GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 667333
Gnome Shell does not work with nVidia (2 gpu/3 display)
Last modified: 2021-06-18 16:00:32 UTC
I want to run Gnome shell (yes!) with nVidia 2-gpu card and 3 hd displays. unfortunately only gnome-classic mode can be run. symptoms for Gnome mode: Gnome fails to display menu bar, action key does not work, window frames gone without Xinerama this appears in syslog: Jan 4 20:37:15 c505 kernel: [746135.207850] gnome-panel[19046]: segfault at 7fa74ba627ff ip 00007fa749b9f99f sp 00007fff0d793a70 error 7 in libglib-2.0.so.0.3000.0[7fa749b3f000+f4000] only center display is used, other displays gray, windows can not me moved there, but mouse cursor can with Xinerama this appears in syslog: Jan 4 20:48:26 c505 kernel: [746806.658588] gnome-shell[20378]: segfault at 18 ip 00007fca7cd16307 sp 00007ffff270eed8 error 6 in libcogl.so.5.0.0[7fca7ccc5000+71000] get-around: use gnome-classic (accelerated mode, but compositing_manager false) (compositing fails to display: background only, but gnome seems to be running) (mouse clicks register one display to the left, so not working: drag-n-drop, issue: click on window, it jumps one display to the right, issue: panels can not be placed on rightmost display) but, hey it kind of works, and it looks like gnome-shell! note: because noveau driver crashes, nvidia-current must be used. noveau bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/889538 graphics card: 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G98 [Quadro NVS 450] [10de:06fa] (rev a1) two gpus, each gpu has two dfps, 4 displayPorts, i use 3 HD displays Linux: Linux c505 3.0.0-15-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Mon Dec 12 15:23:55 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Kernel driver in use: nvidia 280.13 xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7 gnome-shell 3.2.1-0ubuntu1.1
Here is a related bug for unity https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/889559 some dude have two nvidia cards. I have a single card with two gpus. people are switching to Xfce or kde or even Windows. If you want 3 or more displays, it seems you will have more than one gpu. I have it on my laptop, too. OpenGL supports it, what about Gnome shell?
This is probably a bug in the NVidia proprietary driver that is triggered by compositing, since it affect both GNOME Shell and Unity, which are technically very different. Thus, it would be good to report it to NVidia. Anyway, you should get us a trace of the crash. Run sudo service apport start force_start=1 reproduce the crash, and follow the steps in the Apport dialog. This will file a bug in Launchpad, but you can post the link here and copy the backtrace.
Here is the crash when Xinerama is enabled. http://www.allgoodapps.com/_usr_bin_gnome-shell.1000.crash it's 10 MiB It seems to be the dump of many threads and processes.
Please file the report on Launchpad so that it generates the backtrace from the .crash file. We have no way to decode it from here and it's impossible to interpret as-is.
How do you like them apples: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/913480
The link doesn't work...
Which link? I can load this, which have lots of parsed data https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/913480 (I removed the file from AllGoodApps, I put it back just in case)
Changed report to public
OK, the trace is:
+ Trace 229423
The other reporter in Launchpad uses the NVidia proprietary driver, so that can be a bug there.
That is not really a bug in gnome-shell nor mutter ... xinerama does not work with composite. So when you enable xinerama you can't run any compositing manager. (The XComposite extensions gets disabled when you run a xinerama setup). There where patches floating around on xorg-devel to enable this not sure what happened to them and whether driver changes are required to or not.
1. A required fact to gather is whether Gnome 3 at all supports multi-GPU? 2. Is there a configuration outline where multi-GPU is supposed to work? Please understand, I am more interested in Gnome shell working at all than composite. In regards to X extensions composite and Xinerama: I use Xserver 1.10.4, and it is claimed that 1.10 supports both these features enabled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinerama Fedora Release notes, 3.9.1: "The XFixes and Composite extensions now work in Xinerama multi-GPU setups." by using Xorg server 1.10.x http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/15/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_SysAdmin.html Also note that nouveau driver does not work for this card.
(In reply to comment #2) > This is probably a bug in the NVidia proprietary driver that is triggered by > compositing, since it affect both GNOME Shell and Unity, which are technically > very different. Thus, it would be good to report it to NVidia. See here (not answered): http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/ask_confirm/i_id/394924
apologies: this is the correct link http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/account/questions/detail/i_id/394924
I get a permission denied on both links. Really hoping this gets fixed as I was very happy running Gnome Shell.
Here is the content of the nVidia communication: What is a configuration that will work with Gnome shell 3.2? (the most common Linux user interface) Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/19/2012 05:49 PM Would it be possible to get an update to this question? Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/14/2012 10:22 PM My /var/log/X.log.0.log outputs for each device/screen: 32-bit ARGB GLX visuals are not currently supported with the Xinerama extension. Disabling 32-bit ARGB GLX visuals. Other people have reported crashes fir various compositing environments when this is output. Is there an nVidia/Xserver combination that supports Xinerama + ARGB GLX visuals? I have 280.13/1.10.4? Do you think this might be a cause for crashing? Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/14/2012 11:55 AM Hello Mike, Thank you for looking into this! The issue her is the lack of concrete information. I would think that this would take an nVidia software engineer person to troubleshoot! I did provide you with the nVidia logs and a string of reports submitted to other software teams. Maybe we uncover some more facts? Goal: Get gnome shell to work on Quadro NVS 450, 3 monitors. Note: X composite extension is desired, not required. Question: What configuration would enable gnome-shell to successfully launch? Note: person running gnome-shell without hardware acceleration http://www.happyassassin.net/2011/11/03/fedora-16-is-gold-but-more-importantly/ This is printed by the nVidia driver on launch in /var/log/Xorg.0.log: "The Composite and Xinerama extensions are both enabled, which is an unsupported configuration. The driver will continue to load, but may behave strangely." - it used to be the case that this was blamed on X not being 1.10 or above. Note however: X server claims to support this from 1.10, and I have 1.10.4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinerama Fedora Release notes, 3.9.1: "The XFixes and Composite extensions now work in Xinerama multi-GPU setups." by using Xorg server 1.10.x http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/15/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_SysAdmin.html Dude that switch to non-nVidia: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=169515 Response Mike via Email 01/12/2012 12:22 PM Hi Harald, I discussed this issue with our developers, and we don't think GNOME 3 is expected to work with multiple GPUs. Please let me know if there is any documentation or reference on the web that suggests otherwise. There's a comment on the GNOME bugzilla link that hits the nail on the head: composite and xinerama are mutually exclusive. Without Xinerama, there would be two separate X screens: we are not sure how GNOME 3 is meant to behave in such a case, but in general, X clients (including desktop environment components) can only draw to one screen. Best regards, Mike Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/10/2012 04:29 PM So, Mike, I am not the only person with this problem. Back in 2010 this worked. Now, however, it seems neither unity or gnome works when two gpus are involved. Unity (Compiz) people said like a year ago that two gpus would not be supported, so I survived without them. Gnome people seems to still care, so I am hoping we can find something out that works. Of course, OpenGL implemented multiple gpus like five years ago. I would hope we could get Gnome shell to work. I don't need compositing but will use it if it works. Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/10/2012 04:18 PM Here is the report, lightdm launched with Gnome shell 3.2.1, panel does not appear Response Mike via Email 01/09/2012 09:55 AM Hi Harald, Your issue was just referred to me. Please generate and attach a bugreport which gives us more information. You can generate one by 'sh nvidia-bug-report.sh' as root user or by ‘sudo sh /usr/bin/nvidia-bug-report.sh’ as a normal user. Let me know if any more questions. Best regards, Mike NVIDIA Customer Care Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/07/2012 04:20 PM here is the bug on unity, does not work either https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/889559 Auto-Response 01/07/2012 04:14 PM The following answers might help you immediately. (Answers open in a separate window.) Title: How to Enable 30-bit color on Linux Link: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3050 Title: Linux - Where should I start when diagnosing display problems? Link: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/126 Title: Linux - How do I extract the contents of the .run file without actually installing the driver? Link: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/127 Title: Which NVIDIA GPU's support VDPAU? Link: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2613 Customer Harald Rudell via CSS Web 01/07/2012 04:14 PM What is a configuration that will work with Gnome shell 3.2? (the most common Linux user interface) what kernel driver and version? what X-org version? what xorg.conf if any? other configuration steps? I use the Quadro NVS 450 card with three hd displays attached. It's been limping along for a while but now I am stuck with Gnome classic which might be removed from Linux in 3 months. Gnome (3.2) on X launch fails to display menu bar, action key does not work, window frames gone without Xinerama this appears in syslog: Jan 4 20:37:15 c505 kernel: [746135.207850] gnome-panel[19046]: segfault at 7fa74ba627ff ip 00007fa749b9f99f sp 00007fff0d793a70 error 7 in libglib-2.0.so.0.3000.0[7fa749b3f000+f4000] only center display is used, other displays gray, windows can not me moved there, but mouse cursor can with Xinerama this appears in syslog: Jan 4 20:48:26 c505 kernel: [746806.658588] gnome-shell[20378]: segfault at 18 ip 00007fca7cd16307 sp 00007ffff270eed8 error 6 in libcogl.so.5.0.0[7fca7ccc5000+71000] graphics card: 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G98 [Quadro NVS 450] [10de:06fa] (rev a1) two gpus, each gpu has two dfps, 4 displayPorts, i use 3 HD displays Linux: Linux c505 3.0.0-15-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Mon Dec 12 15:23:55 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Kernel driver in use: nvidia 280.13 xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7 gnome-shell 3.2.1-0ubuntu1.1 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=667333 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/889538
I also filed a bug (enhancement request) on nouveau: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44942 What I could read from the documentation, the G98 chip is not supported. I have also read plenty about people unable to use nouveau for more than 2 displays or more than one GPU
Both your nvidia as well as your nouveau issues are driver bugs so not much we can do in GNOME. The drivers have to be fixed. So moving this to the drivers component.
a. The 280.13 nVidia in Xinerama driver does not work with Gnome 3 b. It seems newer nVidia drivers may support Xinerama and Gnome 3, but only for one gpu, which means only for two monitors c. The 280.13 nVidia in TwinView works with Gnome, but is limited to 1 gpu and 2 monitors d. an Intel driver supports 2 displays using Randr. e. The X extension Randr 1.3 or 1.4 does not support multi-GPU so three monitors with Gnome 3 is probably no sooner than 2013 The user experience for gnome 3 is segfault if you happen to have more than one gpu, or more than one X screen for the X display in use So the choice is: limit your life to Gnome 3 and two monitors or limit your life to Gnome Classic / gnome-session-fallback with xinerama and lots of monitors and gpus
Reiterating: The nVidia driver as of 290.10 does not support the X extension Xinerama and ARGB GLX visuals. xorg-server 1.10.0 introduced this possibility on 2/25/2011 http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-announce/2011-February/001612.html nVidia declined to comment on whether this would ever be supported. The Gnome project also declined to comment or even acknowledge a problem. It seems the X Randr extension is the plan to support multiple monitors. nVidia does not seem to support more than 1 monitor per screen for Randr while Gnome 3 segfaults if the X display has more than one X screen. X 1.10.4 has Randr 1.3. Not even Randr 1.4 will support multi-GPU which, judging from the 2 years since the rearchitecting that broke all this, might be 2014. Therefore, the only viable solution seems to be to find single-GPU hardware, supporting 8K pixel dimensions, the required number of display ports and a Randr driver. Personally, I don't know for such hardware.
(In reply to comment #20) > Reiterating: > > The nVidia driver as of 290.10 does not support the X extension Xinerama and > ARGB GLX visuals. > xorg-server 1.10.0 introduced this possibility on 2/25/2011 > http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-announce/2011-February/001612.html > nVidia declined to comment on whether this would ever be supported. You'd have to ask them. > The Gnome project also declined to comment or even acknowledge a problem. Not true. > It seems the X Randr extension is the plan to support multiple monitors. XRANDR is mostly a configuration interface. > nVidia does not seem to support more than 1 monitor per screen for Randr while > Gnome 3 segfaults if the X display has more than one X screen. Yeah we don't support multiple xscreens. > X 1.10.4 has Randr 1.3. Not even Randr 1.4 will support multi-GPU which, > judging from the 2 years since the rearchitecting that broke all this, might be > 2014. This is a different issue, you can use xinerama with multiple GPUs once Nvidia fixes their driver to support composite with it (should be possible on recent xserver releases). > Therefore, the only viable solution seems to be to find single-GPU hardware, > supporting 8K pixel dimensions, the required number of display ports and a > Randr driver. Personally, I don't know for such hardware. Nvidia actually ships such hardware but they aren't cheap: http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadroplex.html
I am looking at a similar setup and have found that 3d acceleration is there. The main problem I believe is bug #648156. If that isn't fixed there is no hope for this kind of setup
(In reply to drago01 from comment #21) > > X 1.10.4 has Randr 1.3. Not even Randr 1.4 will support multi-GPU which, > > judging from the 2 years since the rearchitecting that broke all this, might be > > 2014. > > This is a different issue, you can use xinerama with multiple GPUs once > Nvidia fixes their driver to support composite with it (should be possible > on recent xserver releases). So… WONTFIX, or maybe NOTGNOME?