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🗓️ 31032025 1143
📎 #wip

hyprland_dump

🧠 High-Level Goal​

You're preparing your system to:

✅ Boot cleanly and initialize the NVIDIA GPU early, ✅ Enable DRM kernel mode setting, ✅ Support Wayland-based compositors like Hyprland, ✅ Avoid flickering, broken rendering, or fallback to X11.

🧩 Components Involved​

Linux Kernel​

Loads GPU drivers at boot (nvidia, nvidia_drm, etc.)

Provides device interfaces for rendering (/dev/dri/card0)

Needs initramfs to preload modules before userspace starts

NVIDIA Kernel Modules​

nvidia: core driver

nvidia_modeset: for managing display modes

nvidia_uvm: for CUDA and memory stuff

nvidia_drm: integrates with the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) subsystem

DRM KMS (Kernel Mode Setting)​

Allows the kernel to initialize the display hardware (resolution, refresh, etc.)

Required for modern Wayland compositors

When modeset=1 is enabled, nvidia_drm exposes /dev/dri/card0

🟡 If this is not enabled, Wayland compositors fail to start with NVIDIA!

initramfs​

A pre-boot environment that loads essential kernel modules before the full system starts

You need to regenerate this (update-initramfs) when you:

Add modules

Change KMS options

modprobe.d​

Holds .conf files that pass options to kernel modules (e.g., modeset=1)

When nvidia_drm loads, it reads from this to know whether to enable DRM mode

Wayland Compositor (Hyprland)​

Requires a working DRM interface and GPU backend

Talks directly to /dev/dri/card0 (provided by KMS)

Needs EGL/GBM (or EGLStreams, though GBM is preferred with recent NVIDIA)

User Space Drivers​

Installed via nvidia-utils-, libnvidia-gl-, etc.

Provide OpenGL/Vulkan/EGL support

Needed for any graphical application, Wayland or not

🔄 Lifecycle of a Boot With DRM + NVIDIA + Hyprland​

  1. Boot loader (GRUB) starts Linux kernel
  2. initramfs loads → preloads nvidia modules (initramfs-tools)
  3. Kernel loads nvidia, nvidia_modeset, nvidia_drm
  4. nvidia_drm reads modprobe config → enables DRM mode (modeset=1)
  5. /dev/dri/card0 becomes available early
  6. Login manager or shell session launches Hyprland
  7. Hyprland talks to GPU via DRM+GBM+EGL
  8. You get a flicker-free, GPU-accelerated Wayland session ✅ Why You’re Doing This

Problem Without KMS What You Fix With This Setup​

  • Wayland won’t start modeset=1 enables /dev/dri early
  • Screen flickers or black screen DRM initializes GPU and screen cleanly
  • Early boot shows no framebuffer fbdev=1 shows proper tty or boot splash
  • Hyprland crashes or uses software rendering DRM + GBM + NVIDIA userspace provide full acceleration

References

  • CHatGPT