The NVIDIA driver automation transitions to Wayland era

Indy · March 3, 2023, 7:20pm

My motherboard does not have video output. So, I think my processor’s built in graphics doesn’t work the same way as your laptop. I really don’t want it to work anyway

Indy · March 3, 2023, 8:18pm

I also installed the 38400 server on a SATA drive for fun. Added the desktop-kde bundle. Installed the beta NVIDIA driver using @marioroy 's repo.

Now able to boot into kde with Wayland or x11. I am hoping the Clear Linux development team will add the option to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver in the distro clr-installer like Ubuntu and Arch linux do. Please!!!

marioroy · March 5, 2023, 6:13am

Firefox 110.0.0 or 110.0.1 may have introduced a regression. It requires one to export MOZ_DRM_DEVICE in ~/.config/firefox.conf or ~/bin/run-firefox script. Your device path may differ.

export MOZ_DRM_DEVICE=/dev/dri/renderD128

Please refer to the nvidia-vaapi-driver repo for further details. The issue is not caused by the the vaapi backend driver. Rather an anomaly in Firefox.

github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver

Unable to decode video on Firefox with direct backend

opened 06:03AM - 04 Mar 23 UTC

MrAru

I am using Arch Linux with X11, and I have GTX 1660Ti Mobile GPU card. I confirm…ed that I have set the kernel parameter `nvidia-drm.modeset`, set the environment variables `NVD_BACKEND`, `MOZ_DISABLE_RDD_SANDBOX`, and `LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME`, also I have set Firefox config parameters `media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled`, `media.rdd-ffmpeg.enabled`, and `gfx.x11-egl.force-enabled`. Hardware acceleration works well on mpv, while it doesn't work on Firefox (Hardware acceleration works fine on mpv, but not on Firefox (as confirmed by the fact that `Video Engine Utilization` is always zero when playing video on Firefox). Here is some information that might help. ``` ❯ vainfo Trying display: wayland Trying display: x11 vainfo: VA-API version: 1.17 (libva 2.17.1) vainfo: Driver version: VA-API NVDEC driver [direct backend] vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP8Version0_3 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain12 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain444 : VAEntrypointVLD ``` I've also tried `NVD_LOG=1 firefox-nightly`, but that doesn't give me any output related to Nvidia or VA-API or anything else. Does anyone have some clues? I'd be happy to provide further relevant information.

github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver

driver stops working in firefox after some time (ff profile gets altered somehow)

opened 01:42PM - 04 Mar 23 UTC

POMATu

Hello, this driver works great when it works. But I am having very strange issue… with it. I configure fresh firefox profile do all about:config tweaks (all environment variables are in /etc/environment) and I can see it working both in console log and in nvidia-settings as Video Engine utilization. Then I use firefox for a bit and it stops working. I thought maybe its some addon, but nah I installed all my addons to fresh profile and its working. Disabling addons in borked profile doesnt help either. Happened to me 3 times already, once in firefox profile, another time in waterfox and in librewolf too. Whats even more mindfucking here that when I tried tweaking about:config in old waterfox profile that I was using for a month even before I inserted nvidia card to my PC - it didnt worked straight away, but in fresh waterfox profile it worked and then died. While on some old firefox profile that exists for few years already its working after the tweaks but I think it will die too. I assume firefox writes something to profile (which is NOT the options from howto because they are fine) that makes it not use this vaapi driver anymore. What it can be? I tried comparing two about:config pages of working and non-working profile and havent found anything useful. Ironically vaapi was blacklisted in some old working profile which i tweaked recently (probably from old times when I had no vaapi). So i realized there is no way I can parse it or find the option that makes it broken. I will test more but right now I think i have to use firefox for youtube only and do other business in chromium because i am utterly tired creating new profiles and loggin in everywhere. Kindly elaborate any ideas what can possibly cause this. Linux desktop 5.4.0-144-generic #161-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 3 14:49:04 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Mozilla Firefox 110.0.1 ubuntu 20.04 nvidia RTX 1080 nvidia-driver-515

leiniercs · April 19, 2023, 1:00pm

Let me make a new update. I stopped using GNOME because I found it too simple and without options, despite that I needed to constantly press Meta key or take the mouse pointer to the upper-left corner in order to see the main dash panel to launch new apps (there is no option in GNOME to make that panel visible on the main desktop). So, I continue using KDE, which I am using since a lot of years ago.

Now, I discovered the functional and correct way to use the NVIDIA GPU as default in a laptop with Optimus configuration and I want to share with you all.

After I install the ClearLinux OS, KDE desktop bundles and NVIDIA drivers, I create and adjust some files, then restart and the magic is done spectacularly: Wayland fully using NVIDIA GPU as primary.

[/etc/environment.d/10-sddm.conf]

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
__VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

[/etc/sddm.conf.d/wayland.conf]

[General]
DisplayServer=wayland
GreeterEnvironment=QT_WAYLAND_SHELL_INTEGRATION=layer-shell,QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
InputMethod=

[Wayland]
CompositorCommand=kwin_wayland --no-lockscreen

With this tweaks, you will be able to execute SDDM using Wayland through “kwin_wayland” and start the “Plasma Wayland” session with Wayland using NVIDIA GPU through PRIME Screen Offload with no efforts and transparently.

Some screenshots:

Businux · April 19, 2023, 5:05pm

XFCE / Wayland is in the works too :

https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/wayland_roadmap

marioroy · April 19, 2023, 9:06pm

There is a video of Fedora 38 running GNOME on Wayland. What is great about the video is the author shares the list of GNOME extensions used; 1m50s. For example, Dash to Dock. He mentioned having to build just one extension. The other extensions installed fine.

marioroy · April 24, 2023, 5:56am

Someone suggested I try hyper-terminal. I was using Kitty before, but is unappealing opening new windows due to the “mutter-x11-frames” regression. That is on Xorg (1).

Today, I learned that hyper-terminal (2) can create tabs and vertical/horizontal panes, similar to qterminal. The gnome-desktop-environment + the pop-shell-extension (3) + hyper-terminal work seamlessly together without visual artifacts. One can choose to add new tabs, open new windows or create vertical/horizontal panes. To clarify, the tabs (including vertical/horizontal panes) are managed by the terminal application. Pop-shell manages new windows.

The pop-shell extension (3) would be a welcome addition to the Clear Linux desktop experience. I tried pop-shell on Nobara Linux 37 and Fedora Linux 38. Tiling in Gnome (similar to sway) is quite nice. One can toggle tiling using a keyboard shortcut.

I also tried gnome-terminal. Opening new tabs in gnome-terminal while the pop-shell extension is enabled is visually unappealing. The entire window is removed momentarily and then re-appears with one extra tab.

(1) I’m using Xorg, awaiting for Chrome (Chromium-Freeworld) to support fractional scaling on Wayland. That’s on its way and just a matter of time.
(2) Hyper-Terminal: https://hyper.is/
(3a) Package name in Fedora Linux: gnome-shell-extension-pop-shell
(3b) Pop!_OS Keyboard Shortcuts - System76 Support

The above is subjective. Use what you like.

Alex_George · April 26, 2023, 6:40am

I know you said you wanted to archive the github repo and walk away, but I want to say thanks for sticking around. I really hope the Clear Linux team is willing to support Nvidia drivers, and AMD drivers. At least for a bit until Intel drivers on Arc series graphics mature.

Indy · October 20, 2023, 5:52pm

Driver 545.23.06 is out. Big jump from 535. Installed it using your scripts without an issue. As usual, unable to run a Wayland session with my RTX4090 and it is okay. Unable to run Wayland since Gnome 45 and CL 40xx updates.

https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/545.23.06/

Indy · October 21, 2023, 9:31am

Wayland functional after installing KDE.

Paul_Mickus · October 21, 2023, 2:00pm

Thanks so much for this. Running 545.23.06 with Wayland in GNOME. NVIDIA RTX A6000