Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

forestoner42174 · Yesterday 13:35:19

I have recently entered the following into my terminal:

lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D"

Which gave an output of:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
0a:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] (rev a1)

I noticed that there was no "VGA Controller" for my nvidia gpu, and I don't believe that's normal.
Some applications have also taken to using the igpu, so I believe this might be the issue.
Is there any way I can fix this?

Here's my specs:

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.74-1-lts arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
  Desktop: Hyprland v: 0.54.0 Distro: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC
    v: 098C110000404100000610180 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 2166 v: 29.40 serial: <superuser required>
    Firmware: UEFI vendor: Insyde v: F.42 date: 12/04/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 21.3 Wh (100%) condition: 21.3/21.3 Wh (100%)
    volts: 16.82 min: 14.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i7-4500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2694 min/max: 800/3000 cores: 1: 2694 2: 2694 3: 2694
    4: 2694 bogomips: 19162
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: nvidia v: 470.256.02 arch: Kepler-2 bus-ID: 0a:00.0
  Device-3: Chicony HP Truevision HD camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    bus-ID: 1-3:3
  Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 24.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
    compositor: Hyprland v: 0.54.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: i915
    resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,nvidia,swrast platforms:
    active: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: device-2
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 470.256.02
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M/PCIe/SSE2
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.74-1-lts status: kernel-api
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.10 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Ralink RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 08:00.0
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 4000 bus-ID: 09:00.0
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: CloudflareWARP state: unknown speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Ralink RT3290 Bluetooth vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A
    bus-ID: 08:00.1
  Report: This feature requires one of these tools: hciconfig/bt-adapter
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 128.59 GiB (53.9%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda model: SSD-256G size: 238.47 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot size: 1022 MiB used: 98 MiB (9.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-4: /var/log size: 237.47 GiB used: 128.49 GiB (54.1%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 4 GiB used: 768 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 66.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.69 GiB used: 2.19 GiB (28.5%)
  Processes: 231 Uptime: 1h 2m Init: systemd
  Packages: 1488 Compilers: clang: 21.1.8 gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.9
    inxi: 3.3.40

Scimmia · Yesterday 13:37:59

What are we trying to fix? What actual problems are you having?

forestoner42174 · Yesterday 14:23:55

I don't believe this behavior is normal, and there might be a few applications using my igpu that I am not aware of.
I'm trying to properly configure my gpu so that no applications resort to using my igpu.
I couldn't find anything to help me do this, so I'm asking for help with the topic.

Lone_Wolf · Yesterday 15:35:21

Your laptop uses Hybrid Graphics .

Simply put the video outputs the laptop offers are connected to the primary gpu . Secondary GPUs can only output stuff by using the primary gpu .
lspci lists GPUs with their own outputs as VGA Controller, the ones without outputs are listed as 3D Controller.

Many laptops use this setup and there are also desktops that do.

Is it normal : unfortunately the answer is yes, and very common

The PRIME wiki page has details how to use this type of setup.

forestoner42174 · Yesterday 16:32:46

Thank you, I appreciate the explanation and the link.

I believe that "Nvidia X server" has a setting under "Prime Profiles" that uses my dedicated gpu for everything, but those settings aren't showing up, even while using X11.
Is there something I can do to fix this?

Lone_Wolf · Today 09:29:31

Desktop: Hyprland

You're running on wayland, not on X .

Is nvidia-prime installed ?

Arch Linux

#1 Yesterday 13:35:19

Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#2 Yesterday 13:37:59

Re: Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#3 Yesterday 14:23:55

Re: Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#4 Yesterday 15:35:21

Re: Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#5 Yesterday 16:32:46

Re: Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

#6 Today 09:29:31

Re: Missing VGA controller for nvidia gpu on wayland

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