NVidia Quadro K1100M and Cinnamon [SOLVED]

[craig100]

Hi, having a problem with a new machine.

System: Dell M3800 Developer Edition, CPU:Intel i7-4712HQ, GPUs NVidia Quadro K1100M (Driver: nvidia-352.21-0ubuntu0-xedgers14.04.1)/Intel 4th Gen IGC, Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic, Mint 17.1 x64, Cinnamon V2.4.8

If I run up the machine with the Intel GPU then all is well. If I change the PRIME Profile in the NVIDIA X Server Settings to "NVidia" and run up the machine again what happens is:-

Login screen appears as normal (size, colours, wallpaper).
During login, the cursor becomes tiny.
Once logged in I get a totally black background, everything is extremely small, the icons appear to be from a totally different theme, though the Theme setting shows the same as previously.

Not sure if Cinnamon has crashed or not. I don't think it's totally gone as I have the task bar at the bottom, etc, it seems to be a halfway house.

I'd like to be able to use the NVidia GPU that I've paid for on this machine. Can anyone give me some advice as to how to get it to work properly or if I'm out of luck?

Best,

Craig

[jungle_boy]

Please open a terminal and type:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fzx

Copy/paste the output here.

[craig100]

The output when switched to the NVidia GPU is:-

nxi -Fzx
System: Host: craig-dell Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
Machine: System: Dell (portable) product: Dell Precision M3800 version: A09
Mobo: Dell model: Dell Precision M3800 version: A09 Bios: Dell version: A09 date: 01/08/2015
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-4712HQ CPU (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 18357.2
Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz 3: 800.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz 5: 800.00 MHz 6: 800.00 MHz 7: 2301.00 MHz 8: 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 driver: nvidia Resolution: 3840x2160@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Quadro K1100M/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 352.21 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:03.0
Card-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-37-generic
Network: Card: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi ver: in-tree: bus-ID: 06:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 512.1GB (48.4% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Micron_M550_2.5" size: 512.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 454G used: 231G (54%) fs: ext4 ID: /boot size: 236M used: 46M (21%) fs: ext2
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:62C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 247 Uptime: 4 min Memory: 1409.4/15952.1MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

[jungle_boy]

Your notebook is quite advanced and has a very good processor, I believe that the video card is also very good. I don't know if you installed your graphics card driver by downloading the Nvidia site, could try 17.2 version that has the most up-to-date kernel.
Let's wait for the opinion of the users who have computers with Nvidia video card.

[Pjotr]

You've put your system "on the edge" with the xorg-edgers PPA. That can't be repaired.

Like jungle_boy, I advise a clean re-installation with Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela. Then do this (without the risky xorg-edgers PPA!):

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install nvidia-346 nvidia-settings

Then reboot.

[craig100]

Thanks, did exactly as you said. clean install of Mint 17.2 and then the command line to install nvidia drivers and reboot.

The result is an immediate crash of cinnamon and now running in fallback mode.

Going to reinstall again then use the driver manager (if I can see it, everything's VERY small as it's a 4K display)

Will report back

[craig100]

Ok, a clean install of Mint 17.2 then applying the nVidia 346 driver via the Driver Manager has resulted in success:) It's also got me over the PXE boot issue as 17.2 does proper UEFI booting:)

Now I just need the best way to make everything a decent size as it's a 4K 15.6" display and everything is VERY small. Thought things might auto-scale but it hasn't.

Any advice on best practices would be appreciated before I spend time loading up software again

Thanks,

Craig

[Pjotr]

Try this:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

Then launch nvidia-settings from the menu and see if it can help you make things better.

[craig100]

The Nvidia settings utility is already included in the distro and is working well. In fact it shows itself as an icon at the right hand side of the taskbar now. I didn't have to do anything to get that to happen.

Craig

[Pjotr]

The Nvidia settings utility is already included in the distro and is working well. In fact it shows itself as an icon at the right hand side of the taskbar now. I didn't have to do anything to get that to happen.

Craig

If you launch it (just click the icon), you'll be able to change settings.

[craig100]

Thanks have already done so. Also worked out how to scale the desktop by going to Menu > Preferences > General then in Desktop Scaling set "User interface scaling" to "Double (Hi-DPI). Things are looking good now.

Thanks,

Craig

[Pjotr]

Good to hear!

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