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sxiii/configure-alienware-nvidia.md

Last active September 27, 2020 17:10
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How to configure Alienware Laptop with External Graphics Amplifier and Nvidia Card on Manjaro Linux (also might work in Arch)
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configure-alienware-nvidia.md

My Laptop is Alienware R3 17" with external amplifier card "Nvidia RTX 2070" but it should work for other Nvidia's, as well.

The process is pretty easy.

  1. Turn off laptop. Connect the external amplifier with GPU and electricity, as well as connect laptop to electricity. Turn everything back ON & boot into Manjaro or Arch.

  2. Ensure the system is fully updated:

sudo pacman -Syyu or just update the system by using GUI "Software Update" from system menu.

  1. Check the available graphics card:

lspci | grep NVIDIA

This will probably show Nvidia graphics card that is inside of your laptop (if you have it!) rather than the graphics card in the amplifier. At least, this was the case for me. So to let the system see the external amplifier, we need to disable "nouveau" driver.

  1. Blacklist the "nouveau" driver (as it interfere with the external GPU) by running this three commands:
  • 3.1. sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf - this creates an empty blacklist file
  • 3.2. sudo chmod 777 /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf - this allows everybody to edit it
  • 3.3. sudo echo -e "blacklist nouveau\noptions nouveau modeset=0\nalias nouveau off" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf - this blacklists the driver
  1. Rebuild the initcpio: sudo mkinitcpio -p linux58

In case you have a different kernel version, replace the "linux58" with your version. For example, for kernel "5.6" use "linux56". You can check your kernel version with uname -r.

  1. Reboot. Go to "Menu -> Settings Manager -> Manjaro Settings Manager -> (double-click) Hardware Configuration" and click the button on the top called "Auto-install proprietary driver". Wait for the installation to finish and close all open windows.

  2. Reboot. Here you go, you should have an external GPU active. You can check it via several options, running one of these commands:

  • a) lspci | grep NVIDIA
  • b) nvidia-smi -L
  • c) lshw -c video (here you will see both GPU's, your internal one and the external one, also, to use lshw you have to install it: sudo pacman -S lshw or via graphics package manager).

Finally, you can check if you have the latest driver. For this, first, run this: nvidia-smi --help | head -1. Remember the version. Now, navigate to this URL: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/ and check the row called "Latest Long Lived Branch Version". If it matches with CLI output, you're having the recent driver. (Example: I have v450.66 and it's the latest/recent driver from Nvidia for 27 september 2020).

Run Steam and any of the games you like, including Proton/Vulkan (Windows DirectX games) titles and check your graphics settings and FPS.

You can change and update graphics driver via the Manjaro Settings Manager -> Hardware Configuration at any time.

Good luck!

@sxiii aka D

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