Dell XPS 15 9560 (Nvidia 1050) black screen, Feb 11, 2017

[Greg B]

There have been multiple reports that "nvidia-prime select intel" results in a black screen on the new Dell XPS 15 (9560, with Nvidia 1050)
See the following threads:

1. (initial report).
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/5qjq4v/dell_xps_15_kaby_lake_w_nvidia_1050_review_2017/

2. (lots of confirmations of the same thing)
 https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5rxb5x/any_dell_xps_15_9560_linux_users/

3. (additional confirmation)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5t2b5d/high_cpu_temp_and_fan_usage_for_ubuntu_on_9560/

4. (reported on Nvidia forums)
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/991853/complete-freeze-with-nvidia-prime/

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alexander Adam (7ql6)]

Having the same issue on Dell XPS 9550 with GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] on Ubuntu 16.10.
On the other hand: if you google this people are having these issues for years with nvidia drivers.

I would love how to debug this at least.

[Czikus (czikus-gmail)]

I would like to add that another symptom of probably the same problem is constant freezes when on prime with intel selected. My system (XPS 15 9560, GTX1050M) boots fine, but freezes basically within 1 minute of the start of X.

[ptoharia (pablo-toharia-gmail)]

I have tested 17.04 preview and without de nvidia-prime I can boot and shutdown with intel gpu. When I install nvidia 378 with prime I can boot with the nvidia and I am able to do prime-select and close and start new session with intel and the same way around. BUt, if I shutdown the laptop with the intel selected then it won't boot again, I have to start a recovery session and do prime-select nvidia (sometimes more than once) to be able to boot again.

[Czikus (czikus-gmail)]

In my case, it is most likely this bug:
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156341

When the nvidia card is disabled with bbswitch, running lspci causes an immediate freeze. Of curse, if I'm not running lspci, the freeze will occur sooner or later anyway.

[ptoharia (pablo-toharia-gmail)]

After yesterday's last dist-upgrade now it wont boot in any of the cards when nvidia-prime is used :(

[ptoharia (pablo-toharia-gmail)]

I rolled back to nvidia-378_378.09-0ubuntu0~gpu17.04.1_amd64.deb and at least I can boot with nvidia selected

[htrex (hantarex)]

I'm Using a fresh installed Ubuntu 16.04.2 and tried both nvidia-378 and nvidia-375. A reboot or shutdown while using the Intel card results in a system freeze on a black screen, just after X is shutdown and where I can see the last terminal msg before X started.
I can't switch to a terminal with CTRL+ALT+F1....F6

[ptoharia (pablo-toharia-gmail)]

I upgraded my 17.04 to kernel 4.10 and gave a try to latest 378 drivers (nvidia-378_378.09-0ubuntu0~gpu17.04.3_amd64) and got the same behaviour as with kernel 4.9. Tried to roll back to previous working version of the drivers (nvidia-378_378.09-0ubuntu0~gpu17.04.3_amd64.deb) but couldn't find the package in the repositories. Anyone knows if its possible to access this version?

[Alexander Gulyaev (expresskg)]

Ubuntu 16.10
nvidia 375 installed then switched to intel
freeze on lightdm login screen

Apr 5 20:56:21 xps kernel: [ 6.489405] bbswitch: disabling discrete graphics
Apr 5 20:56:21 xps kernel: [ 6.489411] ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20160422/nsarguments-95)
Apr 5 20:56:21 xps kernel: [ 6.508439] pci_raw_set_power_state: 60 callbacks suppressed
Apr 5 20:56:21 xps kernel: [ 6.508441] pci 0000:01:00.0: Refused to change power state, currently in D0
Apr 5 20:56:21 xps lightdm[1303]: Seat type 'xlocal' is deprecated, use 'type=local' instead
Apr 5 20:56:21 xps kernel: [ 6.749591] Non-volatile memory driver v1.3

[Alexander Gulyaev (expresskg)]

related thread
https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/issues/764

[Alexander Gulyaev (expresskg)]

looks like we have to wait for new kernel with ACPI calls fixed

one more related thread
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=223056

[MBdip (mbdip)]

are there any news or workaround?

[Mark Bucknell (markbucknellcc)]

I too am also desperate for a fix for this. Any progress?

[Mark Bucknell (markbucknellcc)]

Anything? is this even remotely on the radar?

[Milan (donwey)]

We need fix please. Installed nvidia drivers, selected intel and wont boot.

https://i.imgur.com/rUeN1cY.jpg

[Elias Helou (eshneto)]

I can confirm this issue.

What can I do? Is there any way of not having to reinstall the whole thing?

[Elias Helou (eshneto)]

Hi everyone,

You can solve the non-boot issue adding a parameter to kernel. It worked to me in my dell xps 15 9560 and Ubuntu 17.04.

you must, with root privileges, edit /etc/default/grub and add a parameter to the default kernel command line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_rev_override=1"

after that, run the following commands as superuser:
update-grub
update-grub2

I suggest installing bumblebee, since prime-select does not help to reduce noise and power consuptiom. I actually do not now what it is good for. With bumblebee you will be running on intel most of the time and when some application requires strong graphics acceleration, you call it using the optirun command. To me this is perfect because I only use the GTX to run my CUDA programs and this allows me to leave the GPU for number crunching only.

To instal and configure bumblebee, follow these instructions. I use nvidia-375 instead of the driver the author suggests:
http://www.webupd8.org/2016/08/how-to-install-and-configure-bumblebee.html

[Elias Helou (eshneto)]

As a side note, you can rescue your system if it is currently not booting.

Press esc during boot to bring grub options and select safe mode (I think this is the name, it should be the last boot option), it may be tricky to get the correct timing for pressing esc, and some people say shift is the correct key, YMMV. In safe mode, select root from the menu. Then run the following:

mount -o rw,remount /
prime-select nvidia
reboot

[Paul Brodersen (paulbrodersen)]

Changing the kernel parameters as proposed by Elias allowed me to successfully select the intel card using prime-select. This cut my power consumption in half (30 W -> 16 W as reported by powertop).

[Klas Alenvret (utklasad)]

Elias comment about adding a parameter to /etc/default/grub solved the issue for me. Awesome dude, thanks!

Been struggling with this for months... Now my laptop runs much smoother, cooler, longer battery life and less fan noise.