Graphics driver/configuration issue for old laptop Intel HD Graphics 3000 with Nvidia 525M(GF108M)

Issues & Assistance
1

Hi guys,
I have an old laptop, it is still useful to me and I do want to make the switch to Linux on my main system, so I decided to try Cachy OS on the laptop first.
If my hardware is obsolete, and there is nothing to be done, please ignore this post.
Installation on the laptop was smooth, but being old did not want to run KDE, so I installed Gnome.
May main issue with it is that the 3D drivers(OpenGL) don’t appear to work/load as expected, I do wish to run some really old steam games on it.
I did spent some time investigating this, but it is a lot to process, and I can only find scarce info about what is important to me.
I would really like to have at least the intel driver working, I know I made it to work somehow on the first CachyOS install, but the nvidia drivers were wrong.
Now the drivers appear to be installed ok, but there are issues like Steam is not starting, glxgears not working:

> glxgears -info
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

but eglgears is working:

> eglgears_x11 -info
EGL_VERSION = 1.5
EGL_VENDOR = Mesa Project
EGL_EXTENSIONS = EGL_ANDROID_blob_cache EGL_ANDROID_native_fence_sync EGL_CHROMIUM_sync_control EGL_ANGLE_sync_control_rate EGL_EXT_buffer_age EGL_EXT_config_select_group EGL_EXT_create_context_robustness EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import_modifiers EGL_EXT_query_reset_notification_strategy EGL_EXT_surface_compression EGL_EXT_swap_buffers_with_damage EGL_IMG_context_priority EGL_KHR_cl_event2 EGL_KHR_config_attribs EGL_KHR_context_flush_control EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_KHR_create_context_no_error EGL_KHR_fence_sync EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_gl_colorspace EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_3D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_image EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_image_pixmap EGL_KHR_no_config_context EGL_KHR_reusable_sync EGL_KHR_surfaceless_context EGL_KHR_swap_buffers_with_damage EGL_EXT_pixel_format_float EGL_KHR_wait_sync EGL_MESA_configless_context EGL_MESA_drm_image EGL_MESA_gl_interop EGL_MESA_image_dma_buf_export EGL_MESA_query_driver EGL_MESA_x11_native_visual_id EGL_NOK_texture_from_pixmap EGL_WL_bind_wayland_display
EGL_CLIENT_APIS = OpenGL OpenGL_ES

Here is some relevant data I hope:

> lspci -nnk | grep --color 'VGA' -A3
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:04c4]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] [10de:0df5] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:04c4]
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

> xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x42 cap: 0xf, Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload crtcs: 2 outputs: 2 associated providers: 1 name:modesetting
Provider 1: id: 0xbf cap: 0x2, Sink Output crtcs: 2 outputs: 2 associated providers: 1 name:modesetting

> inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] driver: nvidia v: 390.157
  Device-3: Sunplus Innovation Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo
    type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting failed: nvidia dri: crocus gpu: i915
    resolution: 1600x900~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.2.2-arch1.3 note: incomplete (EGL
    sourced) renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)

The logs are here: 2c25410

System Specs:

System Details Report

Report details

  • Date generated: 2024-09-18 20:12:10

Hardware Information:

  • Hardware Model: Dell Inc. Dell System Inspiron N7110
  • Memory: 16,0 GiB
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM × 8
  • Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)
  • Disk Capacity: 120,0 GB

Software Information:

  • Firmware Version: A13
  • OS Name: CachyOS
  • OS Build: rolling
  • OS Type: 64-bit
  • GNOME Version: 46
  • Windowing System: X11
  • Kernel Version: Linux 6.11.0-1-cachyos
2

Did you or the installer install the nvidia driver?
will you show this please:

pacman -Ss nvidia-390

It’s hard for me to believe Gnome is lighter than kde-plasma though. :slight_smile:

3

The nvidia driver was set up by the installer.

❯ pacman -Ss nvidia-390
cachyos/lib32-nvidia-390xx-utils 390.157-3 [installed]
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit), 390xx legacy branch
cachyos/lib32-opencl-nvidia-390xx 390.157-3 [installed]
    OpenCL implemention for NVIDIA (32-bit), 390xx legacy branch
cachyos/nvidia-390xx-dkms 390.157-13 [installed]
    NVIDIA drivers - module sources
cachyos/nvidia-390xx-settings 390.157-2 [installed]
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver, 390xx legacy branch
cachyos/nvidia-390xx-utils 390.157-13 [installed]
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
cachyos/opencl-nvidia-390xx 390.157-13 [installed]
    OpenCL implemention for NVIDIA

KDE is not working for me, I’m assuming is because nvidia… and their driver policy(not going open source), and now is too late for older legacy hardware. I get a black screen screen as soon as I hit enter in the login start window. I did not investigate too much into this, I assumed that there might not be support at all for Wayland in the legacy drivers(I could be very wrong).

4

Dang I’m using the 470 driver on one machine here, and this seems to help: NVIDIA + Wayland on Arch: A Comprehensive Setup Guide
Read it over and see if worth your time. Good Luck though.

1 Like
5

Thanks @1fallen, I will give it a good read, I find it a bit hard to get good documentation for how the internals of Linux work, everything seems to be spread over in tiny bits.

6

Please keep us updated. :slight_smile:

7

Hi @1fallen, I reinstalled Cachy OS with Plasma-Wayland, immediately after boot I got black screen with a frozen “_” in the upper left corner. I could not use CTRL+ALT+F2…5, the system did not respond to inputs.
I restarted the laptop, and I booted without a graphic environment(https://discovery.endeavouros.com/system-rescue/how-to-boot-without-a-graphical-environment/2021/03/), and I used the setup guide provided above. It did not seem to help at all.
I don’t want to give up, what else can I try? Thanks!
I read that is not a good idea to have multiple DE installed at the same time. At least on Gnome the graphic environment was functional.

8

Well I’m quickly running out of ideas, but will you check to see if modsetting is in play:

sudo cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset

We need to see a “Y” there.
If it isn’t let me know.

9

Yes there is a “Y”, I checked it.
I used: NVIDIA - ArchWiki
because in the: NVIDIA + Wayland on Arch: A Comprehensive Setup Guide there is a subtle mistake( […append “nvidia-drm.modeset=1 nvidia_drm.fbdev=1”] when it should be nvidia_drm.modeset=1).
Edit: I removed the cachyos-kde-settings package, now the login screen works(my guess, because it does not use Wayland), but the system freezes as soon as I hit enter after the login password.
If I choose X11 instead of Wayland from the drop-down in the upper left corner of the login screen, the DE loads fine. I will run some more tests, but for now Wayland is not working on nvidia-390. If CachyOs does not support this driver for Plasma, perhaps I should stop searching for a solution.