New Linux User - Please Help With Nvidia Drivers

[lokent]

Greetings. I'm very new to linux and Mint 19 is the only distro I have any experience with and my experience is limited to only a couple of months of use.

I recently built a new desktop. The boot on the desktop is slow (2 minutes) for a mid-range build. I've never experienced a crash while using the PC including several hours of gaming. However, after idling for a couple of days, i notice my plex server is unavailable and the screensaver is frozen. I have to power off/on and sometimes the PC will only boot after several attempts. I had to repair the boot partition once to get it to boot.

I'm not sure if this is the cause of my problem, but the nvidia prime applet on my task bar is indicating that the Nvidia Prime is not setup correctly. Driver manager has nvidia-driver-390 selected... but also says that "no proprietary drivers are in use". My thought was that the nvidia drivers are proprietary.

Here are some details that may help diagnose my problem... Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Code: Select all

 inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Kent-Home-PC Kernel: 4.15.0-36-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: H370 GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7B16) v: 1.0 serial: N/A
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.40 date: 07/20/2018
CPU:       6 core Intel Core i5-8500 (-MCP-) arch: Skylake rev.10 cache: 9216 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 36000
           clock speeds: max: 4100 MHz 1: 875 MHz 2: 3421 MHz 3: 3509 MHz 4: 3774 MHz 5: 3780 MHz 6: 2913 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GP104 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 3440x1440@59.97hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.87 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel Device a348 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 Sound: ALSA v: k4.15.0-36-generic
           Card-2 NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Network:   Card: Intel Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k bus-ID: 00:1f.6
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 8513.7GB (5.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: Samsung_SSD_970_PRO_512GB size: 512.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD40EZRZ size: 4000.8GB
           ID-3: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD40EZRZ size: 4000.8GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 477G used: 31G (7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
           ID-2: /home size: 477G used: 31G (7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:37C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 279 Uptime: 14 min Memory: 2087.7/15979.3MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56

[catweazel]

I'm not sure if this is the cause of my problem, but the nvidia prime applet on my task bar is indicating that the Nvidia Prime is not setup correctly. Driver manager has nvidia-driver-390 selected... but also says that "no proprietary drivers are in use". My thought was that the nvidia drivers are proprietary.

Code: Select all

 inxi -Fxz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GP104 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 3440x1440@59.97hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.87 Direct Render: Yes

In a terminal: sudo apt remove --purge *nvidia*, then reboot. This will remove the nVidia drivers. Next:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa && sudo apt update

If you wish, you can try installing nvidia-driver-410 from driver manager, or you can install it from a terminal:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-410

In either case, the important piece of information is the inxi output above, which shows the nvidia driver is in use. As long as that is shown, you can ignore what driver manager tells you. I think this is a bug in the Ubuntu base somewhere but I can't be bothered chasing it down

Also, nvidia-prime isn't needed for your system because you have only the discreet video card installed. If it comes back after doing the above:

sudo apt remove --purge nvidia-prime

One final note. You have a Sky Lake cpu, which might benefit from kernel 4.18, however I'm not sure if the 410 nvidia driver supports 4.18. You might have to do some research on that then consider the pros and cons of installing it. There are a few posts in the forum about how to install 4.18, so again, a search will help.

[lokent]

I followed your instructions on the nvidia 410 driver & I updated to Kernel: 4.18.15... I will see if my stability issues go away. Thanks for the help!

inxi -Fxz
System: Host: Kent-Home-PC Kernel: 4.18.15-041815-generic x86_64
bits: 64 gcc: 8.2.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine: Device: desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: H370 GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7B16) v: 1.0 serial: N/A
UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.40 date: 07/20/2018
CPU: 6 core Intel Core i5-8500 (-MCP-)
arch: Skylake rev.10 cache: 9216 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 36000
clock speeds: max: 4100 MHz 1: 800 MHz 2: 800 MHz 3: 800 MHz
4: 800 MHz 5: 800 MHz 6: 800 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GP104 bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: 3440x1440@59.97hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 410.66 Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card-1 Intel Device a348 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Card-2 NVIDIA GP104 High Def. Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Sound: ALSA v: k4.18.15-041815-generic
Network: Card: Intel Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V
driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k bus-ID: 00:1f.6
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 8513.7GB (5.1% used)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: Samsung_SSD_970_PRO_512GB size: 512.1GB
ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD40EZRZ size: 4000.8GB
ID-3: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD40EZRZ size: 4000.8GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 477G used: 32G (7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: /home size: 477G used: 32G (7%)
fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:49C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 297 Uptime: 2 min Memory: 1933.0/15979.1MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56

[catweazel]

Thanks for the help!

It's my pleasure.

BTW, when posting terminal output, please enclose the results between [ⅽode] and [/ⅽode] code markers by selecting </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply. Thanks.