External Monitors with Bumblebee

Newbie Corner
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#1

Hello,

I noticed that Manjaro always installs Bumblebee as default for graphics. But that makes it incompatible with External Monitors at least my experience. One Reason of switching to Manjaro was that External Monitors and Dual Graphics in Ubuntu were a Pain always had to use Nvidia proprietary Driver and even then only 1 external Monitor worked after Tweaking a lot.

Is there any way to handle that in Manjaro? Since Bumblebee is installed now no external Monitor is detected.

My Setup where I want Manjaro to work is:
I have one external Monitor connected via DVI D and one other connected via VGA, plus the Display of my Laptop. I have the Integrated Intel Graphics and a dedicated Nvidia Card.
I also take the Laptop with me for Work often, so Battery Life on the go is just as important as the external Monitors too work. Bumblebee has the great battery life while Nvidia Driver offered at least partially Multi Monitors, but crappy Battery Life. A Dream would be Bumblebee working properly and still be able to use External Monitors.

Does anyone has a similar Setup and knows how to get it to work? Or any Idea how?

I read the multi monitor Page on the Arch Wiki and 2 older sources where someone got it to work in Ubuntu before, but seems not to work anymore.

>     System:    Host: svenja-pc Kernel: 4.9.16-1-MANJARO x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 6.3.1)
>            Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.9.3 (Qt 5.8.0) Distro: Manjaro Linux
> Machine:   Device: laptop System: LENOVO product: 24476J7 v: ThinkPad W530
>            Mobo: LENOVO model: 24476J7
>            UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: G5ET98WW (2.58 ) date: 04/01/2014
> Battery    BAT0: charge: 56.4 Wh 60.6% condition: 93.0/93.6 Wh (99%)
>            model: LGC 45N1011 status: Discharging
> CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-3740QM (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
>            flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 21561
>            clock speeds: max: 3700 MHz 1: 1249 MHz 2: 1327 MHz 3: 1301 MHz 4: 1219 MHz
>            5: 1248 MHz 6: 1235 MHz 7: 1395 MHz 8: 1310 MHz                                   
> Graphics:  Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0          
>            Card-2: NVIDIA GK107GLM [Quadro K2000M] bus-ID: 01:00.0                           
>            Display Server: X.Org 1.19.3 driver: intel Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz          
>            GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile                                     
>            GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.1 Direct Rendering: Yes                                
> Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio Controller                  
>            driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0                                             
>            Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.16-1-MANJARO                     
> Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
>            driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 6080 bus-ID: 00:19.0
>            IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
>            Card-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 03:00.0
>            IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
> Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (3.2% used)
>            ID-1: /dev/sda model: HGST_HTS725050A7 size: 500.1GB
> Partition: ID-1: / size: 25G used: 8.3G (36%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
>            ID-2: /home size: 122G used: 984M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
>            ID-3: /var size: 9.8G used: 1.7G (18%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda9
>            ID-4: /boot size: 945M used: 47M (6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
>            ID-5: swap-1 size: 4.29GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
> Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: N/A
>            Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
> Info:      Processes: 212 Uptime: 7 min Memory: 895.6/7542.2MB
>            Init: systemd Gcc sys: 6.3.1 Client: Shell (bash 4.4.121) inxi: 2.3.8
HDMI port not working on Dell Inspiron 7567
MSI Laptop w Nvidia K2000m - External 4K Mon. Not Recognized
#2

I have a Thinkpad T530, but I don't own the docking station.

As you probably know, the Mini Displayport on our laptops is wired to the Nvidia GPU, while the VGA port is wired to the Intel GPU. And while the VGA works out of the box, the Mini DP is a bit harder. I don't know anything about how the wiring is with the docking station, but it is quite likely that at least some of its ports are wired directly to the Nvidia GPU.

As to how to get the ports working, take a look at the following post on how I got the Mini DP working (with everything you would like):


I have just two additions to the post above:

  • Backup your configuration files, before editing them.
  • The monitor needs to be connected, before running the command, and running it multiple times will lead to weird behaviour.

Only problems I know of with this methods are:

  • In order to deactivate the Nvidia GPU after using it to power external monitors, I need to reboot, since it otherwise continuous to be active. But at startup it is powered off and needs to manually called to allow for external monitors to be connected to its ports, retaining the full battery saving capabilities of Optimus.
  • Recently, I have heard about performance issues with the above method. But on my laptop, I am not noticing such problems.
1 Like
Hybrid Graphics Driver Intel + Nvidia Issue (No Signal to secondary monitor via DP or HDMI)
External monitor does not work (hdmi)
[SOLVED] Can't See External Monitor with Intel+nVidia Laptop
#3

Thank you for your answer. Something is definitly happening. But not really the wished outcome.

When I edit the configuration file like yours, both monitors are detected and switched on, so that seems good. But both just showing a white screen. And cannot be used at all.
I googled for a bit and found that there was suggested to use the config you have, but with the Modification:

# Option "UseEDID" "true"
# Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"

That lets the VGA Monitor be detected and seems to work. But the other monitor via DVI gets not detected. When I run the intel-virtual-output 2-3 times it detects both monitors and shows them as enabled, but they still show no signal.

Any Idea?

#4

What do xrandr and KDE display settings show you?

I don't really know what could be the cause, since I didn't have such problems. Thinking back, I think that I had to set the monitor settings after running intel-virtual-output, but I am not to sure, if that was because something was not immediately working, or just KDE not setting the second monitor up properly.

#5

Here is the Xrandr Output before running the command:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 50.00
1400x1050 59.98
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
1024x576 60.00
960x540 60.00
800x600 60.32 56.25
864x486 60.00
640x480 59.94
720x405 60.00
640x360 60.00
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

When I now run the intel-virtual-output command, both monitors are switched on and show just white screeen. In KDE System Settings they are still not detected. Xrandr shows:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 50.00
1400x1050 59.98
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
1024x576 60.00
960x540 60.00
800x600 60.32 56.25
864x486 60.00
640x480 59.94
720x405 60.00
640x360 60.00
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

When I run the Intel Command again though, KDE Settings detect one external Monitor, the one over VGA connected. Xrandr then shows:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3600 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
LVDS1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 50.00
1400x1050 59.98
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
1024x576 60.00
960x540 60.00
800x600 60.32 56.25
864x486 60.00
640x480 59.94
720x405 60.00
640x360 60.00
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL2 connected 1680x1050+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
VIRTUAL2.105-1680x1050 59.95*
VIRTUAL2.106-1680x1050 59.88
VIRTUAL2.107-1280x1024 75.02
1280x1024 60.02
VIRTUAL2.109-1440x900 74.98
VIRTUAL2.110-1440x900 59.89
VIRTUAL2.111-1280x800 74.93
VIRTUAL2.112-1280x800 59.81
VIRTUAL2.113-1280x720 60.00
VIRTUAL2.114-1024x768 75.03
1024x768 60.00
VIRTUAL2.116-800x600 75.00
800x600 60.32
VIRTUAL2.118-640x480 75.00
640x480 59.94
VIRTUAL2.120-720x400 70.08
VIRTUAL3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL5 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL5.121-1920x1080 60.00
VIRTUAL2.107-1280x1024 75.02
1280x1024 60.02
VIRTUAL5.122-1152x864 75.00
VIRTUAL2.114-1024x768 75.03
1024x768 60.00
VIRTUAL2.116-800x600 75.00
800x600 60.32
VIRTUAL2.118-640x480 75.00
640x480 59.94
VIRTUAL2.120-720x400 70.08
VIRTUAL6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

After running the Xrandr <command it shows both monitors in KDE Settings, but only one gets enabled and shows something, The Windows get all moved there, but it is not possible to use Mouse or Keyboard when something is on the external monitor. Here is a Screenshot from KDE Settings, where everything looks right. But the VGA Monitor on the right sight just shows black and the left over DVID shows some Windows, but cannot be controlled whatsoever.

#6

What is weird in your third xrandr output is that VIRTUAL2 appears mixed in with VIRTUAL5s options, i.e. normally the outputs would be perfectly ordered, while yours clearly isn't.

Maybe try connecting one monitor first, and then only the second to check if there is a mess up by connecting two monitors simultaneously.

intel-virtual-output seems also to provide a -v option, giving a bit more output on what is going on. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found its full documentation (it's manpage is basically useless). It provides a bit of help with -h:

Usage: intel-virtual-output [OPTION]... [TARGET_DISPLAY]... -d <source display> source display -f keep in foreground (do not detach from console and daemonize) -b start bumblebee -a connect to all local displays (e.g. :1, :2, etc) -S disable use of a singleton and launch a fresh intel-virtual-output process -v all verbose output, implies -f -V <category> specific verbose output, implies -f -h this help If no target displays are parsed on the commandline, intel-virtual-output will attempt to connect to any local display and then start bumblebee

I guess playing a bit with specifying -d <source display> and [TARGET_DISPLAY] could lead to the solution. But how to use them?

I found a bit more here: https://gist.github.com/aiguofer/87b5ca3b53cfd8394c79 It seems you can run something like this intel-virtual-output -d :0, where 0 needs to be replaced by the right number for the output.

#7

Seems like I now have found a solution at least a little. The Intel-virtual-output seems to work with my monitors.
Seems like the installed Driver from Bumblebee crashed. I removed them with the Mhwd and installed the Bumblebee-nvidia-340 instead of the Bumblebee-Nvidia. And then played around with the Xorg.conf.nvidia again like you suggested before.

I could not test the automatic docking rules yet, since I don't fully understand it. So still working on it.

Didn't test out the power saving in mobile mode yet either, but will do that today, but the external Monitors work fine.

#8

Still does not work properly. Every Update breaks everything. Then I have to reinstall the drivers like it is explained in this thread Manjaro KDE won't start

Then it will start again, but since the drivers used are not compatible with external monitors. When I install the correct ones xserver fails again can only reboot via tty1 and begin anew to reinstall the drivers.
I don't know whats the cause mhwd or bumblebee, but anything on that. Why can I not use the simple Nvidia Driver in Manjaro?

#9

Graphics drivers in Manjaro are configured with mhwd. If you only want the Nvidia driver without bumblebee or a certain version of the Nvidia drivers, just tell mhwd to do it for you.

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Manjaro_Settings_Manager
https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Configure_Graphics_Cards

mhwd's only purpose is to make the configuration of graphics cards simple.

#10

That is the problem when I make any update or install something the graphics drivers of Bumblebee seem to fail completely and looks like part of the kernel also does. So I cannot get into a gui, but I can use tty1. When I reinstall like the link to the other thread:

  1. I remove the graphics driver:
    sudo mhwd -r pci video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-340xx-bumblebee
    No errors here, so no problem.
  2. I reinstall the drivers with:
    sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300
    Again no problem. Works, but it installs video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-bumblebee instead of the 340xx Version. Any other version cannot get into the gui then. I get it half loaded and then it says "opengl 2.0 not found"
  3. I use startx
    With the default Nonfree driver, I can get into the gui now without a problem. Rebooting over the Gui without a problem. But with this driver the external monitors do not work.
  4. When I now install any other driver via the mhwd tool in system settings or via mhwd from konsole Or just installing something else or Updating via Pacman. Everything seems to work at first, no errors while installing. But when I try to reboot, i can not do it via GUI. When I click on Shutdown or reboot nothing happens. But I can open other programs, so somehow the GUI seems to fail.
    I can reboot via Konsole. But when I do that the GUI does not boot with the error:
    Could not load Kernel Modules

I will make a photo of the errors and post a link to them in a moment. Without GUI I cannot make a proper screenshot, Sorry.

Here are some Photos from the exact Error Messages.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9gU1Q_jM5LPcE9hQW9PYXQ5cGM
When I run the command from the Error Message systemctl status systemd-modules-load.service, I get:

process: 560 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd->modules-load (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)...
The Rest I have on one of the photos, too long for typing on a phone, without GUI.

But when I reinstall the Graphics Driver again, with the steps before and the cycle begins a new time. I reinstalled Manjaro 3 times now and I really don't know what to do. But every Time the same problem.

#11

Ok, you seem to be one of the unfortunately many users for which the last stable update is not working. Since I am unfortunately not knowledgeable enough in those matters, I would recommned you to ask your question again in the update thread, since there you should get the attention of more knowledgeable people.

The only thing I know is that there is a new 17.0.1 iso containing the latest update. So if you need to reinstall that might be the iso you might want to use.

#12

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