nouveau driver for nvidia is sluggish on GTX970M to the point of unusability

[Dan Kortschak]

I am trying to use the nouveau drivers on a recent (today) install of 18.04 on a 2.5yo laptop. Unfortunately the nvidia drivers don't work at all.

What I am finding is that the sluggishness of the display is comparable to the case when nouveau drivers are disabled. The only real difference is in the amount of noise coming from the fan because of a slightly reduced CPU load due to Xorg.

I don't even know where to start looking into this intelligently, but I would have expected that the drivers would have gotten to a usable state in the past 2 1/2 years since I last tried them on this machine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-20.21~18.04.1-generic 4.18.20
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.6
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed May 22 21:05:40 2019
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: bionic
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 [8086:191b] (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer HD Graphics 530 [1558:6540]
 NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] [10de:13d8] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] [1558:6540]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-05-22 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 5986:066d Acer, Inc
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0cf3:e300 Atheros Communications, Inc.
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1c7a:0603 LighTuning Technology Inc.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Notebook P65_P67RGRERA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-20-generic root=UUID=d6da27fa-5d91-4240-b3c9-c7de06124a36 ro nomodeset quiet nosplash
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/27/2016
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.05.13
dmi.board.asset.tag: Tag 12345
dmi.board.name: P65_P67RGRERA
dmi.board.vendor: Notebook
dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Notebook
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1.05.13:bd01/27/2016:svnNotebook:pnP65_P67RGRERA:pvrNotApplicable:rvnNotebook:rnP65_P67RGRERA:rvrNotApplicable:cvnNotebook:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.family: Not Applicable
dmi.product.name: P65_P67RGRERA
dmi.product.sku: Not Applicable
dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
dmi.sys.vendor: Notebook
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.95-1~18.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core N/A
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A

[Dan Kortschak (dan-kortschak)]

Removing the nomodeset kernel parameter makes GDM snappier, but it then hangs on login (relevant portion of syslog attached).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Your kernel log in comment #2 is showing a lot of crashes in the nouveau kernel driver. The best and only remedies for that are:

(a) Install a newer kernel or just install a newer version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 19.04: http://releases.ubuntu.com/19.04/ or kernel packages: https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D

or

(b) Continue trying to get the Nvidia proprietary driver working, per bug 1830000.

[Dan Kortschak (dan-kortschak)]

Please undo the incomplete. The action that was asked for was performed in the comment #2.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think it's appropriate to stay Incomplete because this is essentially just a kernel bug, in the nouveau driver.

Option (b) above isn't directly relevant, but might be a workaround, even permanently. Any proper solution to this bug requires testing of option (a) in comment #4. So still incomplete.

[Dan Kortschak (dan-kortschak)]

The reason I ask this is that launchpad has an unfortunate approach to issue management (these two that you have been communicating in are a welcome change - thanks) where bugs go stale for years or are dropped due to lack of engagement from maintainers.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Yes I am aware of the stale bug problem and have been on both ends.

But as the number of open bugs decreases (at least in some components), the problem should happen less:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRDHPxGBHqM6XkT_S8ggtYfD0xchKSUD_z9PopNVE3G1rU05fVSnxDGcDsEstl7gu7N-tzCU6mLUp2V/pubchart?oid=254968654&format=interactive

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]