I have a Clevo laptop with an NVIDIA RTX 2050 and integrated Intel graphics, running Arch Linux with KDE on Wayland. My current setup appears to use NVIDIA-only mode, since system information lists the RTX 2050 twice instead of showing the Intel GPU. After running a full system update with pacman, including Mesa and the open NVIDIA DKMS driver, rendering falls back to llvmpipe after reboot. I'm unsure why the NVIDIA device disappears, whether this is related to PRIME configuration, and how to properly enable hybrid graphics or Optimus PRIME on Wayland. Before the update, nvidia-smi worked, but afterward it reports "No devices found."
2 Answers
optimus-manager can help switch between integrated and NVIDIA graphics, but it is mainly designed around Xorg and may not be the best solution for a KDE Wayland session. For Wayland, start by getting the normal NVIDIA driver working, then configure hybrid rendering with the current NVIDIA DRM/KMS setup. Also confirm that the NVIDIA package matches your kernel and that modesetting is enabled. PRIME configuration cannot work while the driver is missing, which is why the desktop is using llvmpipe.
This may not be a PRIME problem yet. If nvidia-smi now says “No devices found,” the NVIDIA kernel module probably failed to load or the installed module no longer matches the running kernel. Check the kernel logs with journalctl or dmesg, verify that the matching headers are installed for your kernel, and inspect the DKMS status. Once the driver loads correctly, KDE should stop falling back to llvmpipe. It’s also worth checking whether the NVIDIA module is blacklisted or whether an initramfs rebuild is needed after the update.
That makes sense. nvidia-smi worked before the update, but now it immediately returns “No devices found,” so I’ll check the DKMS build, kernel headers, and boot logs first.
So the immediate issue is the broken NVIDIA driver after the update, not choosing between PRIME modes. I’ll fix that first before trying a graphics-switching tool.