Driver Manager not showing nvidia options

[TallJimbo]

I've got a Thinkpad that's been running Mint 19 / Cinnamon quite happily using the Intel half of its Optimus hardware for a month or two now (Unity refugee loving Cinnamon so far!), but I've just received a 4K monitor I'd like to hook up, and that brought back the flashing black borders I thought I had solved with a smaller external monitor a few weeks ago, along with some general sluggishness.

So I'd like to give the presumably higher-powered nvidia half of the hardware a try. I do see the hardware here:

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$ inxi -SMCGx
System:    Host: ebbetts Kernel: 4.15.0-32-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.8 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: LENOVO product: 20E1S0NE00 v: ThinkPad W550s serial: N/A
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 20E1S0NE00 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: N11ET34W (1.10 ) date: 08/20/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i7-5600U (-MT-MCP-) arch: Broadwell rev.4 cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10376
           clock speeds: max: 3200 MHz 1: 912 MHz 2: 1024 MHz 3: 1537 MHz 4: 1109 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM108GLM [Quadro K620M / Quadro M500M] bus-ID: 08:00.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) driver: intel
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 3840x2160@29.98hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes

...but the Device Manager GUI doesn't show me any options for proprietary drivers at all, and I gather it's the recommended way to install these things.

That probably should have warned me off, but I did try directly installing a bunch of nvidia packages directly with apt. That got me to the point where I could select the nvidia option in the prime applet, reboot as instructed, and get to the login screen, but actually logging in would cause a Cinnamon crash and start in safe mode. My knowledge of the right log and config files to inspect is sufficiently rusty that I'm not sure if it was using the nvidia driver successfully before trying to start Cinnamon or not.

Given that I'm not positive I got the apt-based install of the nvidia packages right, I did an apt remove --purge nvidia*, and now I'm inclined to start over trying to understand why Device Manager didn't spot my nvidia card. But I'd happy to get advice on how to approach this from any direction - flashing black borders/boxes on the Intel driver, Device Manager's unhelpfulness, or the right way to install nvidia drivers for Optimus without it.

[catweazel]

I've got a Thinkpad that's been running Mint 19 / Cinnamon quite happily using the Intel half of its Optimus hardware for a month or two now (Unity refugee loving Cinnamon so far!), but I've just received a 4K monitor I'd like to hook up, and that brought back the flashing black borders I thought I had solved with a smaller external monitor a few weeks ago, along with some general sluggishness.

...but the Device Manager GUI doesn't show me any options for proprietary drivers at all, and I gather it's the recommended way to install these things.

There are two distinct issues there. Dealing with the last issue first: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers ... ubuntu/ppa

Add that ppa then sudo apt update. Finally, try the driver manager again.

Now the first issue. There are two problems, one is the video driver and the other is Cinnamon itself. I think nVidia driver 394 fixes most of the problem as there was a bugfix specifically for that issue of flashing boxes around windows in the DE. However there seems to be a related problem in Cinnamon that the devs can't catch so it can't be fixed. If the problem persists you have a stark choice. Try Mint MATE or wait in the hope that the devs might find what causes the problem in Cinnamon.

It's not the best of news but that's the state of affairs as I understand it.

Cheers.

[TallJimbo]

Thanks for the ideas.

With the PPA, the -396 drivers are available via apt, but I still don't see any options in Driver Manager.

Attempting to install the nvidia drivers manually with:

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sudo apt install nvidia-driver-396 nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-396

lands me with the same result I saw with the -390 drivers - crash when starting Cinnamon, followed by safe mode.

[roblm]

Use these commands and post the output:

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ls /etc/modprobe.d
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/
lspci -nnk |egrep -A3 -i "3D|VGA"

[TallJimbo]

So, I think I've gotten it working, and it's looking like it was at least in part just stupidity on my part - I recalled that I had added a xorg.conf.d snippet a while back while trying to debug the flickering black edges on the Intel device. Removing that and installing the -396 drivers directly with apt lets me get into Cinnamon with the nvidia drivers, and so far that seems to be driving the new display just fine.

But even with them installed and working, I'm not seeing anything in Driver Manager (other than "No proprietary drivers in use" at the bottom). So while that's no longer an immediate problem me, I'm happy to help debug that further in case it helps others. Here is the information requested (with nvidia selected by prime-select and rebooted to activate):

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$ /etc/modprobe.d
alsa-base.conf
amd64-microcode-blacklist.conf
blacklist-ath_pci.conf
blacklist.conf
blacklist-firewire.conf
blacklist-framebuffer.conf
blacklist-modem.conf
blacklist-nvidia.conf
blacklist-oss.conf
blacklist-rare-network.conf
dkms.conf
intel-microcode-blacklist.conf
iwlwifi.conf

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$ ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/
nvidia-drm.ko
nvidia.ko
nvidia-modeset.ko
nvidia-uvm.ko

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$ lspci -nnk |egrep -A3 -i "3D|VGA"
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 [8086:1616] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Lenovo HD Graphics 5500 [17aa:2225]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
--
08:00.0 3D controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation GM108GLM [Quadro K620M / Quadro M500M] [10de:137a] (rev a2)
	Subsystem: Lenovo GM108GLM [Quadro K620M / Quadro M500M] [17aa:2225]
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

[roblm]

Post the Xorg.0.log file. Use this command to open the file: xed /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If you have problems posting that long file, then it can be uploaded to pastebin.
First install pastebinit with this command: sudo apt install pastebinit

Then use this command to upload the file to pastebin: pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Post the URL link that displays in the Terminal window.

[TallJimbo]

Xorg.0.log posted to https://pastebin.com/g4a10EiA

This is after a fresh boot with the nvidia device enabled via prime-select, and then plugging my external monitor after logging in to Cinnamon. I'm happy to provide one with the Intel device enabled if that's also helpful.

[roblm]

One configuration file is missing. After the Nvidia driver is installed, a file named nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf is created in /etc/modprobe.d with the following lines, to blacklist the nouveau driver:

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blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off

Use this command to create it: sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

Then open the file for editing and add the lines: xed admin:///etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

Then update the initial ram disk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u

Use this command to see if Driver Manager will show the Nvidia-driver: sudo update-pciids

[TallJimbo]

Still nothing in Driver Manager after that sequence, I'm afraid.

[roblm]

What does this command show: ubuntu-drivers devices

This bug report suggests the apt-xapian-index package may be needed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1530523

It was installed on previous Mint versions. It also adds the Quick filter search window in the Synaptic Package Manager, for faster searches. The only problem was causing some slowdown in older systems with less powerful CPUs. You can always remove it:
sudo apt install apt-xapian-index

Logout and back in or reboot.

[TallJimbo]

Still no luck - ubuntu-drivers devices returns nothing, and I'm still not seeing anything in Driver Manager.

Also tried running sudo update-apt-xapian-index after installing apt-xapian-index (as recommended in the Kubuntu ticket you linked to), to no avail.

I did try running Driver Manager from the command-line to see if I could get anything useful on stderr/stdout, and I saw this:

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$ sudo driver-manager
Post-install mode detected
Checking connectivity or live media...
Internet connection detected

That made me wonder if running it in "Install mode" might be informative. I'll dig around for my install USB and see if that step comes before partitioning in the installer (I don't want to actually reinstall right now). I suppose seeing if a live boot from the USB shows the same problem may also be informative.

As a side note, I do really like having the quick filter in synaptic back - I hadn't realized that's what was missing, but I now I don't know how I (briefly) lived without it.