superdanby/grub-nvidia-entry

Enable Nvidia driver only with the last entry in grub.

Grub-Nvidia-Entry

If you installed Nvidia drivers through Negativo17 or RPMfusion, the Nvidia card would always be on by default. As the dedicated GPU consumes a lot of power, it is a significant problem to those using laptops.

Features

• grub-nvidia-entry.sh makes Grub load Nouveau instead of Nvidia drivers on normal basis and creates a new entry which loads Nvidia drivers.
• nnswitch.sh lets you switch between Nouveau and Nvidia drivers within seconds.

Usage

• nnswitch.sh: Switch to Nouveau or Nvidia proprietary dirvers. You'll be brought to the login screen right after the switch. The whole process should be around 5 seconds.

Advantages

Why is this method preferred over Bumblebee?

Prerequisites

• UEFI
• Nvidia proprietary drivers from Negativo17 or RPMfusion

Supported Operating Systems

• Fedora 26 ~ 29

Installation

Easy Setup

• To make the script do everything automatically, run make enable && make.
• To completely remove everything, run make uninstall.

All Options

• make or make run: Runs grub-nvidia-entry.sh. Changes take effect on the next boot.
  1. Current session: make / make run
  2. Next boot: changes should take effect
• make force: Same as running make, but without checking Linux kernel's version and the presence of Nvidia modules.
• make enable: Registers grub-nvidia-entry.service and gdm-nvidia-wayland-switch.service and enables them. grub-nvidia-entry.sh will update all configurations on the next boot. However, you'll have to reboot again to see the changes.
  1. Current session: make enable / Kernel update
  2. Next boot: grub-nvidia-entry.sh executes
  3. Second boot: changes should take effect
• make disable: Disables grub-nvidia-entry.service and gdm-nvidia-wayland-switch.service.
• make install: Registers grub-nvidia-entry.service and gdm-nvidia-wayland-switch.service.
• make uninstall: Deregisters and uninstalls all components.
• make sign: Signs Nvidia modules for Secure Boot with SignNvidia.sh. Note that this is NOT included in make enable and should be re-run MANUALLY on every kernel update.

GPU Verification

Intel/Nouveau

iGPU: glxgears -info | grep GL_VENDOR dGPU(Nouveau): DRI_PRIME=1 glxgears -info | grep GL_VENDOR

Intel/Nvidia

glxgears -info | grep GL_VENDOR

Caution

Full installation overwrites /usr/lib/systemd/system/switcheroo-control.service, /etc/grub.d/40_custom, /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/61-gdm.rules, and /etc/gdm/custom.conf.

Issues

• There's an upstream bug that prevents Gnome from detecting dedicated GPU when Secure Boot is on. DRI_PRIME=1 works fine though. A workaround is to disable Secure Boot for now.
• Upstream made a change to disable GDM's ability to launch Wayland backend if Nvidia proprietary drivers are used. However, GDM seems to be not regaining the ability even after the drivers are unloaded[need confirmation]. A workaround is applied in the commit, 382ddeb.

Todo

• RPM package
• Better documentation for user to check what went wrong.
• Gnome extension

Development Stopped

I've switched to another laptop with AMD graphics card.

grub-nvidia-entry's Issues

black screen after using nnswitch in the same Xsession

I am using fedora29 with negativo nvidia drivers. Using the boot parameters which is provided by your project. When I use nnswitch for the first time it changes from nvidia to the non-nvidia driver flawlessly but when I want to revert back to nvidia there's a black screen.
video card- Nvidia gtx1060 max-q

Back up files before replacing them.

switcheroo-control.service -> switcheroo-control.service.bak
40_custom -> 40_custom.bak

No entry added

Hi,

I cloned the repository and tried both "make enable" and "make" but no entry was added to grub on reboot. The service however seems to be running, yet Nvidia is running.
I'm running Fedora 28 Gnome Version 3.28.2 on Dell XPS 15 9560.
I'm not really sure how to debug this, so please let me know what information I can add that can be useful.

Thanks!

Custom entry not created in GRUB.

Gnome Shell Can't Detect Dedicated Graphics Card.

Gnome shell can't detect the dGPU. Consequently, the option "Launch using Dedicated Graphics Card" in Gnome's right click menu is not shown.
Nouveau is being loaded correctly. It is tested with DRI_PRIME=1 glxgears -info.

System information:
Secure Boot: On
Kernel: 4.15.4-300.fc27.x86_64
Gnome: 3.26.2
Mode: Intel + Nouveau

How reproducible: 100%

Actual results:
Gnome not detecting dGPU.

Expected results:

Additional information:
This problem has existed from kernel 4.13 at least.

(Not really an issue) Going to be working on an arch port.

First of all great work on this script. I think it is a great solution for gpu switching while we wait for glxvnd to land.

I am going to be working on porting this to arch.

This would mean creating an aur package, and leveraging bbswitch instead of nouveau to manage turning the gpu on and off (because nouveau is buggy on many gpus).

My work is going to be done here: https://github.com/sudopluto/Grub-Nvidia-Entry

Make the script run automatically.

Rerunning the script every time after a kernel update is annoying. :(

Nvidia dirvers not recompiled after kernel update.