dual screen with two different nvidia GPUs does not work with Solus

MichelDwo

Dear All,

I am using two different GPUs, and to each of these GPUs, a screen is attached.
Both Nvidia chips, similar generation so that the same drivers can be used.
(As some may ask, the reason for this is one GPU (Quadro K620) is able to display colors in 10 bits on the 10bits screen, the other (GeForce GTX 760) is more for gaming activities... anyway, it works on Windows, so I would expect it to work on my favourite Linux distribution)

Drivers have been installed with doflicky

This is the result of some console checks :

linux-driver-management status

╒ Hardware Platform
╞ Platform Vendor : ASRock
╘ Platform Model : X79 Extreme6

NVIDIA SLI

╒ Primary GPU
╞ Device Name : GK104 [GeForce GTX 760]
╞ Manufacturer : NVIDIA Corporation
╞ Product ID : 0x1187
╞ Vendor ID : 0x10de
╞ X.Org PCI ID : PCI:3:0:0
╘ Boot VGA : yes

LDM Providers for GK104 [GeForce GTX 760]: 1

nvidia-470-glx-driver

lspci | grep NVIDIA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107GL [Quadro K620] (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 High Definition Audio Controller [GeForce 940MX] (rev a1)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] (rev a1)
03:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)

lshw | grep NVIDIA

       *-display
            description: VGA compatible controller
            product: GM107GL [Quadro K620]
            vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
            physical id: 0
            bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
            version: a2
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz
       *-display UNCLAIMED
            description: VGA compatible controller
            product: GK104 [GeForce GTX 760]
            vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
            physical id: 0
            bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
            version: a1
            width: 64 bits
            clock: 33MHz

Unclaimed obviously means that the drivers are not installed for the GTX 760 but... in fact they are, as they are the same as for the K620.

I exchanged briefly with Ikey on Matrix about it and it looks like this issue would deserve a bug report (https://matrix.to/#/!cFrsUIXgnOUewzIvYb:matrix.org/$XoUXYnLlzZl4MjwEg2jy_58eHMkqi7zF_Qda-vH8eRg?via=matrix.org&via=kde.org&via=tchncs.de)...
But if someone here has a workaround proposal, I'll be glad to try it 🙂

Thanks in advance for your help 🙂

[deleted]

Do you know if it works in any linux distribution?

MichelDwo

[deleted]

I have downloaded a bunch of distributions ISOs, I'll check 🙂

MichelDwo

Soooo, I did some tests, and here are the results.

downloaded ISOs :

Linux Mint (to this day, the most beginner and computer-muggle friendly Linux Distribution I know)
OpenSuSE (because of the reputation of the distribution, despite my bad experiences with it and SLES)
Solus 4.4 Budgie
Solus 4.4 Gnome
Solus 4.4 Plasma

Linux Mint : Both Live and Installed display on both screens as expected.
I did not write down which driver was used, but it works out of the box, as expected for this kind of distribution.

OpenSuSE Leap: No live mode, but installed : OK.
Moreover, among the 4 desktop installation options (KDE Plasma, Gnome, XFCE, Generic Desktop = IceWM), I took the most "shitty" one: Generic Desktop.
And it works out of the box !

Solus (Flavour not important, all 3 fail).
2 Facts :

When no specific driver is installed, Solus uses nouveau driver and displays the desktop on my right screen (connected on GTX 760); and once I install the drivers with doflicky, the display is moved to the left screen (connected on Quadro K620)
I noticed that before something starts loading, the following message is displayed :

EDAC sbridge: Failed to register device with error -19

Then, the issue is still on Solus's side, and is Desktop Environment independant.

Which information should I provide in order to efficiently help the developers to improve the best Linux Distribution ? (I still think this despite the few issues I'm encountering 😉 )

WetGeek

MichelDwo Then, the issue is still on Solus's side, and is Desktop Environment independant.

At first I thought I might be able to help, because my workstation runs Solus Plasma, and has two monitors, which perform exactly as they should. My main display (with panel) is on my left monitor, and the extended display is on my right monitor. I chose that arrangement because that's what I used when I was working, but it wasn't the default. That was the other way around, but still no problems at all.

The point is, I had to make that choice in the System Settings. Have you looked there? I also didn't need to install any special drivers. My workstation is powered by a DELL Optiplex, so the graphics are Mesa Intel HD Graphics 630. I simply use the default driver.

So, if it helps at all, it would seem to be a driver issue. Where to go from there is above my pay grade, but best of luck finding a solution. Have you researched what "error -19" represents in this context?

Staudey

MichelDwo I mean, apart from the error messages it sounds like all distros are doing the same thing, no? Doesn't sound like you installed the proprietary drivers on Mint and Leap, so I'm not sure why you compare the experience installing that driver on Solus to the default experience (presumably using nouveau) on the other distros. Or am I misunderstanding something here?

MichelDwo

Hey @WetGeek , thanks for your input !

Regarding the error, I found this topic that direct me to the used drivers : https://askubuntu.com/questions/1433802/edac-sbridge-failed-to-register-device-with-error-19

I will check if I’m able to find which drivers are used by the others distros that are not disturbed by my unusual setup.

My crappy laptop also has an intel graphical chip and I have no issues to extend the desktop to another monitor.

MichelDwo

Staudey
Hey Staudey,
No, only on Solus does my setup not work 🤷‍♂️
I installed nothing at all on Mint and Leap. The display on my 2 screens is working out of the box.
In Mint, it's even working out-of-the-box in the Live version.

On Solus : by installing nothing (Out-of-the-box, or like in the Live mode: the distribution uses nouveau by default) only one screen works.
On Solus : with the nvidia drivers (as an attempt to correct the issue), the desktop is only displayed on the second screen and the GPU that was working with nouveau is marked as "Unclaimed".

@Staudey Don't get me wrong, I'm not advertising for other distros here; my heart is with Solus, and I intend to fix this or help you and your fellow Solus maintainers to do so 🙂

Staudey

Oh, I thought the only difference was that the primary display was on the right side, not that only one responds at all. I misread, sorry.

FAb7D

Staudey Have you already installed Nvidia 470 and nvida 535? Maybe bbswitc can help too. Disable nouveau.

MichelDwo

Just for fun, I tried with Manjaro Sway

With Opensource drivers : only my right screen was displaying the desktop.
With proprietary drivers, I couldn't even boot the live environement... a disaster.

I'm trying to get some useful information from Mint now.

here we are :

~~Maybe I should try to reinstall Xorg on my Solus 🤔~~
Maybe not, the default installation config has also trouble displaying on both screens.

FAb7D

MichelDwo
It seems complicated, with 2 different drivers maybe it's easier to use nuveau, but the performance will get worse.
Maybe look on Mint what's in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d also changing configurations on Driver manager and if it works try to copy to Solus.

Other link that i found who maybe have some useful ideas.
1
2
NB"2" is beyond my capabilities.

MichelDwo

FAb7D

This is exactly where I started, and it occurs that by default (I'm now using the last Solus 4.4 Budgie), there's afirst difference :
Mint : /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d : empty
Solus : /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d : /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf (some settings for my AZERT keyboard)

I'll dig into Mint a little more.

Thanks you for the two links as well.
I had a quick look, I'llstart tryiing the 1st one's solution

Axios

MichelDwo Kinda out in left field did you check for broken packages?
The EDAC driver is for machines with ECC RAM if you don't have any it will not load or do anything.

FAb7D

MichelDwo On my laptop, in addition to 00-keyboard.conf I have 00-ldm.conf:

Section "Module"
        Load "modesetting"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "NVIDIA Card"
        Driver "nvidia"
        BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
        Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
        VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
        BoardName "TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q]"
EndSection

which I think is generated by my nvidia driver.
What happens if in Mint you select the 2 nvidia drivers?