GUIDE: how to set up nvidia prime for laptops running manjaro linux

[Ashleyyyy]

Thank you for reading my guide on how to setup nvidia prime on Linux laptops. 

PLEASE READ EVERYTHING, INCLUDING THE EXPLAINATIONS!!! 

THIS MIGHT NOT WORK!!! DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

 

i wrote this guide for Manjaro since it's IMO the best distro out there right now and the easiest to set this kind of stuff up. 

 

there are 3 main ways of managing optimus on linux. 

- nvidia prime (which is what i will be using in this guide)

- bumblebee

- optimus-manager

 

nvidia prime is the most straightforward to get working, and it offers much better performance than bumblebee. the main disadvantage of it is that the nvidia card doesn't turn off when it's not in use. it goes into a very low powered state, but it doesn't turn off. this will impact battery life, but in my experience not much since the card goes into it's lowest power state. 

 

bumblebee is the second most straightforward, and it's what manjaro ships with by default if you enable the nonfree driver option. it's main advantage is the ability to power down the card when not in use, but for my laptop this didn't work at all!! so it was still wasting power and much worse is that the performance is significantly reduced compared to nvidia prime. if bumblebee works on your particular setup and it powers down the card like it should that's one thing, but for me it wasn't working at all. if it works for you then you can use it, but prepare for bugs and reduced performance. 

 

last is optimus-manager. this didn't work for me either. the main disadvantage is that you have to logout and log back in to switch gpu's, which is an awful experience. on top of that it was buggy and required a lot of additional configuration to get it working, and i never got it working reliably or completely. not recommended. 

 

please note that compatibility for bumblebee and optimus-manager is supposed to be much better on Turing cards and up, but for my maxwell card it didn't work. 

 

now, please keep in mind that nvidia prime might not work for you, and if that's the case then please feel free to explore the other options. 

 

 

now let's start. 

if you go to manjaro setting manager, and then to hardware configuration you will see somthing like this:

 

you need to remove the bumblebee driver if it's installed and install the latest hybrid prime driver like i did. 

 

if you are using GNOME there is an extra step. wayland has issues with the nvidia drivers, so using X is preferred. 

so if you are using gnome enter the following in terminal: sudo nano /etc/gdm/custom.conf

this will open a text editor. uncomment the line WaylandEnable=false. make sure the file looks like this: 

NOTE: my screenshot is cut off. the lines after this don't matter so i didn't include them. 

 

then press control+x to exit, y to save and then enter.

 

when that's done restart your laptop, and then you should have an "Nvidia X server settings" in your application menu. it should look something like this when opened:

 

 

if this all looks good then it's working. 

 

to run programs on the nvidia gpu type in terminal: prime-run program

 

if you want to run steam games with the nvidia gpu you first have to run steam on the nvidia gpu, anything started from steam after that will also use it.