HP Zbook Firefly on UBUNTU, Cant use the NVIDIA card + DUAL Monitors

[mrjimp]

Hi guys.

I havea HP ZBook Firefly from my customer that I installed UBUNTU on.

It installed without a hitch, but when restarting after the install (where desktop sound and everything has been working) i get greeted with a black screen.

After messing alot with the nvidia drivers, i got the tip to boot it with only the intel card active: `sudo prime-select intel`
And Viola, now I can use the machine. Obviously due to some screen flickering this  is not optimal, but his configuration works.

I have every now and then tried to make the NVIDIA card work with reinstalling the drivers etc. When it is done the desktop wont show, but the nvidia card _seems_ to work alright. Using nvidia-smi from the console you can see it is running some processes, but no desktop manager is showing. I have tried both XORG and WAYLAND display servers, with the same result.

Also, connecting multiple displays does not work. I'm assuming this is related, but I might be wrong.

Further more I've tried upgrading to ubuntu 24.04 LTS but it is still the same behaviour.

Can someone lend a hand here?

Regards /Jimmi

[Letitiahappines]

Hi 

Not sure which generation of platform your customer purchased. May you try HP standard image that uploaded in HP.com for HP ZBook Firefly 14/16  G11 ? 

https://support.hp.com/tw-zh/drivers/hp-zbook-firefly-14-inch-g11-mobile-workstation-pc/2101990484 

[mrjimp]

Hi Letitia,

Thank you for your answer.

I have been working on this PC for over 6 months now, I'm not ready to try a reinstallation at this point.

Do you know how this image differs from the default Ubuntu one?

If so I could try to install the missing packages/Drivers on my current installation?

Regards /Jimmi

[Letitiahappines]

Hi Jimp,

Since I don't have full information of your PC. The HP standard image is the version that have been certified by Ubuntu which means it's a stable version to do the first triage. (it would be good if you have another SSD can do the validation)
While there might be some code/package that been changed from time to time then some unexpected issues occour especially Ubuntu is doing the transition recently.

Have you select "Install third-party software for graphic" during the installation ?  

kernel 6.8.0-48-generic + 550.107.02 works properly on the Firefly I have after doing update and upgrade.

do you have 6.5 kernel in grub list ?

[mrjimp]

Hi Again Letitia.

I have 6.8.0-45 and 6.8.0-47 in my kernel list. (Where do you see the remaining numbers? +550.107.02?)
cat /proc/version gives me `6.8.0-47-generic (build@lcy02-amd64-023)`

Yes I chose to install third party drivers upon installation, but I have since then uninstalled the nvidia drivers. This due to me running only on intel and several tries to fix it which included purging the system from drivers and reinstalling them.

I ended up purging them since it felt cleaner.

I also right now do not know which generation of machine I have. Its a zbook, has 32gb of ram, intel core ultra 7 (According to the sticker), and RTX A 500 laptop GPU (according to software and updates)

if you feel up to it you can give me a checklist to reinstall the nvidia drivers and kernel version and we can see where it goes.

Maybe I can film it if things go wrong. I have a suspicion not everything is well with this machine, but thats probably just me.

thanks for your help!

[Letitiahappines]

Hi Jimp,

You can refer to below article to know your nv driver version.  There might be somthing wrong if you are not able to get the information thru either command or graphic interface.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-check-nvidia-driver-version-on-your-linux-system 

good to know you are using 6.8.0-47-generic.

Have you try to do below with internet connected after you boot to the OS ?

sudo apt update 

sudo apt upgrade

another try I found, if you are installaing the image from this version : https://releases.ubuntu.com/jammy/ 

supposely you should have 6.8.0-40-generic 

you should boot wihout issues based on this kernel + the latest nv driver 

[mrjimp]

Hi Letitia.
I just tried booting on 6.8.0-40-generic.

Machine starts but I have no network. So I guess that kernel is out.
Unless I need to configure it somehow differently than what is is right now.
(I'm using a wired network using an usb  dock with a network connector on. Also I did not see any wifi options when booting on the 40-generic kernel)
I also noted that I'm letting the "Software and updates" handle the nvidia driver, and I'm getting confused.
Software and updates says I'm using the noveu nvidia driver.
nvidia-detecter tells me nvidia-driver-550
and prime-select query tells me intel, but that is set on purpose.

Anything else you want me to try?

Regards /Jimmi

[Letitiahappines]

Hi Jimp,

The purpose here to run on kernel 40 is to prove that the balckscreen can be fixed based on some update.

still suggest to do online update to get the latest packages provided by Ubuntu or run on a stable version that certified by Ubuntu.

[mrjimp]

I did run apt update and apt upgrade.

I thought ubuntu 24.04 LTS _was_ a stable version certified by ubuntu. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Further, this is my everyday working laptop. I cannot afford this to end up in a state so I lose worktime.

I can spend a few hours per week to try and fix this, so sure I can try a few things, but don't expect me to do a full re install (Already did that a few times when I initially installed it to no awail), or do something that will make me lose valuable work time.

But maybe I was not being detailed enough in my first post:

When installing ubuntu from the stick, the first desktop that you boot into, it had no problems at all. Nvidia was working, sound was working, dual monitors where working. It was after the first reboot that the problems started. And i cannot understand why, since it had everything up and running flawlessly when I installed it.

I reinstalled maybe three times, different ubuntu images all LTS versions from their site.

I'm sorry I cant just reinstall, and booting from a stick is not a valid option since it does work.

[Letitiahappines]

Hi Jimp,

I am sorry, there is still few issues in 24.04 as far as I know and Ubuntu team is working to solve soon. Their guaranteed version on latest G11 Firefly series is 22.04. G11 Firefly Datasheet  
Since it’s your working laptop, may you pardon to wait for bit and do the update again. 
Another tip that you may know but share here for your information.

Firefly has UMA mode to deactivate nv GPU in BIOS set up .

Enter BIOS set up 

In the Startup Menu, press the f10 key to enter the BIOS setup utility. Click Advanced. Select Built-In Device Options. Change from hybrid to UMA mode.