10de:1c8c [MSI] Module nouveau seems to MISS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile

[Etienne URBAH]

I have a laptop computer with hybrid graphics : 'Intel Onboard IGD' and 'Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile'.

The 'Intel Onboard IGD' correctly manages the onboard monitor with resolution 1920 x 1080.

But I need the Nvidia card to manage an external monitor with resolution 4K2K connected to DisplayPort.

At the beginning, the 'nouveau' module of the Linux kernel seems to be correctly loaded :
$ lsmod | grep '^nouveau'
nouveau 1601536 0

But XORG does NOT load its 'nouveau' module. So, I force it with following file :
$ cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-module-nouveau.conf
Section "Module"
    Load "nouveau"
EndSection

In the attached 'Xorg-with-nouveau.0.log' file, you can see :

- Lines 58-59 : XORG correctly finds both Intel and Nvidia graphics hardware.

- Lines 61-66 : XORG loads its 'nouveau' module.

- Lines 94-108 : The list of the Nvidia chipsets known by the 'nouveau' module does NOT contain 'GTX 1050'. Is this meaningful ?

- Line 123 : Message ending with 'cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support'.
                    Is this meaningful ? If yes, is it possible to activate the 'kernel arbiter' ?

- Lines 124-226 : The 'modesetting' module of XORG (perhaps with the help of the 'glamoregl' submodule) correctly reports the 4 available graphics outputs, in particular 'eDP-1' connected to the onboard monitor.

- Lines 233-234 : XORG unloads its 'nouveau' module, which has NOT reported any graphics hardware or outputs

If necessary, I am able to test :
- the latest version of the 'xserver-xorg-video-nouveau' package from a PPA
- the latest upstream kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline

Finally, I wonder where this issue has to be solved :

- inside configuration files in '/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d',

- inside the 'xserver-xorg-video-nouveau' package,

- inside the 'nouveau' module of the Linux kernel,

- inside the 'kernel arbiter'.

Thank you in advance for your help.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.14-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-19.21-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: X-Cinnamon
Date: Wed Apr 12 22:01:15 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-03-28 (14 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Beta amd64 (20170321)
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

$ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x46 cap: 0x9, Source Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 3 outputs: 4 associated providers: 0 name:modesetting

I would like that 'xrandr' also displays 'nouveau' as provider.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Although the kernel modesetting support for the GTX 1050 was introduced in the 4.8 kernel, the 3D acceleration support (required by Ubuntu's Unity desktop) has only recently arrived in DRM-Next and won't be available until the 4.12 kernel. See http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nouveau-Pascal-Accel-Linux-4.12 I'm guessing XORG is looking for this and you won't need to force XORG to load its 'nouveau' module with the 4.12 kernel.

Unfortunately the 4.11 kernel isn't released yet.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

If you are feeling adventurous you could try the DRM-Next kernel PPA available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/drm-next/ - choose the most recent one. The instructions to install and uninstall it are available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

The issue is still exactly the same with Linux kernel 4.12.0-041200rc1 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline :

* XORG does NOT load its 'nouveau' module.

* Even when I activate my '20-module-nouveau.conf' file to force XORG to load its 'nouveau' module, this 'nouveau' module does NOT report any graphics hardware or outputs, and XORG unloads it.

- Are you sure that Linux kernel 4.12 really takes 'Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile' into account ?

- Would it be useful to install a more recent version of the 'xserver-xorg-video-nouveau' package ?

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Sorry, I forgot that you also need the signed firmware files that were releases by NVIDIA.

Navigate to /lib/firmware/nvidia and create a directory called gp107

Then go to https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/nvidia/gp107 and copy each of those directories and the files they contain to your new gp107 directory. (See /lib/firmware/nvidia/gp100 for a partial example).

Reboot.

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

I have downloaded 'linux-firmware_1.165_all.deb' from 'artful'.

I have seen that the 'gp107' folder contains links to files in the 'gp102' folder.

So, as 'root', I have :
- extracted the 'gp102' and 'gp107' folders from 'linux-firmware_1.165_all.deb' to '/lib/firmware/nvidia'
- run 'update-initramfs -u'
- rebooted.

Systematically :
- The Linux console (Ctrl-Alt-Fn) works correctly.
- Any graphical login immediately crashes the system (hard reboot needed).

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

The test was performed with Linux kernel 4.12.0-041200rc3 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline

[madbiologist (me-again)]

:(

Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

Perhaps you also need a newer mesa version, and maybe also xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.15. But I'm just guessing now.

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

Trying to use 'Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile' with 'Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful)' :

- Linux kernel 4.13.0-16 from 'Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful)' completely fails (1 CPU stuck).

- Linux kernel 4.14.0-041400rc7 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline seems to succeed.

But by default, 'Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful)' uses Wayland, and I have found NO 'Xorg.0.log' file.

[Etienne URBAH (eurbah)]

In fact, Linux kernel 4.14.0-041400rc7 caused Xorg to crash : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-nouveau/+bug/1732574

With Linux kernel 4.16.0-041600rc5 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline and kernel option 'acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"', XORG seems to work correctly :

$ xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x66 cap: 0x9, Source Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 3 outputs: 4 associated providers: 1 name:modesetting
Provider 1: id: 0x3f cap: 0x4, Source Offload crtcs: 0 outputs: 0 associated providers: 1 name:nouveau

Therefore, this issue seems to be solved.