync.

If you’re trying to disable the NVIDIA gpu through a restart of X server, you need a new generation and a reboot to cleanly do so.

7

Thx for the help.
I thought maybe an easier solution exist rather than restarting X.Org server, will wait until X.Org will add patches for offload to official release soon.

8

See nvidia: prime render offload by eadwu · Pull Request #66601 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub.