Ubuntu 18.04 - Run Steam with dedicated Nvidia GPU (Dell Inspiron 7series -7567)

[Gon Freecss]

hi folks, got steam running ok on my Inspiron 7000 Series - 7567. All i wanna know is, is there a way to run your gfx card discretely? This support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6316-GJKC-7437 doesn't work for me. Running Ubuntu 18.04. Any feedback will be appreciated. In other words, I want to run my games when switched onto the Intel profile and have my Nvidia GPU dedicated to running the application within steam (by adding a command within the Launch Options area of the game).

[Zyro]

The link has been blocked by Steam. It might be that the ) at the end is falsely seen as part of the link. A blank might help. (I fear I cannot help you on GPU switching problems.)

[Gon Freecss]

I fixed the link. I guess I should not use brackets anymore.

[Marlock]

Just for preserving the history of this post (originally inside another thread):

Gon Freecss님이 먼저 게시:

Marlock님이 먼저 게시:

1- Please open a new thread for your question, so it doesn't get lost in this one (it is already huge with random stuff)

2- Please explain more clearly what you mean by running a GPU "discretely"... being this laptop (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-15-7000-7567-Gaming-Notebook-Review.196454.0.html), I imagine you want to use the dedicated Nvidia GPU for everything or for selected programs, but the solutions (Nvidia Prime or Bumblebee) depend a bit on which:
https://linoxide.com/linux-how-to/install-nvidia-drivers-ubuntu/

3- Have you installed the closedsource driver for the Nvidia GPU already? You'll find it easily in Ubuntu's Software & Updates on the Additional Drivers tab (https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/install-nvidia-driver-ubuntu-18-04)

Important: don't forget to first do this ao Steam gets 32-bit libs for that driver too (needed for old games even on 64-bit OS):

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libc6:i386

4- Welcome to Linux (I assume you are somewhat new to it, right?)

Yeah I am new... I just moved 6 days ago from Windows 10 to Ubuntu 18.04... what alot of research and reading. It's been like a soapie... filled with drama, action, excitement, anger, frustation...

1- I'll open a new thread now, sorry about that.
2- Correct, I want to dedicate my steam games to run using the Nvidia GPU. Currently I switch. So i use sudo prime-select nvidia, logout, then go back in using Nvidia GPU, run my steam games. I switch back to intel so I don't overuse my GPU. I was on 16.04 a few days ago and got that command (primus %command%) to work but i think i was lucky, so i dont know what exactly i did to get it running.
3-i've used a propriety driver? (i hope i'm saying this properly) so i've added ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa and then followed that with ubuntu-drivers autoinstall.
So far, no issues.
4- Thanks for the welcome. XP I'm hoping to stay on linux for the foreseeable future.

[Marlock]

Gon Freecss님이 먼저 게시:

... have my Nvidia GPU dedicated to running the application within steam (by adding a command within the Launch Options area of the game).

For that, if either optirun or primusrun already work outside steam, just add one of these to the game launch options:

primusrun %command%

or

optirun %command%

To test which of these already works (and maybe compare performance), run this in the terminal (after installing glxspheres64 if not already there):

optirun glxspheres64
primusrun glxspheres64

[Gon Freecss]

So i installed primusrun as well as glxgears, and when inserting the command within steam, nothing. Doesn't run at all, but once I remove it, it obviously starts running whatever game I want.
Something is missing here....

[Marlock]

Did you try to run "optirun glxspheres64" and/or "primusrun glxspheres64" on the terminal (not in the settings for a game) too? What was the result?

Try running "glxspheres64" on its own too (also directly on the terminal), so you know if that is working with the Intel GPU (and have a base performance to compare to).

[ripper81]

There should be an option in the "nvidia-settings" tool to switch between the GPU's. You'll have to install the nvidiadriver beforehand. After switching the GPU's youl`ll have to reboot your system.

Have a look here:

https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-graphics-card-ubuntu

[Marlock]

ripper81님이 먼저 게시:

There should be an option in the "nvidia-settings" tool to switch between the GPU's. You'll have to install the nvidiadriver beforehand. After switching the GPU's youl`ll have to reboot your system.

Have a look here:

https://www.linuxbabe.com/desktop-linux/switch-intel-nvidia-graphics-card-ubuntu

OP stated he already does that, but wants a "per app" solution now.

[Gon Freecss]

Sorry for the late post, Daily duties in the way... This is so far what I get...

When I attempt to run optirun or primusrun glxgears (not glxspheres64) it gives me this:

[ 5353.927603] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)

[ 5353.927697] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.

(attempt to run glxspheres64 only) glxspheres64: command not found

So I have no idea what to do.

[Gon Freecss]

Looks like it could be a bug? Not sure... See below:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bumblebee/+bug/1758243

[Marlock]

glxspheres64 is not installed by default, so to install it:

sudo apt install glxspheres64

Regardless, running these helps confirm that the proprietary Nvidia driver is actually installed and running):

inxi -xG

and

lspci -vnn | grep VGA -A 12

It should say nvidia and not noveau... but maybe noveau is still running for your nvidia gpu and that could explain the error you got:

Failed to load module "nvidia"

[Gon Freecss]

So i ran the install, got this:

Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package glxspheres64

then... i tried inxi... but... got.

Command 'inxi' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install inxi

Ran the install command, got this:

Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 591b bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
drivers: modesetting,nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.05hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 415.18 Direct Render: Yes

[Currently already switched to nvidia]

-- Then ran : lspci -vnn | grep VGA -A 12

Results were:


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:591b] (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0798]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 125
Memory at dd000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=64]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

00:04.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem [8086:1903] (rev 05)
Subsystem: Dell Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem [1028:0798]
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] [10de:1c8c] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Dell GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] [1028:0798]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 126
Memory at de000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at df000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 15)

Reading some of the articles, should i be blacklisting the nouveau or uninstalling it?
Machine seems to be running a bit weird now.
Like there's a bit of a delay when split second lag when typing... maybe its the apps running in the background... not sure.