Fedora 34 - X11, NVIDIA 470.57.02 - GNOME 40 - External Monitor Issue

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1

Hi all, I am experiencing a weird bug with my laptop and multi-monitors:

- Switch over from WAYLAND to X11 for application support

I have 4 monitors total, 3 external and 1 builtin (my laptop):

- Built in laptop (which I believe is linked to my Intel GPU, important to note later in the post)
- External MON 1 = HDMI, directly connected to my laptops HDMI port (which I believe is linked to my Nvidia GPU, important to note later in the post) 
- External MON 2 = mDP, directly connected to my laptops mDP port (which I believe is linked to my Nvidia GPU, important to note later in the post) 
- External MON 3 = USB-C dock connected via a D6000 dock (which I believe is linked to my Intel GPU, important to note later in the post)

So, I have a gpu that is considered “Optimus” which I’ve found references to this link:

- https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/how-to-set-nvidia-as-primary-gpu-on-optimus-based-laptops/

From the link above, I made it to the section:

- ## Step #8: Edit the X11 configuration and added the following lines:
  + Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
  + sudo reboot

After rebooting:

- Intel GPU monitors are now disabled, (black screen)
- Nvidia GPU now displays

Verifying the renderer:

[gns3@gns3:~]$ glxinfo | egrep "OpenGL vendor|OpenGL renderer"
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa/X.org
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.1, 256 bits)

When I edit this configuration and comment out the option gpu:

- sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf
- and comment out: Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
- reboot

After rebooting:

- Intel GPU monitors now works
- Nvidia GPU nare now disabled, (black screen)

Verifying the renderer after commenting out the command:

[gns3@gns3:~]$ glxinfo | egrep "OpenGL vendor|OpenGL renderer"
OpenGL vendor string: Intel
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2)

My hardware:

[gns3@gns3:~]$ screenfetch
           /:-------------:\          gns3@gns3
        :-------------------::        OS: Fedora 34 ThirtyFour
      :-----------/shhOHbmp---:\      Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.13.9-200.fc34.x86_64
    /-----------omMMMNNNMMD  ---:     Uptime: 20m
   :-----------sMMMMNMNMP.    ---:    Packages: 2328
  :-----------:MMMdP-------    ---\   Shell: bash 5.1.0
 ,------------:MMMd--------    ---:   Resolution: 8320x1440
 :------------:MMMd-------    .---:   DE: GNOME 40.0
 :----    oNMMMMMMMMMNho     .----:   WM: Mutter
 :--     .+shhhMMMmhhy++   .------/   WM Theme: 
 :-    -------:MMMd--------------:    GTK Theme: Adwaita-dark [GTK2/3]
 :-   --------/MMMd-------------;     Icon Theme: Adwaita
 :-    ------/hMMMy------------:      Font: Cantarell 11
 :-- :dMNdhhdNMMNo------------;       Disk: 2.5T / 8.2T (30%)
 :---:sdNMMMMNds:------------:        CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H @ 12x 4.1GHz [58.0°C]
 :------:://:-------------::          GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design
 :---------------------://            RAM: 2791MiB / 31773MiB

My GPU:

[gns3@gns3:~]$ nvidia-smi
Mon Aug 16 04:18:31 2021       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.57.02    Driver Version: 470.57.02    CUDA Version: 11.4     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce ...  Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   48C    P8     5W /  N/A |      7MiB /  8119MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Seems the option: Option “PrimaryGPU” “yes” disables my Intel GPU? Is there a way to have both working?

1 Like
2

@t0xic0der : if anyone will know, it’s probably you :slight_smile:

3

Hey folks,

@ankursinha Thanks for the tag.

@whatstheip I would suggest not enabling the PRIME offloading if you wish to use multiple displays along with your laptop screen.

2 Likes
5

Hi Askashdeep,

So in my case, ignore this portion?

Any suggestions why external MON 1 and MON 2 screen would be blank when I ignore it?

Any commands I can run to output and paste to provide information?

6

Yep, simply remove them as leaving them be would make the PRIME offloading config persist.

8

Done, screen is blank now, (my built-in monitor and other monitor connected to USB-C are the only 1s that work now)

The 2 monitors connected to mDP and HDMI do not work when I disable prime, but when I enable prime my build-in monitor and usb-c monitors become blank

Unless there’s a limit on how many monitors can be displayed (On Ubuntu all 4 monitors worked)