nvsleepify

nvsleepify is a lightweight tool written in Rust designed for Linux users who want their Nvidia dGPU to stay off. It effectively "sleeps" (powers off) and "wakes" (powers on) the GPU on demand, which is useful to prevent programs randomly waking up the dGPU wasting battery life.

Features

• Check Status: Quickly see if your Nvidia GPU is Active (D0), Suspended, or Powered Off (D3cold).
• Integrated Mode (integrated):
  • Forces the Nvidia dGPU off to save power.
  • Detects and warns about processes using the GPU.
  • Stops Nvidia systemd services (nvidia-persistenced, nvidia-powerd).
  • Unloads kernel modules (nvidia, nvidia_uvm, nvidia_modeset, nvidia_drm).
  • Unbinds the PCI driver and cuts power to the PCI slot.
• Standard Mode (standard):
  • Ensures the GPU is available for use.
  • Powers on the PCI slot, rescans the bus, reloads kernel modules, and restarts services.
• Optimized Mode (optimized):
  • Automatically switches between Standard (when plugged in) and Integrated (on battery) modes.
• VFIO Mode (vfio):
  • Binds GPU to the VFIO driver for passing thru the dGPU to a virtual machine.
• Systemd Service: Restores the last saved nvsleepify mode on boot or resume.
• Tray Applet: View GPU status and switch modes from within your DE's system tray.

Prerequisites

• Linux OS with Systemd
• Nvidia dGPU
• Dependencies:
  • lsof (for detecting processes using the GPU).
  • systemd (for managing services).
  • rust and cargo (to compile app).

Installation

From Source

You can build and install nvsleepify using the provided Makefile.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/JuanDelPueblo/nvsleepify.git
cd nvsleepify

# Build and Install
make
sudo make install

To uninstall:

sudo make uninstall

Usage

To use this tool you must enable the nvsleepifyd service as follows:

sudo systemctl enable --now nvsleepifyd.service

Tray Applet

This project comes with a tray applet called nvsleepify-tray which lets you control your GPU from within your DE's system tray. It comes with icons for different states (active, suspended, off), a right click menu to switch between modes (Standard, Integrated, Optimized), and notifications for when the GPU changes state.

CLI commands

Check Status

nvsleepify status

Displays the current PCI address, power state (D0/D3cold), and lists any device nodes or blocking processes.

Set Mode

Change the operation mode of the daemon.

Integrated (Force Off):

nvsleepify set integrated

Forces the shutdown sequence. If processes are using the GPU, it may fail or require confirmation (if run interactively or via tray).

Standard (Always On):

nvsleepify set standard

Reverses the shutdown sequence, ensuring the GPU is powered and drivers are loaded.

Optimized (Auto):

nvsleepify set optimized

Enables automatic power management based on charging status (Wake on AC, Sleep on Battery).

VFIO (Passthrough):

nvsleepify set vfio

Binds the GPU to VFIO modules, allowing a properly configured virtual machine to directly access the GPU.

Notes

• I wrote this program for personal use on an Asus Zephyrus G14 2024 running Fedora. I cannot guarantee this program will function correctly on your system, but if you encounter any issues let me know and I can try helping fix any issues when I have time.
• If using KDE Plasma, add these environment variables to /etc/environment to ensure Kwin doesn't hold the dGPU hostage if you use external displays

KWIN_DRM_DEVICES=/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card1 # where the first card is the iGPU and the second card is the dGPU
__EGL_VENDOR_LIBRARY_FILENAMES=/usr/share/glvnd/egl_vendor.d/50_mesa.json
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=mesa
VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json # different for Intel iGPUs

• At least on my laptop, with the above environment variables KDE Powerdevil will hang and crash if you don't disable DDC in ~/.config/powerdevilrc by adding

[Backlight]
EnableDDC=false

• On Fedora, you must deactivate the nvidia-settings-user.desktop autostart entry found in /etc/xdg/autostart by copying it to ~/.config/autostart/ and setting the Hidden field to true. This prevents the GPU from waking up on initial boot up.

References used

• https://github.com/Bensikrac/VFIO-Nvidia-dynamic-unbind
• https://gitlab.com/asus-linux/supreme-chainsaw/-/wikis/Manual-Steps-Guide