[Solved] - Tower's 1st [no, 3rd] Hard-Reset since clean-reinstall.

[kdemeoz]

OK. Am about to reboot, having just done this:

Code:

Z97-HD3:~$ sudo prime-select intel
[sudo] password for kdemeoz:
Info: the current GL alternatives in use are: ['nvidia-378', 'nvidia-378']
Info: the current EGL alternatives in use are: ['nvidia-378', 'nvidia-378']
Info: selecting nvidia-378-prime for the intel profile
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-378-prime/ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu_GL.conf (x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) in manual mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-378-prime/ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu_EGL.conf (x86_64-linux-gnu_egl_conf) in manual mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-378-prime/alt_ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/i386-linux-gnu_GL.conf (i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf) in manual mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-378-prime/alt_ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/i386-linux-gnu_EGL.conf (i386-linux-gnu_egl_conf) in manual mode
Z97-HD3:~$

[kdemeoz]

Sadly, it didn't work. Tried rebooting twice, but both times it jammed at the 2nd splash-screen. Hence, as you indicated, i had to go to TTY, switch back to Nvidia, & reboot... & thus am now back here, with graphics status once more as:
   

Am soon to Suspend Tower for the night, so will be interested to see what tomorrow morn's Resume attempt will bring...

[rocky7x]

Well in that case it seems that you don't have the Optimus technology even though you have 2 GPUs. I have no experience on how to enable that Intel GPU apart from taking the Nvidia card out. There certainly is an option with tinkering the X server parameters, but since I don't have a test case to test it, I cannot recommend an exact solution. So maybe indeed try to remove the Nvidia card or maybe someone more experienced would know how to switch to the Intel GPU.

Now that I think more about it, at the beginning when you detected that you have 2 GPUs and both were being used, the reason for this was that you don't have Optimus, but have 2 GPUs and the system thinks both are used. That also can be the reason for the crashes.

[AJSlye]

None of this thread makes any sense.
If the system has an onboard Intel GPU, and you add in a dedicated PCIe card (NVIDIA), then the on board Intel gpu should be automatically disabled by the system.

[kdemeoz]

Well in that case it seems that you don't have the Optimus technology even though you have 2 GPUs. ... So maybe indeed try to remove the Nvidia card or maybe someone more experienced would know how to switch to the Intel GPU.

Now that I think more about it, at the beginning when you detected that you have 2 GPUs and both were being used, the reason for this was that you don't have Optimus, but have 2 GPUs and the system thinks both are used. That also can be the reason for the crashes.

Though i have made separate thread/s for my Lappy [does have Optimus], THIS thread is about my Tower. As you yourself said, in that separate unrelated Lappy thread https://forums.mauilinux.org/showthread....0#pid41490:

So I'm completely not surprised by the fact that the Tower went without any problems (since it doesn't have Optimus for sure) and the Laptop went to hell (since it probably has Optimus).

Given Optimus is just one of the [very very many] things i know little or nothing about, i did some brief research. On https://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html, only Laptops / Notebooks are mentioned wrt Optimus, not Towers/Desktops. On http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technolo...All&page=1, only M-suffix gpu cards are listed, which i presume denotes "mobile", so my Tower's NVIDIA GF119 [GeForce GT 610] is not listed, hence i further intuit that my Tower does not / cannot have Optimus. 

Though i've heard of it over the past few years, albeit in many fora with wildly contradictory opinions of good vs bad, i also know nearly nothing about Bumblebee, so i also briefly researched that. I could not form a firm conclusion, but hazard to guess it would also be irrelevant to my Tower given my non-M Nvidia card...?

https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/FAQ

Bumblebee is a effort to make Nvidia Optimus enabled laptops work in GNU/Linux systems.

Having re-read my separate Lappy thread for excerpts above, i therein rediscovered a tricky command you gave me, which i've now run on Tower:

Code:

Z97-HD3:~$ lspci -vnnn | perl -lne 'print if /^\d+\:.+(\[\S+\:\S+\])/' | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0412] (rev 06) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 610] [10de:104a] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

As with Lappy, i still don't understand how to fully interpret that info, but have provided it here in case it somehow helps.

It was last night that i made that latest attempt to prime-select intel gpu, then given its boot freeze at 2nd splash-screen i reverted again to nvidia gpu & driver, thus this morning was the first Resume after the night's Suspend status. Tower awoke correctly, no freeze at login screen, no freeze during the subsequent hours of operation to now. What did happen though, consistent with every other time i use the Nvidia driver rather than the Nouveau driver for the Nvidia gpu, are these graphics faults [Cairo-Dock, then desktop icons]:
   
   

Though those glitches are hardly the end of the world, & fixing them each day is easy [til the next morning's repeat], i really intensely dislike getting them [makes my pc feel "cheap"]. IMO this is a substantial advantage of the Nouveau driver over the Nvidia driver... none of those pixelation problems ever happened to me even once when i was using Nouveau. This is part of my "hesitation" at having to perform that "blacklist Nouveau" procedure, as it seems to me that i would then be locking myself into a state of permanent daily Cairo-Dock & desktop icons distortions.

BTW, another graphical black-mark against the Nvidia driver, & green tick for the Nouveau driver, is that the former frequently generates KWin warning messages that "a graphics reset occurred", when i routinely use various standard KWin Desktop Effects [eg, change from VDx to VDy or VDz via Desktop Grid, or Desktop Cube, or desktop mouse-wheel-roll, or pushing a window over to another VD, etc]. In contrast [& initially to my immense surprise], Nouveau does not misbehave for me like that.                 

--> You can see that, despite my initial contrary view in previous months, i have come to much prefer Nouveau over Nvidia driver, & really, if there's another freeze even though i've now installed HWE, it's likely that my next step would be to revert to Nouveau [logic = even if that also still then suffers freezes, like both it & Nvidia drivers did before HWE, it at least provides me a superior "user experience" in between freezes].

I also continue to feel "hesitant" about the physical removal of the Nvidia card... both (A) in terms of being a bit scared at having to open up the Tower case, find the card, remove it without damage to it & other components, then store it safely, but also (B) i am flabbergasted that i would even have to go to all this trouble... there's nothing special about my Tower, i bought it in 2015 from a very experienced vendor with over a decade in the business, it has stock components, nothing radical, so it just seems incredible to me that i have had this rotten run of freezes AND that i might potentially have to "dismember" it by removing its Nvidia gpu... surely if this IS happening to me, it must be happening to squillions of others? That's not to say i won't remove it if all other options are exhausted, but it's just that my mind is numb at all this hassle, & such a radical step.

Tower's motherboard is:

Code:

Machine:   Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z97-HD3 v: x.x Bios: American Megatrends v: F7 date: 12/08/2014

I have not looked inside its BIOS for quite a long time, & this question might be silly, but... as a potential alternative to having to physically remove the Nvidia card, is it possible that the BIOS might have some setting that would allow me to "disable" the card (ie, forcing by default it to boot using the Intel card only)?

[kdemeoz]

None of this thread makes any sense.
If the system has an onboard Intel GPU, and you add in a dedicated PCIe card (NVIDIA), then the on board Intel gpu should be automatically disabled by the system.

No argument from me. Do you have any ideas / suggestions then pls wrt root cause of the many freezes, & potential solutions? 

Having asked that, i should clarify with this status statement: all freezes to date on Tower occurred with the 4.4.x kernels; none has yet occurred with 4.8.x [though of course, i only did that HWE upgrade ~24 hours ago, so as yet that proves nothing].

[AJSlye]

Yes, if this is on a system with two gpu's (one onboard and one discreet) that are not sli/cf, then this would be a multi monitor type of setup where both are active, and both would require a separate, or multiple separate monitors, depending on the setup your going for, and each gpu are capable of outputing to (ports available).

BTW, this is the board you have, yes?
http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z...-rev-10#ov

[kdemeoz]

Yes, if this is on a system with two gpu's (one onboard and one discreet) that are not sli/cf, then this would be a multi monitor type of setup where both are active, and both would require a separate, or multiple separate monitors, depending on the setup your going for, and each gpu are capable of outputing to (ports available).

BTW, this is the board you have, yes?
http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z...-rev-10#ov

Oh golly! Well i'll begin with the less hard answer -- yes that is my MoB model, except i cannot yet vouch for its Rev# without looking inside the Tower case, & i have not done that [& am still hoping not to need to].

Re "a system with two gpu's (one onboard and one discreet) that are not sli/cf", i have no idea what "sli/cf" means, but certainly according to inxi -Fxz there are 2 GPUs:

Code:

Z97-HD3:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: Z97-HD3 Kernel: 4.8.0-39-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0) Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.4 (Qt 5.7.0)
         Distro: Ubuntu 2.1 xenial
Machine:   Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z97-HD3 v: x.x Bios: American Megatrends v: F7 date: 12/08/2014
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-4790 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
         flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 28800
         clock speeds: max: 4000 MHz 1: 3970 MHz 2: 3942 MHz 3: 3994 MHz 4: 3957 MHz 5: 3974 MHz 6: 4000 MHz
         7: 3976 MHz 8: 3990 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
         Card-2: NVIDIA GF119 [GeForce GT 610] bus-ID: 01:00.0
         Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
         Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
         GLX Renderer: GeForce GT 610/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 378.13 Direct Rendering: Yes

"this would be a multi monitor type of setup where both are active, and both would require a separate, or multiple separate monitors" --> well this just shocks me. My Tower is connected to only a single monitor, & i have NO desire nor intention to buy any additional monitors for it. Certainly there is zero chance i would be prepared to buy & setup a second monitor merely to prevent these freezes. Surely that is not truly needed here?

[AJSlye]

OK, go under peripherals in the UEFI (BIOS)

1: To change the initial display output (first monitor / gpu) in this section:
[code]
Initial Display Output
IGFX Sets the onboard graphics as the first display.
PCIe 1 Slot  Sets the graphics card on the PCIEX16 slot as the first display. (Default)
PCIe 2 Slot  Sets the graphics card on the PCIEX4 slot as the first display.
PCI  Sets the graphics card on the PCI slot as the first display.
or
2: Disable the Intel GPU completely and only use the dedicated card (GPU).
Intel Processor Graphics
Enables or disables the onboard graphics function. (Default: Enabled)

   

I'd recommend option 2 if you are only going to use one monitor connected to the nvidia card.

PS: Here is the full manual if you don't already have it:
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Man...-hd3_e.pdf

[rocky7x]

OK, go under peripherals in the UEFI (BIOS)

1: To change the initial display output (first monitor / gpu) in this section:
[code]
Initial Display Output
IGFX Sets the onboard graphics as the first display.
PCIe 1 Slot  Sets the graphics card on the PCIEX16 slot as the first display. (Default)
PCIe 2 Slot  Sets the graphics card on the PCIEX4 slot as the first display.
PCI  Sets the graphics card on the PCI slot as the first display.
or
2: Disable the Intel GPU completely and only use the dedicated card (GPU).
Intel Processor Graphics
Enables or disables the onboard graphics function. (Default: Enabled)



I'd recommend option 2 if you are only going to use one monitor connected to the nvidia card.

PS: Here is the full manual if you don't already have it:
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Man...-hd3_e.pdf

Hi AJSly,

Why should she use the Nvidia card if it is slower than the Intel one and gives more problems? My experience is that Intel GPUs are much better for desktop usage, have much less bugs and when no gaming is required, are a better option.