This laptop has an i7 processor and a discrete Nvidia GTX 960M card. I'm trying to run Gnome Shell. Has anyone got this working really well? And if so, how?

My research/trials on Ubuntu Gnome 16.04, installed in UEFI mode. Note: stock Ubuntu with Unity works fine with/without proprietary drivers.

Intel/Nouveau

The nouveau drivers work for everything (i.e. I get Gnome up with the full resolution, touch works) except HDMI. When I plug in a FHD external monitor (VGA or HDMI), either I get what looks like a proper image on the external screen but with a flashy-mostly-black laptop display, or I get static images on both screens and a complete hang that you have to hard-boot from.

Nvidia 361.28

Both the 'tested' and the 'updates' versions work the same way: they don't.

On booting I get a console screen in UHD that flashes on and off and does not accept keyboard input, most of the time.

Hybrid: Gnome Shell installed on main Ubuntu image/lightdm

Gnome shell runs with both intel and nvidia graphics if it is started by lightdm, however it still kills the system if an external monitor is plugged in.

1 Answer

Switching the intel driver from SNA to UXA helped quite a bit. No more weird artefacts, though still some freezing when switching modes.

I had a similar experience with the nvidia-361 driver. I did get it working on a external HDMI monitor, but it was not always reliable.

Section "Device" Identifier "Intel Graphics" Driver "intel" Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Add this to xorg config by adding to a file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d

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