Using My Nvidia GPU on my fresh install

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Hello! I just replaced my Manjaro installation with this one. Fresh off the install, didn’t do anything funny aside from installing my text editor, setting up firefox, etc.

When I booted up the live USB, I chose the “Use latest cards” option for my Nvidia card, a GeForce 1060.

However, when I downloaded steam and checked my system info, it doesn’t seem to be using my proprietary driver.

When I run inxi -Ga, this is what I have.

What do I need to do to get my driver recognized? From what I understand, the drivers should have been properly installed just from me using the proper option when I used the Live USB.

Update: I was fooling around and doing a bunch of steps even if they seemed redundant, and found one video that said to use this specific line used on the Lutris wiki.

sudo pacman -S --needed lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

Regardless, it seems that that coupled with the advice Nomad gave me did the trick since I can now play my games on steam. Thanks a bunch, folks.

[Nomad]

Every time I hear the word Nvidia in the context of Linux, a part of my insides begins the process of death.

To ensure the drivers are installed, try sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils

Then you might need to create or edit the Xorg configuration file to load the NVIDIA driver. Use the following command to generate the file: sudo nvidia-xconfig. This command will create /etc/X11/xorg.conf . You may need to customize this file if necessary.

When done, reboot and then check to see if the driver is loaded with nvidia-smi

You can also check Xorg logs for any errors cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep NVIDIA

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Will give this a go.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Tried what you suggested and it didn’t seem to change much.

My terminal output.

Are there any changes I should make to the xorg conf file?

[Nomad]

This is rather odd. Let’s try a few more moves. Hopefully you are using GRUB for this.

First, let’s blacklist Nouveau which is the open-source driver for NVIDIA cards. It can conflict with the proprietary NVIDIA driver. To prevent it from loading, create a file named /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add the following lines:

blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Then regenerate your initramfs to include the changes with: sudo mkinitcpio -P

Next, lets edit your GRUB configuration file. Open /etc/default/grub and add nvidia to the MODULES line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia"

After editing GRUB, update GRUB with sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Reboot and see if it works.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

AH, that may be part of it. I chose the systemd boot manager instead of Grub when I installed the system. I guess I should reinstall and choose GRUB this time.

[Nomad]

I wouldn’t blame systemd. I just provided GRUB instructions, assuming you were using it.

Follow the same instructions I just gave in my previous comment but replace the GRUB instructions with the following systemd one:

Edit your systemd-boot configuration file. You can find this file at /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf or a similar path depending on your system setup. Add the nvidia module to the options line: options root=PARTUUID=<your-root-partuuid> rw quiet nvidia-drm.modeset=1

Make sure to replace <your-root-partuuid> with the actual PARTUUID of your root partition.

Reboot and check again.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Will do, boss

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Gave it a try and it seems that the arch.conf file already had the nvidia line in it. Steam still using my open source driver for some reason.

[Nomad]

Is your entire OS using the open source driver, or just steam?

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

I believe the entire OS. What command do I use to check?

[Nomad]

Make sure the NVIDIA kernel module is loaded. You can check this by running: lsmod | grep nvidia

If it’s not loaded, load it using sudo modprobe nvidia

Check the contents of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. You should see:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Nvidia Card"
    Driver "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

If you don’t. Add it and reboot.

Also check to see if the GPU is being recognized with lspci | grep -i nvidia

If this doesn’t work, then I’ll have to take a step back and let someone else who has an Nvidia card and actual experience with it take over.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Appreciate the help, friend.

I don’t know what the deal is, so I’ll just post the stuff again and hope someone stumbles across the thread.

What steam currently shows:

lsmod | grep nvidia

lspci | grep -i nvidia

[Nomad]

My pleasure.

No need to repost. Someone will pop in soon enough.

In the future, consider not buying Nvidia for a Linux machine. Intel and AMD is the way.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Noted. this was a Windows machine initially, and I’ve taken the jump from Manjaro now.

[LBE_ThatOneGuy]

Update: I was fooling around and doing a bunch of steps even if they seemed redundant, and found one video that said to use this specific line used on the Lutris wiki.

sudo pacman -S --needed lib32-mesa vulkan-radeon lib32-vulkan-radeon vulkan-icd-loader lib32-vulkan-icd-loader

Regardless, it seems that that coupled with the advice Nomad gave me did the trick since I can now play my games on steam. Thanks a bunch, folks.