Installation of Manjaro 17 and nvidia/bumblebee drivers on Avell G1513

manjaro-avell-g1513.md

After a weekend of research, stress and pain I finally figure out how to install manjaro 17 and configure the nvidia/bumblebee drivers on my avell laptop

Here's my notebook specs:

$ inxi -MGCNA

Machine:   Device: laptop System: Avell High Performance product: 1513
           Mobo: N/A model: N/A v: 0.1 UEFI: American Megatrends v: N.1.02 date: 09/28/2016
Battery    BAT0: charge: 44.0 Wh 100.0% condition: 44.0/44.0 Wh (100%)
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-6700HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 3500 MHz 1: 2598 MHz 2: 2604 MHz 3: 2568 MHz 4: 2581 MHz 5: 2609 MHz 6: 2566 MHz
           7: 2593 MHz 8: 2601 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel HD Graphics 530
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.3 driver: intel Resolution: 1920x1080@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.5
Audio:     Card Intel Sunrise Point-H HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.9.27-1-MANJARO
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           Card-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi

The first problem occurred when booting the live usb with nonfree drivers, it simply hangs with the message A start job is running for LiveMedia MHWD Script. Possibly the Manjaro Hardware Detection(a.k.a MHWD) couldn't configure the correct drivers for this setup. I tryed some flags like xdriver=vesa, nouveau.modeset=0, and finally nomodeset that brings me a bit closer to the xserver session, but again it hangs now with the message Started TLP system startup/shutdown.

With some research I find the kernel flag systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service that brings me to the manjaro live session (blocks the mhwd from detecting the optimal drivers).

Then I start the installer and proceed with a normal installation but the installer again gets stuck now in 78% Running mhwdcfg, the screen simply freezes. To get arround this problem I restart and use the same flag described above to get into the live session and comment the run method on /lib/calamares/modules/mhwdcfg/main.py at the end of the file and repeat the installation again:

def run():
    """ Configure the hardware """
    
    mhwd = MhwdController()
    
    # return mhwd.run()
    return None # <- Add this and comment the above line

With this trick I finished the installation, restart and manjaro works fine!

First of all update your system with sudo pacman -Syu and once completed install the linux headers with sudo pacman -S linux49-headers(use your kernel version) then the non-free drivers with sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300 and follow the bumblebee instruction from manjaro website.

Reboot the system and add the following kernel flags otherwise the system won't boot:

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi="Windows 2009"

Once you get into your graphical interface test if bumblebee is running correctly:

systemctl status bumblebeed
optirun -b none nvidia-settings -c :8

You should see the nvidia-settings showing your dedicated GPU, for me works like a charm!

Don't forget to add acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=\"Windows 2009\" to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT on /etc/default/grub and run sudo update-grub or grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg if the alias is not defined in your system.

Don't forget to prepend optirun or primusrun before any command in order to run with the dedicated GPU. E.g. optirun blender

Thanks so much OP