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I've noticed several issues with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64-bits) and my Nvidia drivers. I have an Acer V-Nitro7 with a Intel® HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2) and Nvidia GTX 960M.

Two major issues

  • One is that the PC freezes and crashes (I must force reboot, nothing else to do) during 3D utilisation such as games.
  • The other one is that the scrolling is not smooth, unfortunately I could'nt explain it with my own words, so the best example I have is when, in graphic settings, V-Sync is not working properly, a line on the screen stays for about half a second before disappearing. I have this same issue when I scroll down/top on browsers and everything else. (basically it's not smooth)

This wasn't the case when I first installed Ubuntu, that's why I believe there are issues with the installed drivers.

I remember having a lot of troubles for the sames issues on Windows 10, that I solved after someone on Nvidia forums told me to never update the drivers on laptops, and only use the driver provided by the manufacturer website. Which I did and it worked fine since then.

Now, on Additional Drivers I have

- NVidia binary driver - 361.42 from nvidia-361 ....
- X.Org X server ....

On games, using NVidia driver (low or ultra quality), PC freezes and crash. Using the other one (I guess it uses Intel graphics ?), it doesn't freeze/crash on low quality, but obviously it's an awful quality.

I've searched on lots of threads for Ubuntu and Nvidia drivers, but since i'm novice to Linux, I wouldn't want to mess up with drivers that could do more bad than good for my case.

Quick question : Are Windows and Linux NVidia's drivers build numbers the same ? In that case should I look for the same driver that I was using on Windows ? (which I think was 359 or something)

I know Ubuntu is not the best way to play games, but I'm sure there's a way to fix it. I'd be grateful if someone could help me find the right driver for my case.

dbsso
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1 Answers1

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Linux and Windows Driver build Numbers are generally different. SkyLake architecture is a very new processor architecture and still not very well supported under Linux in General. I mean your laptop has Hybrid Graphics which is generally not very well supported under Linux. There are ways you could Improve the situation. I recommend that you Install Bumblebee and nvidia drivers on your Laptop with Ubuntu. So what you can do then is that you can choose to run a particular application on your Nvidia Graphics Card and use a primusrun from terminal to launch your application. For example if you wanted to launch firefox from your nvidia card you could use primusrun firefox and the firefox instance you launch this way would launch from your Nvidia Card. All other applications would launch normally from the Intel Card.

This way you will not have any screen tearing because you are running on Intel Graphics all the time and only the applications which require more GPU power are manually launched from Nvidia Card. This way there will be no screen tearing etc. and you can enjoy the power of Ubuntu.

I have answered this process for installing bumblebee in a few other questions on Ask Ubuntu forums already. However for your convenience you can got to.https://rajat-osgyan.blogspot.in/2016/04/how-to-install-latest-nvidia-drivers-on.html

for understanding the complete process. Again I am not trying to promote my blog, I have already explained this process once before on Ask UBunt. Below is the reference question.

How to set up nVidia Optimus/Bumblebee in 14.04

Community
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Rajat Pandita
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  • Ok so I followed the steps described on your blog. Everything went fine except primusrun glxinfo | grep OpenGL that returned an error. 2016/07/19 23:10:47 socat[5017] E connect(5, AF=1 "/var/run/bumblebee.socket", 27): No such file or directory, re-ran it and it gave me primus: fatal: Bumblebee daemon reported: error: [XORG] (EE) Failed to load module "mouse" (module does not exist, 0). Not sure what it means, however now several drivers are available (358, 364, 367). Have it done it correctly ? Should I now try every drivers and see if it's working ? (I followed ur steps using 364) – dbsso Jul 19 '16 at 21:18
  • No need my friend, As you can see. Bumblebee is not always the best Option. It does have some bugs and does not always work. If I were you I could sudo apt remove bumblebee and nvidia etc and then use nvidia-prime as shown in the same page... – Rajat Pandita Jul 20 '16 at 12:45
  • Using nvidia-prime, I still have issues. When using IntelHDGraphics, screen tearing on browser is gone. On Nvidia it depends of the driver, same as in W10. 358 is kinda stable, I can play game on low qualty without crash (~50°c, 120fps), high quality crashes (~75-80°c, 80fps), screen tearing is low. 361 : huge screen tearing/game crash (low quality). 364 : same. 367 : same + pc crashes even on desktop after few secondes of utilisation (very high temperature). For comparison, I used to run very high quality at 120fps on W10 without over heating. Any ideas ? Game is Dota2 Steam – dbsso Jul 21 '16 at 11:58
  • There are very few games which are Written against OpenGL.Most games are written for Windows and against DirectX. So when a new game comes out it is generally ported to Linux using a third party Wrapper like EON Wrapper. So You feel you are running native on Linux whereas you are actually running within the EON Wrapper. Which means lower FPS then Windows. I am not sure if Dota 2 is native or ported. Because I think it is ported too.. Because if you take any Game that is written for Linux Native it will give you same performance or more than W10. – Rajat Pandita Jul 22 '16 at 09:09
  • That is the answer to first question on FPS. Secondly Nvidi Drivers are known to heat up due to issues with vSync. Not sure if it is going to be fixed anytime soon...So heating is a general issue with Nvidia Drivers on Linux.. – Rajat Pandita Jul 22 '16 at 09:10