Plasma/Wayland/Nvidia: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 15:07, 28 September 2024

Here's how to run with the proprietary Nvidia driver on Wayland:

Prerequisites

To use the Plasma Wayland session:

Use an up-to-date version of Plasma (explicit sync support was implemented in 6.1)
Ensure a reasonably new NVIDIA driver:
- minimum supported by KWin is 495.44;
- XWayland apps are usable with 555 and newer.
You need to have the Nvidia EGL library installed. It can be a separate package (libnvidia-egl-wayland1) or bundled with the driver package (e.g. nvidia-gl-G06 on openSUSE since 555).
To run XWayland apps without flickering, at least XWayland 24.1 is required.

Use the modesetting driver

Check whether the driver is running in modesetting mode:

cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset

It should print “Y”. If not, modify your kernel command line and add the line nvidia_drm.modeset=1. Search for “kernel parameters” in your distribution; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_parameters is a good starting point.

It is also possible to pass the parameter via module configuration:

echo options nvidia_drm modeset=1 | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia_drm.conf

You need to regenerate the initramfs in case your distribution provides the graphics drivers in initramfs (e.g. sudo update-initramfs -u)

Login

Select “Plasma (Wayland)” from your login manager
Enjoy your beautiful super-fast accelerated Wayland desktop!

Known Limitations

Night Color is not applied to the mouse cursor: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479889
Poor performance on external screens on hybrid GPU setups when using NVIDIA GPU as a secondary GPU because it requires CPU copying from the primary GPU to the secondary GPU (see https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/1031, https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=452219)

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 To use the Plasma Wayland session:
-* Ensure that you are using Plasma 5.20.2 or later — preferably the latest stable release.
+* Use an up-to-date version of Plasma (explicit sync support was implemented in 6.1)
-* Ensure the NVIDIA driver is not older than version 495.44 — KWin is no longer compatible with previous versions.
+* Ensure a reasonably new NVIDIA driver:
-* You need an up-to-date Qt. Make sure you have >= Qt5.15.0 or [https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qtwayland.git/commit/?id=4bd13402f0293e85b8dfdf92254e250ac28094c7 4bd13402f0293e85b8dfdf92254e250ac28094c7] cherry-picked.
+** minimum supported by KWin is 495.44;
-* Make sure to have the Nvidia EGL library installed. For example on Ubuntu and Neon the relevant package is called <code>libnvidia-egl-wayland1</code>
+** XWayland apps are usable with 555 and newer.
+* You need to have the Nvidia EGL library installed. It can be a separate package (<code>libnvidia-egl-wayland1</code>) or bundled with the driver package (e.g. <code>nvidia-gl-G06</code> on openSUSE since 555).
-To use the Plasma Wayland session with hardware acceleration on XWayland apps, you need:
+* To run XWayland apps without flickering, at least XWayland 24.1 is required.
-* Xorg 1.20.12 or later.
-* XWayland 21.1.2 or later.
-* libxcb 1.1.7 or later.
 === Use the modesetting driver===
-Check our driver is running in modesettings mode:
+Check whether the driver is running in modesetting mode:
 <code>cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset</code>
-It should print "Y". If not, modify your kernel command line and add the line <code>nvidia_drm.modeset=1</code>.
+It should print “Y”. If not, modify your kernel command line and add the line <code>nvidia_drm.modeset=1</code>.
-Search for "kernel parameters" in your distribution; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_parameters is a good starting point.
+Search for “kernel parameters” in your distribution; https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_parameters is a good starting point.
 It is also possible to pass the parameter via module configuration:
@@ Line 28: / Line 24: @@
 <code>echo options nvidia_drm modeset=1 | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia_drm.conf</code>
-You need to regenerate the initramfs in case your distribution provides the graphics drivers in initramfs.
+You need to regenerate the initramfs in case your distribution provides the graphics drivers in initramfs (e.g. <code>sudo update-initramfs -u</code>)
 === Login ===
-* Select "Plasma (wayland)" from your login manager
+* Select “Plasma (Wayland)” from your login manager
-* Enjoy your beautiful super-fast accelerated wayland desktop!
+* Enjoy your beautiful super-fast accelerated Wayland desktop!
 === Known Limitations ===
-* Night color does not work (as of NVIDIA drivers 525.78.01) because NVIDIA does not support DRM GAMMA_LUT property (see https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=450327 and https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/issues/162)
+* Night Color is not applied to the mouse cursor: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479889
+* Poor performance on external screens on hybrid GPU setups when using NVIDIA GPU as a secondary GPU because it requires CPU copying from the primary GPU to the secondary GPU (see https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/1031, https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=452219)
-* Poor performance on external screens on hybrid GPU setups when using NVIDIA GPU as a secondary GPU because it requires CPU copying from the primary GPU to the secondary GPU (see https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/1031)