Upgraded My Nvidia Driver. Now KDE Looks Like It's Ignoring X11 Config

[Ray]

Hi folks. I recently found in the Games forum that Steam stopped launching for me because a recent change to my GPU driver software meant that I needed to install a 32 bit module which was separated off into its own package. Whilst I was looking for the package to install, I realised that during my initial installation of 15.3, I had somehow failed to notice the presence of nvidia-glG06 and associated packages, and had installed the nvidia-glG05 set, instead. Since my GPU is a GTX970 and the nvidia-glG06 packages support 700 series and above, I thought it would be sensible to switch from the nvidia-glG05 to the nvidia-glG06 group of packages at the same time. The television my computer uses as a display provides incorrect EDID information which results in font sizes so small that most characters displayed in the U.I, are barely bigger than 1 pixel by two pixels in size. I did have some notes saved somewhere on how to make the fonts readable again, but I lost them. I'm fairly sure I just modified my X11 config to disable the use of EDID, add a modeline from cvt, and then change to physical measurements of the screen to a different incorrect value which made the the font sizes readable (480mm × 270 mm ≈ 100 dpi)

After installing the the nvidia-glG06 versions of all the software, I restarted my computer and found that the text in the U.I. hadn't become unreadably small, but everything does look quite fuzzy and low resolution. I had a peek at my x11 configuration file wich I normally edit to correct the font sizes, just to see what it looked like, and it doesn't seem to have changed at all, so losing my notes on editing the config doesn't seem to be the problem I expected it to be, but that also seems to mean that the X11 config is being ignored. I had a look at my Display Configuration in the System Settings found in the Suse menu, and the settings I see there seem like they're probably what's in effect now, but they're totally wrong and there are no other options to choose from. The resolution setting is 1024×768, but my television is 1920×1080 (which would explain the stretched and fuzzy appearance) and the refresh rate is set to 76 Hz, but my television is 50 Hz. 1024×768 is the only resolution available in the resolution drop box, and 76 Hz is the only refresh rate available in the refresh rate drop box.

Like I said, the information in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf remains correct and unchanged, but it also seems to be completely ignored—they aren't even offered as options in the Display Configuration drop boxes.

Anyone got any suggestions?

P.S.
Yes, glxgears does give me gears.

[thibdb13]

Maybe a stupid question: did you uninstall the nvidia-glG05 driver? The G05 and G06 stuff might be uncompatible.

[Ray]

lol, yeah I did. I used YaST to install the nvidia-glG06 packages, so as soon as those packages were selected for installation, YaST automatically selects all of the nvidia-glG05 related packages for removal.

[Ray]

Quick update to add a little bit more information:

I've just seen that KDE's desktop Software Updates notifier has told me there are a few updates available, and that one of them is for "axf86-video-vesa". This made me think that my computer might be loading a default VESA driver, rather than the nvidia one, so I asked hwinfo about my card, and here's what it said:

home:~ # hwinfo --gfxcard 
15: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)              
  [Created at pci.386] 
  Unique ID: VCu0.32p7bQdcGC4 
  Parent ID: vSkL.xltNQFyR_DB 
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0 
  Hardware Class: graphics card 
  Model: "nVidia GM204 [GeForce GTX 970]" 
  Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation" 
  Device: pci 0x13c2 "GM204 [GeForce GTX 970]" 
  SubVendor: pci 0x3842 "eVga.com. Corp." 
  SubDevice: pci 0x4975  
  Revision: 0xa1 
  Memory Range: 0xde000000-0xdeffffff (rw,non-prefetchable) 
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable) 
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xd1ffffff (ro,non-prefetchable) 
  I/O Ports: 0xe000-0xefff (rw) 
  Memory Range: 0x000c0000-0x000dffff (rw,non-prefetchable,disabled) 
  IRQ: 11 (no events) 
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd000013C2sv00003842sd00004975bc03sc00i00" 
  Driver Info #0: 
    Driver Status: nouveau is not active 
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nouveau" 
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown 
  Attached to: #12 (PCI bridge) 

Primary display adapter: #15

I notice there's no mention of nvidia in the driver modules, but I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be after the recent restructuring of the drivers, but I have my doubts. I also notice the the driver activation command given, is for nouveau. I remember that,years ago, the nouveau diver had to be blacklisted to allow the Nvidia driver to work properly, but I'm pretty sure that was completely resolved a long time ago.

Maybe it might be better to wait for 15.4 to hit the shelves, and then just do a fresh install.

[kasi042]

It seems that the nvidia driver is not working / not loaded. To reconfirm you may run "inxi -G":

pluto:~ # inxi -G 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX150] driver: nvidia v: 390.151 
  Device-3: Quanta HD Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  Display:server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver:loaded: modesetting failed: nvidia 
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL:renderer: N/A v: N/A 
pluto:~ #

What have you actually installed? Try "zypper se -is g06":

pluto:~ # LANG=C zypper se -is g04 
Loading repository data... 
Reading installed packages... 

S  | Name                      | Type    | Version                       | Arch   | Repository 
---+---------------------------+---------+-------------------------------+--------+------------------------ 
i+ | nvidia-computeG04         | package | 390.151-lp153.12.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i  | nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-default | package | 390.151_k5.3.18_57-lp153.12.1 | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i  | nvidia-glG04              | package | 390.151-lp153.12.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i  | x11-video-nvidiaG04       | package | 390.151-lp153.12.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
pluto:~ #

(Just think of G04 as G06.)
You should have these for packages. If yes, but not running it may well be that your GPU is just not properly supported. I have the same issue with mine. According to nvidia documentation it should work with G05 but that just won't work. Then you might ask in the nvidia board or just try the G05 driver (if only as interim solution).

[Ray]

Here's my output from those commands:

home:~ # inxi -G 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] driver: N/A  
           Display:server: X.org 1.20.3 driver: nouveau FAILED: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa  
           resolution: <xdpyinfo missing>  
           OpenGL:renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.4

home:~ # zypper se -is g06 
Loading repository data... 
Reading installed packages... 

S  | Name                      | Type    | Version                         | Arch   | Repository 
---+---------------------------+---------+---------------------------------+--------+------------------------ 
i  | nvidia-computeG06         | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i+ | nvidia-computeG06-32bit   | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i+ | nvidia-gfxG06-kmp-default | package | 515.43.04_k5.3.18_57-lp153.10.1 | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i  | nvidia-glG06              | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i  | x11-video-nvidiaG06       | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers

Looks like the output says the Nvidia driver is not loaded. Does this mean the G06 packages just won't work with my card? I take it the solution is to simply roll back to G05?

[kasi042]

S  | Name                      | Type    | Version                         | Arch   | Repository 
---+---------------------------+---------+---------------------------------+--------+------------------------ 
i  | nvidia-computeG06         | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 
i+ | nvidia-computeG06-32bit   | package | 515.43.04-lp153.10.1            | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers 

For sure the nvidia driver failed to load. I'm not sure, why. I didn't get that thing about the "32 bit module which was separated off into its own package." Why would in a modern system the update of the GPU driver require a 32 bit package? Can you provide more information about this?
What if you just try to remove that package in YaST or

zypper rm nvidia-computeG06-32bit

Anything complaining for dependency going amiss? If not, just remove it and restart. Any change?

[mrmazda]

inxi -Ga does a much better job of providing useful Graphics information, especially after upgrading 15.3's broken antique version to something recent. Use inxi -U to upgrade to upstream's current. If and when Leap gets an upgraded inxi, what will actually happen is a downgrade, unless the new rpm arrives within a month or so of latest upstream release. At some point you'll need to use -U again if you wish to stay current. If you don't want downgrades to happen, uninstall the inxi rpm, and install the upstream script.

<xdpyinfo missing>

That will go away if you install package xdpyinfo.

xf86-video-vesa and xf86-video-fbdev are fallback drivers, something capable to provide a crippled X instead of blackscreening when the KMS or NVidia's drivers aren't working. Metapackage xorg-x11-driver-video causes installation of xf86-video-*. If using NVidia's proprietary drivers, none of xf86-video-* need to be installed, if NVidia is working, so it's useful to keep the two fallbacks.

[Kieltux]

Why would in a modern system the update of the GPU driver require a 32 bit package?

For 32-bit applications like steam. The 32-bit driver and libs where included before in the "normal" package.

I am running the G05 package (including the three 32-bit rpms for Steam) on openSUSE Leap 15.3 with a Nvidia RTX3060 without problems.
The G06 package is based on Nvidia driver 515.43.04 which is a beta version. Maybe this is the problem.

[FrankyU2]

Following a similar path to yours I found that the /etc/modprobe.d/50-nvidia-default.conf was no longer present. Restoring it from 50-nvidia-default.conf.rpmsave solved the issue for me if I remember correctly.