Archcraft linux setup on Intel/Nvidia hybrid laptop

hybrid_gpu_archcraft_laptop_setup.md

Setting up my Hybrid graphics Laptop with Archcraft Linux

Setting up hybrid graphics linux is generally painful with the current state of Nvidia support. If you can avoid getting an Nvidia GPU based laptop if you plan to use Linux. I use a distro called Archcraft and had some issues specific to my setup (distro/hardware)

The hardware I am installing this on is a TongFang GM6TG7W (aka Wootbook Extreme IV). It has an Intel iGPU and an Nvidia 3070 Max-Q dGPU.

This guide is actually documentation for myself if I have to set it up again but if it helps anyone thats a bonus. I guarantee absolutely nothing but this worked for me. (This was documented Dec 2022 and might get out of date quick)

1. Set Graphics to use integrated GPU in BIOS before starting installation process (There currently is a bug in the installer that hangs on hardware detect if MsHybrid or dGPU is selected)
2. Go through installation process and reboot.
3. Update system
   1. Update Pacman

      sudo pacman -Syu
      

   2. This will likely fail due to some outdated GPG keys. Run the following:

      sudo pacman -S archlinux-keyring && \
      sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys && \
      sudo pacman -Syu && \
      yay -Syu
      

      Your system should now be up to date and have the newest kernel installed.
   3. Reboot your system and make sure to enter the BIOS again

      reboot
      

4. In the BIOS you can now set the MsHybrid option (from iGPU) and boot into Archcraft again
5. You can now verify the Nvidia GPU is present by running

   lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
   

   This should yield 2 entries, one Intel and another Nvidia. eg.

   00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] (rev 01)
   DeviceName: Onboard - Video
   Subsystem: Tongfang Hongkong Limited Device 1147
   
   01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA104M [GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile / Max-Q] (rev a1)
   Subsystem: Tongfang Hongkong Limited Device 1147
   

6. Next set the ibt=off kernel parameter by editing the grub config file and regenerating the config
   1. Add the said parameter to the list of parameters for the line starting with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= eg:

      sudo vim /etc/default/grub
      

      Change the following line to add ibt=off

      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash loglevel=3 udev.log_level=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 ibt=off"
      

   2. Now regenerate the grub config with

      sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
      

7. Remove unneeded modules from the initial ramdisk. Ensure that nvidia and i915 is present. nouveau can be removed along with the other virtualization modules.

   sudo vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
   

   eg:

   MODULES="i915? nvidia? crc32c-intel"
   

   Now regenerate the ramdisk:

   sudo mkinitcpio -P
   

8. Install nvidia driver

   sudo pacman -S nvidia
   

   Reboot again. The machine should now be booting and you should be able to successfully log in. You can now also test that the GPU is detected by the driver by running

   nvidia-smi
   

9. Install optimus-manager

   yay -S optimus-manager optimus-manager-qt
   

   Important for SDDM: You need to comment out 2 lines from the following file

   sudo vim /etc/sddm.conf
   

   [X11]
   #DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup
   #DisplayStopCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xstop
   

   Reboot the machine and run:

   optimus-manager --status
   

   You can then switch with

   optimus-manager --switch hybrid