Re: Nvidia Optimus, Debian 10, and Firefox ESR crashes

[David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

On 2021-01-04 09:14, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:
> On 04.01.2021 09:31, David Christensen wrote:
> > Reboot -- boots okay -- login manager displayed -- login okay -- Xfce 
> > desktop okay -- external monitor not getting signal.
> >
> >
> > Xfce -> Settings -> Display only lists one monitor "default":
> >
> >     Resolution        1920x1080 (or 640x480)
> >     Refresh rate        0.0
> >     Rotation        None
> >     Reflection        None
> >
> >
> > How do I get the external monitor working?
> >
> >
> > David
> "xrandr" utility should help you with diagnostics and setup:
>      $ xrandr -q

Thank you for the reply.  :-)


2021-01-04 19:22:57 root@dipsy ~
# xrandr -q
Can't open display


> Additional info:
>      $ xrandr --listproviders

2021-01-04 19:23:00 root@dipsy ~
# xrandr --listproviders
Can't open display


>      $ glxinfo | grep -e 'glx' -e 'OpenGL' -e 'display'

2021-01-04 19:25:06 root@dipsy ~
# glxinfo | grep -e 'glx' -e 'OpenGL' -e 'display'
-bash: glxinfo: command not found

2021-01-04 19:26:07 root@dipsy ~
# apt-cache search glxinfo
mesa-utils - Miscellaneous Mesa GL utilities

2021-01-04 19:26:28 root@dipsy ~
# apt-get install mesa-utils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libglew2.1
Suggested packages:
  glew-utils
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libglew2.1 mesa-utils
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 196 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1000 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
<snip>

2021-01-04 19:26:39 root@dipsy ~
# glxinfo | grep -e 'glx' -e 'OpenGL' -e 'display'
Error: unable to open display


> Perhaps "nvidia-settings" utility could be a fastest way to configure 
> dual-monitor setup and generate config file for Xorg to make settings 
> permanent.

2021-01-04 19:29:08 root@dipsy ~
# nvidia-settings
-bash: nvidia-settings: command not found


2021-01-04 19:29:19 root@dipsy ~
# apt-get install nvidia-settings
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  nvidia-alternative nvidia-legacy-check
Recommended packages:
  libgl1-nvidia-glvnd-glx | libgl1-nvidia-glx nvidia-vdpau-driver
  libnvidia-ml1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  nvidia-alternative nvidia-legacy-check nvidia-settings
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 1393 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3787 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
<snip>


Note pop-up:

 ┌────────────────────┤ Configuring nvidia-legacy-check 
├────────────────────┐
 │ 
     │
 │ This system has a graphics card which is no longer handled by the 
NVIDIA  │
 │ driver (package nvidia-driver). You may wish to keep the package 
     │
 │ installed - for instance to drive some other card - but the card 
with     │
 │ the following chipset won't be usable: 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │ 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M 
[NVS  │
 │ 4200M] [10de:1056] (rev a1) 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │ The above card requires either the non-free legacy NVIDIA driver 
     │
 │ (package nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver) or the free Nouveau driver 
(package  │
 │ xserver-xorg-video-nouveau). 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │ Use the update-glx command to switch between different installed 
     │
 │ drivers. 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │ Before the Nouveau driver can be used you must remove NVIDIA 
     │
 │ configuration from xorg.conf (and xorg.conf.d/). 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │ Install NVIDIA driver despite unsupported graphics card? 
     │
 │ 
     │
 │                    <Yes>                       <No> 
     │

Choose 'No'.


And a new issue:

Xfce -> Settings -> Display -> Resolution now only offers three choices:

1024x768
800x600
640x480


The laptop has a 1920x1080 screen.  The external monitor is 1920x1080. 
The nouveau driver was able to drive both the laptop display and the 
external monitor at 1920x1080.  I would like to do so with the non-free 
Nvidia legacy driver.


Looking around for X configuration files:

2021-01-04 19:34:58 root@dipsy ~
# locate xorg.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-quirks.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-radeon.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-wacom.conf
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf
/usr/share/man/man5/xorg.conf.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/xorg.conf.d.5.gz


RTFM xorg.conf(5), I am unsure if any of the located files (above) are 
active:

       Xorg uses a configuration file called xorg.conf and files ending 
in the
       suffix .conf from the directory xorg.conf.d for its initial 
setup.  The
       xorg.conf configuration file is searched for in  the  following 
places
       when the server is started as a normal user:

           /etc/X11/<cmdline>
           /usr/etc/X11/<cmdline>
           /etc/X11/$XORGCONFIG
           /usr/etc/X11/$XORGCONFIG
           /etc/X11/xorg.conf
           /etc/xorg.conf
           /usr/etc/X11/xorg.conf.<hostname>
           /usr/etc/X11/xorg.conf
           /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.<hostname>
           /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf


Any suggestions for getting the laptop display and external monitor 
working at 1920x1080?


David