[arch-general] Handling GeForce GTX 850M GPU on Arch Linux

[AIS Information]

On 05/16/2015 01:49 AM, arch-general-request at archlinux.org wrote:
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 15 May 2015 23:31:33 -0000
> From: caocoa at mail2tor.com
> To: arch-general at archlinux.org
> Subject: [arch-general] Handling GeForce GTX 850M GPU on Arch Linux
> Message-ID:
> 	<43601441c6321e0b4e2427dcb9fa09df.squirrel at mail2tor2zyjdctd.onion>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I've juste installed a new computer and I feel like I'm having trouble
> with my NVIDIA GPU but it could be something else so I've enclosed
> detailed output. As you can see in [lspci] output, my GPU is `NVIDIA
> Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 850M] (rev a2)` whose specification can be
> found in [specs].
> 
> The trouble I'd like to solve has the following symptoms:
>  → Sometimes during booting process, it issues a lot of lines like
> `nouveau E[   PFIFO][0000:01:00.0] SCHED_ERROR [ UNK06 ]` (see [dmesg]
> output for full details). This seems to appear randomly: somtimes it has
> to reboot two or three times before being able to boot correctly,
> sometimes it just needs once and doesn't have nay troubles.
> → Some other times, windows appears to stop responding with no
> reasons. I have to mouse the pointer off so the window display will
> unfreeze and then I can put the pointer over again. I've found it seems to
> be related to lines like this one `nouveau E[   PIBUS][0000:01:00.0] HUB0:
> 0x000001 0x00000002 (0xbad00100)` in [dmesg]. It starts at timestamp
> 28.115820.
> → Sometimes, even the window manager (Gnome) freezes and I have to
> go to a tty to have a chance to get it unfreeze. It doesn't always work
> then sometimes I have to reboot my computer because it has become
> absolutely frozen (no mouse, no keyboard, even the keyboard CAPS light
> responds no more).
> → Finally, in Arch Linux I've become used to have X server started
> over tty1 and tty from 2 to 7 free. Actually, when startup reaches the end
> without faults, it start X server on tty1 then GDM (Gnome Display Manager)
> is shown on tty1 but once I log in to my account, my desktop is shown on
> tty2 and tty1 keeps displaying GDM.
> 
> I'm quite puzzled by this and I don't know whether the last symptom is a
> bug or a feature (maybe multiple user simultaneous outputs). I've also
> enclosed for your information my [Xorg.0.log] file and [lsmod] output. If
> it's a bug, which software should I fill a bug report to? nouveau driver,
> X, GDM, Gnome?
> 
> Just feel free to ask any further data you'd need about my configuration.
> 
> Thank you in advance for you reply and have a good weekend!
> 
> Caocoa
> 
> --- references
> [lspci] https://pastee.org/mtwkr
> [specs] http://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook-gpus/geforce-gtx-850m
> [dmesg] https://pastee.org/zd4tt
> [lsmod] https://pastee.org/t5z4e
> [Xorg.0.log] https://pastee.org/r5tak

are you loading the nouveau module early via mkinitcpio.conf modules
array? if not, i'd do that first. i don't know what you've read so far
but i'd start with the arch wiki on nouveau then go to the nouveau wiki.
yours is the nv110 family.

nouveau feature matrix:
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix/

early support for maxwell and glamor last summer:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTcyNDM

you could also just install the binary blob from nvidia and see if that
fixes the issues as another has suggested, though that would be a *last*
resort for me, assuming i owned any nvidia chippery, that is.