From the terminal logs I see that you have an Alienware M15 R3. Could you provide us your detailed laptops specifications? I have the suspicion that your hardware might not support Optimus at all.
I did some research and it seems that your laptop does not have Optimus at all. But it seems to have a MUX switch. So it means that you can manually switch to your GPU or CPU. I think that's why in your earlier post, you had some options missing in the Nvidia X application.
Also does pressing fn + f7 do anything?
EDIT: Before this- follow up on Taha_mcp's post checking about if you have Optimus
/end edit
If you want to try installing the 5.4 kernel on Zorin OS 16...
Run in terminal
sudo apt install linux-generic
Once installed, try installing the Nvidia Driver again.
If successful, then you will need to open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.confAs Root and comment out the line with nvidiafb to stop it from being blacklisted.
Yeah you absolutely can, with even better performance! Optimus is only for when you would like to prolong battery life. If battery life is not a concern for you, disabling optimus gives you a small performance boost.
Since you have a 1080, I think you can easily use one of the new drivers and you're golden.
You can install it by running this command: sudo aptitude install nvidia-driver-465 nvidia-settings
Then restart, and you're done! You can now play your games using your 1080 GPU.
The driver version does not matter that much. But the newer ones are generally better.
Seems like the installation was fine except for this last part at the end:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-27-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/glk_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/cml_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/icl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/ehl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/ehl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/tgl_huc_7.5.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/tgl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/tgl_huc_7.5.0.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/tgl_guc_49.0.1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/dg1_dmc_ver2_02.bin for module i915
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.2) ...
These are nothing to worry about. If you get the non-free linux-firmware package, you can usually make it go away. But as they can act as placeholders for an addition to the kernel that has not been made yet, they often go away on their own when the kernel is updated.
Taha_mcp asked me why I was trying to get the nvidia-340 driver installed. My answer was:
I go from one thread to another too quickly.
And from one Nvida thread to another...
I should have double-checked that, sorry. At the time, I meant to point out that if you follow the guide, to replace the step where it gives the terminal command to install the driver with the driver version you actually need.
By the time I got back to it, I had forgotten about it.
And it is not unusual that users are looking for Older Versions for older cards on Linux...
A lesson for me - scroll up and get re-acquainted with the thread before opening my mouth.
It is not necessary unless you are experiencing difficulties at boot.
The Grub Parameter nomodeset prevents the system from using the Nvidia card prior to the drivers for the Nvidia card being initiated during boot. This tells the system to use the dedicated graphics at boot, until after the Nvidia drivers are loaded.
What this means is that the system is working properly. Modesetting allows for the Nvidia card to be used during high graphics demand, with the dedicated card being used for lower demand. It saves battery life or power.