argos-indicator-nvidia-prime

Gnome Shell Indicator for NVidia Prime, using Argos API

Requirements

• Argos Gnome Shell extension.
• nvidia-prime: sudo apt install nvidia-prime
• one of the following:
  • pkroot - minimum already provided in this repository
  • gksu: sudo apt install gksu
  • gnomesu - OpenSuSE only

Installation

Install Argos Gnome-Shell extension.

Create directory ~/.local/share/icons if it does not exist:

! [ -d "~/.local/share/icons" ] && mkdir --parents ~/.local/share/icons || trueg

Then:

git clone https://github.com/cyberalex4life/argos-indicator-nvidia-prime.git
cd argos-indicator-nvidia-prime

# copy icons
cp -v icons/* ~/.local/share/icons/

# copy 'nvidia-prime.r.2s.sh' to 'argos' folder
cp -v nvidia-prime.r.2s.sh ~/.config/argos/

# copy polkit policy in place
sudo cp org.freedesktop.policykit.pkexec.prime-select.policy /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/

# copy pkroot to '/usr/local/bin' and make sure it is executable
sudo cp pkroot /usr/local/bin
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/pkroot

Uninstall

# remove icons
rm ~/.local/share/icons-to-delete/{nvidia-active-symbolic.svg,nvidia-inactive-symbolic.svg,prime-indicator-intel.svg,prime-indicator-intel-symbolic.svg,prime-indicator-nvidia.svg}

# remove policy
sudo rm org.freedesktop.policykit.pkexec.prime-select.policy /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/

# remove argos extension script
rm ~/.config/argos/nvidia-prime.r.2s.sh

# remove pkroot script
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/pkroot

Then uninstall Argos if you don't need it anymore.

Note!

• To make the indicator ask for password when switching video cards, you can either fully install 'pkroot' or edit 'org.freedesktop.policykit.pkexec.prime-select.policy' such that these lines:

  <defaults>
  <allow_any>yes</allow_any>
  <allow_inactive>yes</allow_inactive>
  <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
  </defaults>
  

  look like this:

  <defaults>
  <allow_any>auth_admin</allow_any>
  <allow_inactive>auth_admin</allow_inactive>
  <allow_active>auth_admin</allow_active>
  </defaults>
  

• You can also modify second line from 'nvidia-prime.r.2s.sh':

  run_as_root="pkroot -d" # gksu; pkroot; gnomesu -c;
  

  into:

  run_as_root="gksu" # gksu; pkroot; gnomesu -c;
  

  to use 'gksu' in Ubuntu or Debian based distro's.

  'gnomesu -c' is meant for OpenSuSE, though the script might not be ready for anything other than Ubuntu's nvidia-prime.

  In general "run_as_root" has to support the following syntax:

  run_as_root "<command_or_list_of_commands>"
  

  where "" is the way commands are coded (and \\\" is nothing but an escape sequence).

• To further modify position and execution timings read:

  Filename format (for Argos plugins)

  A plugin file may be named anything (it only needs to be executable), but if its name has the special form

  NAME.POSITION.INTERVAL[+].EXTENSION
  

  where

  • POSITION consists of an integer (optional) + one of l (left), c (center) or r (right), and
  • INTERVAL consists of an integer + one of s (seconds), m (minutes), h (hours) or d (days)

  then

  • the dropdown menu button is placed in the panel at POSITION, and
  • the plugin is re-run and its output re-rendered every INTERVAL, and
  • if INTERVAL is followed by +, the plugin is additionally re-run each time the dropdown menu is opened.

  POSITION may be omitted entirely (in which case the button is placed before all other buttons on the right-hand side of the panel) while INTERVAL can be left empty. For example, a script named plugin.10s.sh is updated every 10 seconds, the button belonging to plugin.1c..sh is positioned just right of the GNOME Shell clock, and plugin.l.1m.sh is displayed left of the "Activities" button and updated every minute.

Other indicators:

• argos-indicator-cpupower - for switching CPU governors
• argos-indicator-tlp - for switching tlp daemon power modes (AC/battery)