[How to]Setup Nvidia Prime Proprietary Driver in Manjaro

Originally posted here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/howto-set-up-prime-with-nvidia-proprietary-driver/40225 by jonathon

Step 1: remove bumblebee

If you installed with the non-free driver option mhwd will have set up bumblebee for you. This will get in the way so the first step is to remove it. Use the mhwd command-line or simply remove it via Manjaro Settings Manager.

Step 2: install the NVIDIA driver

Use mhwd or MSM to install the nvidia driver in the normal way.

Step 3: break fix mhwd's configuration

mhwd does the sensible thing and puts configuration in place as though the NVIDIA GPU was the only device available. We need to change this setup so PRIME will work.

Step 3.1: set up a new Xorg configuration

Firstly, remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-mhwd.conf and replace it with:

Section "Module"
    Load "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
EndSection

While the BusID value above should be correct for most Optimus laptops you should check your values with lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D" .

Step 3.2: Refine blacklisting

PRIME relies on nvidia-drm and mhwd puts it in a blacklist by default, but to to ensure the nvidia kernel module will load we still need to blacklist certain other modules. Therefore, you’ll have to do some editing of the files in /etc/modprobe.d.

To remove the existing blacklist, edit, move or remove any related mhwd-* files in /etc/modprobe.d/, e.g.

ls /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd*
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd-gpu.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/mhwd-nvidia.conf

The end result must include a blacklist of the following modules, e.g. in /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf:

blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivafb

Step 4: enable nvidia-drm.modeset

Create a new file,/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-drm.conf

options nvidia_drm modeset=1

Step 5: Set the output source for your DM.

This is the most complicated part and the one which will take longest to get right. If you reboot now, your DM will load but display on the wrong output; the laptop display will be entirely blank (powered off).

We need to set a startup script to load the correct settings while the DM is loading.

Create a new file with the following content:

/usr/local/bin/optimus.sh

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

Make sure to set it world read-execute, chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/optimus.sh.

Now you have to get this to load in your DM’s startup sequence.

LightDM

Edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and set

display-setup-script=/usr/local/bin/optimus.sh

GDM

Create a new file,/usr/local/share/optimus.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Optimus
Exec=sh -c "xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0; xrandr --auto"
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=DisplayServer

Or using the above script,

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Optimus
Exec=/usr/local/bin/optimus.sh
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=DisplayServer

and link it into place so it starts with GDM and on login

sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/optimus.desktop /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart/optimus.desktop
sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/optimus.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/optimus.desktop

You’ll also have to use X, not Wayland.

SDDM

Create a new file,

/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

Step 6: reboot

If everything is set correctly, when you reboot your DM will load, you can log in, and:

$ glxinfo | grep -i vendor
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation

Hooray! You’re running X via the dGPU not the iGPU!

If you have multiple displays you may have to configure their layout again in the normal way.

References and reading

• https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/957814/linux/prime-and-prime-synchronization/ 24
• http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/390.25/README/randr14.html 13
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PRIME 27
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus#Display_Managers 23
• https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/957981/linux/prime-render-offloading-on-nvidia-optimus/ 16