Seems like your operating system only sees the integrated intel graphics card.
(This card is integrated in the cpu itself. That is why it sometimes is not listed in the notebook specs.)
This means you have a hybrid setup, but the nvidia card is not seen.
Run some benchmark test.
Hey guys, thanks for all your efforts up until now.
I know I am seeking help here, so I don’t want to over-criticize but I feel like first saying “If it outputs 2 lines, it’s hybrid” and then, after I tested it otherwise saying “your operating system only sees 1 card” confuses me. What should I believe now? Or could you explain maybe?
Also, where do I find this “some benchmark test”? 
If I could solve this problem myself, I’d do it, I swear. Please be specific in your answers, thanks. I try to be as precise and exact on my behalf too. Thank you everyone for helping me out here.
could it be a bios setting?
in some pc you cand enable/disable video cards also in bios
Now with more detail:
The command i gave you should output all graphics cards your operating system can find. (Without the pipe into grep it outputs everything that is connected to the pci bus.)
In your case this command tells us that your operating system only knows about an intel graphics card. There are now 3 options:
option 1: you have a hybrid setup but your operating system does not see your nvida card. (I do not know why this could be the case. This is something you will need to look into yourself or ask at a ubuntu forum.)
option 2: You don’t have a hybrid setup. This would mean you do not have a nvidia card in your laptop.
option 3: Your operating system misidentified your graphics card. (I don’t think this is the case.)
I simplified my answer because above you stated you are an experienced linux user.
Follow the link i posted above?!
It is an article about how to benchmark test under ubuntu/mint (You stated you run ubuntu)
It even gives you two apt-get commants that install the needed benchmarks.
So why did i give you a link to this article?
This article does not only explain how to install and run the benchmark but also how to interpret the result.
If this benchmarks run without problems, the problem is inside of kicad.
If not then you might need to talk to the kicad guys who developed the 3d viewer. Maybe the problem is still within kicad, maybe it is a driver problem, maybe your intel card lacks some features, …
Hey Rene, thanks for the kind explanation. No hard feelings. I didn’t see your link because I thought it’s an advertisement. It’s the first time I am using this forum here, I am “coming” from the yahoo kicad-dev group, so the looks of this forum is new to me. Sorry for missing it. This is the output:
chrisi@mobstation:~$ glmark2
=======================================================
glmark2 2012.08
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR: Intel Open Source Technology Center
GL_RENDERER: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Broadwell
GL_VERSION: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 926 FrameTime: 1.080 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 986 FrameTime: 1.014 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 861 FrameTime: 1.161 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 827 FrameTime: 1.209 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 845 FrameTime: 1.183 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 895 FrameTime: 1.117 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 887 FrameTime: 1.127 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 885 FrameTime: 1.130 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 840 FrameTime: 1.190 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 978 FrameTime: 1.022 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 976 FrameTime: 1.025 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 670 FrameTime: 1.493 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 485 FrameTime: 2.062 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 778 FrameTime: 1.285 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 518 FrameTime: 1.931 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 657 FrameTime: 1.522 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 439 FrameTime: 2.278 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 465 FrameTime: 2.151 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 486 FrameTime: 2.058 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 812 FrameTime: 1.232 ms
[jellyfish] <default>: FPS: 700 FrameTime: 1.429 ms
[terrain] <default>: FPS: 128 FrameTime: 7.812 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 826 FrameTime: 1.211 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 837 FrameTime: 1.195 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 827 FrameTime: 1.209 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 821 FrameTime: 1.218 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 839 FrameTime: 1.192 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 818 FrameTime: 1.222 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 830 FrameTime: 1.205 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 840 FrameTime: 1.190 ms
=======================================================
glmark2 Score: 756
=======================================================
As far as I can tell, every test “worked”. At least I could watch lots of transformation loops.
So, following your logic, this bug indeed seems to be one of KiCad -right?
More info: My laptop: Acer Aspire V Nitro VN7-571G-56BR. If I read the specs correctly, I am supposed to have a GeForce 940M.
Your OpenGL test is using the Intel graphics
At least this is the end of where i can help you.
maybe @cbernardo knows more?
If you want to used this graphics card you will need to ask somewhere in an ubuntu forum on how to get it running.
As does kicad. Kicad should also run under intel graphics. (If the card is strong enough, which it seems to be if it runs the benchmark smoothly.)
You should, but may be the bios is not enabling your card
I checked this and my BIOS is absolutely useless. Basically Wake-On-Wifi is the only useful thing I can set there…
Maybe you need a BIOS upgrade then? or try to find some info for that model of laptop you got, that tell you how to enable the 2nd GPU?
Maybe it’s UEFI?
Hm… look what I found:
Aha! Unfortunately Acer provides BIOS updates only for Windows operating systems. I also think my BIOS should be up to date because I bought it more than half a year after the latest update got published. It contains conflicting version info though, so I can’t be 100% sure. I assume that Acer just locks these settings away to avoid support requests from unexperienced users.
Thanks anyway though.
Just tried the nightlies too but the bug is persistent. In the newer version I at least see some data in the status bar (loading time, fps, …) and it keeps on updating when I interfere with the “dead” portion of the window but I never see any 3D objects or anything really other than the screenshot in my first posting.
Unfortunately that doesn’t work because the text associated with the NVidia GPU doesn’t contain ‘VGA’. My HP laptop (a piece of rubbish) has 2 GPUs:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 850M] (rev ff)
Yeah, I can actually also get out both graphics cards by typing
chrisi@mobstation:~$ lshw -c video WARNUNG: Sie sollten dieses Programm mit Systemverwalterrechten (root) ausführen. *-display Beschreibung: VGA compatible controller Produkt: Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics Hersteller: Intel Corporation Physische ID: 2 Bus-Informationen: pci@0000:00:02.0 Version: 09 Breite: 64 bits Takt: 33MHz Fähigkeiten: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom Konfiguration: driver=i915 latency=0 Ressourcen: irq:49 memory:c2000000-c2ffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:5000(Größe=64) *-display UNGEFORDERT Beschreibung: 3D controller Produkt: GM108M [GeForce 940M] Hersteller: NVIDIA Corporation Physische ID: 0 Bus-Informationen: pci@0000:04:00.0 Version: a2 Breite: 64 bits Takt: 33MHz Fähigkeiten: cap_list Konfiguration: latency=0 Ressourcen: memory:c3000000-c3ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff memory:c0000000-c1ffffff ioport:3000(Größe=128) WARNUNG: Ausgabe kann unvollständig oder fehlerhaft werden, Sie sollten dieses Programm mit Systemverwalterrechten (root) ausführen.
If al tests passed and Pcbnew is working with OpenGL mode, than it must be a 3D Viewer issue… but I believe this would some issue related or in relation to wxWidgets (The GUI toolkit used for KiCad) or some option that is passed to OpenGL that on this configuration is not accepting it…
Some time ago we receive a bug notification and in the end the problem was because the use was using a GPU dongle (USB?) so this was also a problem of double GPU on the same PC.
I have no idea how to fix it.
Maybe only getting access to a laptop and try to make some experiences with trial and error…
In my case the Intel integrated GPU is good enough - I guess we’re not using any really new shaders. The NVidia GPU is noticeably better though.
