[SOLVED] Void Linux / AMD+Nvidia: glxinfo failing (llvmpipe) despite driver loaded

[xAlpharax]

Describe the bug
I'm not completely sure of the culprit, but picom, my compositor, was breaking recently. Upon closer inspection, picom was using glx as it's backend and that was giving this following error: glx: failed to create dri3 screen and failed to load driver: nouveau and pretty much crashing whatever was on screen, freezing or overlapping windows (I'll be detailing my WM setup below). Anyways, I worked around my compositor by just running the WM without a running compositor alongside it.

The more concerning problem was when I inspected nvtop (to check running visual applications)and running an opengl rendered game like osu-lazer, in this scenario, even though i was in nvidia mode (after a reboot) the application was running on my integrated gpu, which in turn resulted in abysmal performance and lag. The messages left in the terminal were the same: glx: failed to create dri3 screen and failed to load driver: nouveau.

I am using the proprietary nvidia driver, and these problems don't happen in integrated mode or hybrid mode. In my setup I am using my laptop with its screen off and using an external monitor as my only output.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run sudo envycontrol -s nvidia
2. Run an opengl rendered program, or try a compositor like picom picom --backend glx

Expected behavior
Receiving the messages: glx: failed to create dri3 screen and failed to load driver: nouveau.

System Information:

• Model: Acer Nitro Nitro AN515-45
• Distro: Void Linux x86_64
• Kernel: Linux 6.12.57_1 but same on 6.6 and 6.17
• WM: DWM , X11
• EnvyControl version: 3.5.2
• Nvidia driver version: nvidia-580.105.08_1
• lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne Root Complex
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne IOMMU
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe GPP Bridge
00:01.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne PCIe GPP Bridge
00:01.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:02.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne PCIe GPP Bridge
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne PCIe GPP Bridge
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Internal PCIe GPP Bridge to Bus
00:08.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir Internal PCIe GPP Bridge to Bus
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 51)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Cezanne Data Fabric; Function 7
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA104M [GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile / Max-Q] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Sandisk Corp SanDisk Ultra 3D / WD PC SN530, IX SN530, Blue SN550 NVMe SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller S4LV008[Pascal]
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Killer E2600 GbE Controller (rev 21)
05:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c5)
06:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir/Cezanne Platform Security Processor
06:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne USB 3.1
06:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Renoir/Cezanne USB 3.1
06:00.5 Multimedia controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Audio Coprocessor (rev 01)
06:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller
07:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 81)
07:00.1 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 81)

Additional context
I also tried the previous nvidia driver, and the one before it, and I got the same result. I'm not sure what is at fault here. I also tried running prime-run when the opengl applications had problems running on the dedicated card, but this wasn't making the performance much better, still about 1/3 of what it should be. So my theory is that somehow my system uses the igpu to render and this comes at high lag and bottleneck hence the massive performance drop. I'm willing to share whatever information is needed to figure this bug out. Maybe it's not envycontrol itself but maybe someone knows what part of my system I should be checking to get this fixed.

Thank you.

[xAlpharax]

alphara@deltarion ~> glxinfo | grep renderer
glx: failed to create dri3 screen
failed to load driver: nouveau
GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_gl_interop, GLX_MESA_query_renderer,
GLX_MESA_gl_interop, GLX_MESA_query_renderer, GLX_SGIS_multisample,
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.4, 256 bits)
alphara@deltarion ~>

i get this when in nvidia mode after a reboot, it should be nvidia corporation or something but instead it seems to be software rendered? like mesa taking over the opengl renderer in priority or something?

[xAlpharax]

I managed to solve this. The issue appears to be specific to how Xorg initializes on Void Linux (and potentially other rolling distros) when using EnvyControl.

The Symptoms:

• EnvyControl set to nvidia mode.
• nvidia-smi works perfectly.
• glxinfo | grep renderer fails with failed to create dri3 screen and defaults to llvmpipe (Software Rendering).
• xrandr --listproviders showed the AMD GPU as Provider 0 and Nvidia as Provider 1, even though I was in Nvidia-only mode.

The Cause:
The xorg.conf generated by EnvyControl was insufficient to force the Nvidia card to take the "Primary" role. Xorg was initializing the AMD iGPU first, but since the config was set to Nvidia mode, the GLX context broke and fell back to software.

The Fix:
I had to remove the monolithic xorg.conf generated by EnvyControl and use modular xorg.conf.d files with explicit PrimaryGPU and BusID directives.

Here are the steps that worked for me on Void Linux:

1. Clean up conflicting configs
Remove the EnvyControl generated file and disable any default AMD configs that might be interfering.

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf.disabled

2. Create a definitive OutputClass config
Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf:

Section "OutputClass"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    MatchDriver "nvidia-drm"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
    Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
    Option "Coolbits" "31"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/nvidia/xorg"
    ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Note: The PrimaryGPU "yes" option was the key missing piece.

3. Explicitly define the Device with BusID
Get your BusID from nvidia-smi or lspci (e.g., PCI:1:0:0).
Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia-busid.conf:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
    Option "NoFlip" "true"
EndSection

4. (Void Specific) Force Module Loading
Ensure the kernel modules load early to grab the device before Xorg starts.

echo "nvidia" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf
echo "nvidia-drm" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf
echo "nvidia-modeset" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/nvidia.conf

After a reboot, xrandr --listproviders now shows NVIDIA-0 as Provider 0, and hardware acceleration works perfectly. Hopefully, this helps anyone else running into the "llvmpipe" loop on Void.