[Nouveau] Nouveau on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Fri Oct 1 20:14:50 UTC 2021

On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:58 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.geis at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:40 PM Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:36 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.geis at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:27 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.geis at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:20 PM Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:17 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.geis at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>> > On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:06 PM Ilia Mirkin <imirkin at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 3:00 PM Jerry Geis <jerry.geis at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>> >> > lsmod | grep nouveau
>> >>> >> >
>> >>> >> > What dont I have ?
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> nouveau :)
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Other than that, you got everything...
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Check dmesg for errors.
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> Cheers,
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >>   -ilia
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > I see this:
>> >>> > Oct  1 15:11:21 mediaport57 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1546]: (==) Matched nouveau as autoconfigured driver 0
>> >>>
>> >>> This is not dmesg. This is some log file. Please look in dmesg.
>> >>>
>> >>> > Oct  1 15:11:23 mediaport57 /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[1546]: (**) VESA(0): Using "Shadow Framebuffer"
>> >>>
>> >>> X is using the VESA driver because nouveau (nor any other DRM driver) is loaded.
>> >>>
>> >>> >
>> >>> > So it seems like its loading .... but perhaps its not happy ????
>> >>> >
>> >>> > What do I do  ?
>> >>>
>> >>> Check dmesg for why nouveau didn't load.
>> >>>
>> >>>   -ilia
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>  grep -i nouveau /var/log/dmesg
>> >> [   19.934733] kernel: fb0: switching to nouveaufb from VESA VGA
>> >> [   20.013197] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console
>> >> [   20.013415] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: NVIDIA GT218 (0a8200b1)
>> >> [   20.159472] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: bios: version 70.18.45.00.00
>> >> [   20.162603] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: fb: 512 MiB DDR3
>> >> [   21.552858] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: VRAM: 512 MiB
>> >> [   21.552873] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: GART: 1048576 MiB
>> >> [   21.552888] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: TMDS table version 2.0
>> >> [   21.552900] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB version 4.0
>> >> [   21.552911] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB outp 00: 01000302 00000030
>> >> [   21.552924] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB outp 01: 02000300 00000000
>> >> [   21.552937] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB outp 02: 02011362 00020010
>> >> [   21.552950] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB conn 00: 00001030
>> >> [   21.552961] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: DCB conn 01: 00002161
>> >> [   21.568834] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: MM: using COPY for buffer copies
>> >> [   21.645206] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: DRM: allocated 1920x1080 fb: 0x70000, bo (____ptrval____)
>> >> [   21.648681] kernel: fbcon: nouveaudrmfb (fb0) is primary device
>> >> [   21.837701] kernel: nouveau 0000:03:00.0: [drm] fb0: nouveaudrmfb frame buffer device
>> >> [   21.873290] kernel: [drm] Initialized nouveau 1.3.1 20120801 for 0000:03:00.0 on minor 0
>>
>> I was looking for you to just run "dmesg", BTW, not read a log file.
>>
>> >>
>> >> lsmod | grep nouveau
>> >> nouveau              1986560  30
>> >> mxm_wmi                16384  1 nouveau
>> >> i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 nouveau
>> >> drm_ttm_helper         16384  1 nouveau
>> >> ttm                    73728  2 drm_ttm_helper,nouveau
>> >> drm_kms_helper        237568  1 nouveau
>> >> drm                   548864  25 drm_kms_helper,drm_ttm_helper,ttm,nouveau
>> >> video                  53248  1 nouveau
>> >> wmi                    32768  2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
>> >>
>> >> I took off ALL extra kernel command paramters - nothing specific to nouveau - and I got better results. however - video is still dropping frames.
>>
>> Perhaps you had a "nomodeset" in there? That would prevent nouveau
>> from doing anything useful, although I think it'd still load in that
>> case.
>>
>> >>
>> >> So progress. but still no good.
>>
>> Check xorg log to make sure you see NOUVEAU lines, not modeset lines.
>> If you see modeset lines, make sure you force the nouveau DDX driver
>> to load. (Some distros think it's funny to prevent it from loading by
>> default...)
>>
>> >>
>> >> Jerry
>> >
>> >
>> > I see this error:
>> > nouveau 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for nouveau/nva8_fuc084 failed
>> >
>> > I did apt-file search nva8_fuc084
>> > and it did not return anything.
>>
>> This is for video decoding acceleration (vdpau / va-api). You can set
>> this up by following the instructions at
>> https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/VideoAcceleration.html . Note that
>> it's hardly perfect.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>   -ilia
>
>
> These were the kernel command line items I removed.
> acpi=off pci=nomsi

Oh dear. Esp acpi=off is very bad for any post-2010 machine. (The
cut-off is probably earlier, but def by 2010, ACPI is basically
required for things to function.) pci=nomsi won't affect things too
much either way, but I'm not aware of needing to turn off MSI except
for very odd situations.

>
> The machine seems happier - now - althought I no longer have sound for some reason - but after installing the firmware - CPU % is way down.

Nouveau will have registered a second sound adapter (whose sound would
get piped out through HDMI / DP ports, if available). Make sure you're
still using the "right" audio hardware in your settings.

You can also check that pstate file I was talking about earlier to
adjust the power levels of the GPU (either more power / more heat /
less battery or less power / less heat / more battery...)

Good luck,

  -ilia