Hello,
I’m trying to set up my laptop (an Optimus one), on SolusOS, which has a NVIDIA GTX860M and an Intel Graphics 4600 for some Counter-Strike GO sessions.
That leads me to install the proprietary drivers. I’ve noticed some screen tearing while browsing, so i went to Dr. Google and someone suggested that i should go to the Advanced settings under X Server Display Configuration and Force Full Composition Pipeline.
I couldn’t do so, as there’s a message in that sub-menu that says:
Also, when i go another menu, specifically X Server XVideo Settings, the currently synced to display also shows as ‘Unknown’, as you can see below:
What does this exactly mean? I can’t configure my display, even colors (for example, if i want to ramp up the saturation, i can’t do it either).
Do i have to change something in xorg.conf? Here’s what mine currently states:
Section "Module"
Load "modesetting"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "1:0:0"
Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
EndSection
Thank you for any clarifications you can provide!
Ol’ auntie Google was wrong, at least in Optimus context.
The solution is PRIME sync, it needs kernel>=4.5, xserver>=1.19 and kernel parameter
nvidia-drm.modeset=1
and tearing is gone. But you will have to create a new xorg.conf, take the one for “older” xservers from the manual without the ‘section module load modesetting’ directive.
Some switches missing in nvidia xserver settings in the Optimus case is normal.
Your google searches were not really wrong. They were just answering a different question.
The force composition pipeline option may also be needed to fix tearing, but it addresses a different problem to prime sync. You can’t activate force composition pipeline on the display which is using the intel driver (your laptop panel, if you are using Optimus), although I don’t know why. If you had an external monitor, when you click its representation in the in the Nvidia control panel, you will be able to configure force composition pipeline. So it only helps for tearing on monitors which are directly rendered by the nvida card (external monitors, or the laptop panel if you had the BIOS option of not using the intel hardware, which both my Thinkpads have). I have a startup script that always turns it on.
Prime sync stops tearing on the Intel panel when you are using Optimus.
So I use both when I’m running in Optimus mode and have external monitors attached.
