Can't boot after 3.16.7-29 kernel update, GTX 970 driver I think needs update but I don't know how

English Hardware
1

I think I need to uninstall my manually installed graphics driver after a kernel update.

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version

outputs

lspci | grep VGA ; lsmod | grep "kms\|drm" ; find /dev -group video ; \
cat /proc/cmdline ; find /etc/modprobe.d/; cat /etc/modprobe.d/*kms* ; \
ls /etc/X11/xorg.conf ; glxinfo | grep -i "vendor\|rendering" ; \
grep LoadModule /var/log/Xorg.0.log

How do I do this, please? I can’t remember how I installed it :/.

My reasoning:

I’m running 13.2 x64, previously with 3.16.7-24 kernel, which was and if selected from GRUB still is working.

OS prompted kernel update, but the new kernel, 3.16.7-29, hangs on boot. I think graphics driver most likely at fault and recovery mode also fails.

I didn’t use the nVidia Graphics Drivers repo driver because it wouldn’t work for me.
Installing a working graphics driver at all required a lot of trial and error in fact.
I remember some page recommended that with a GTX 970 I shouldn’t use what at the time was the newest driver on nVidia’s site, that it wouldn’t work (and this info was right)

I will follow the instructions on https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers after uninstalling my driver.

2

If you installed the driver by downloading the .run installer from nvidia, you have to reinstall it after every kernel update.

How do I do this, please? I can’t remember how I installed it :/.

Well, let’s find out.
Please post the output of:

rpm -qa | grep nvidia

I didn’t use the nVidia Graphics Drivers repo driver because it wouldn’t work for me.

Then you probably did install it “the hard way”, i.e by downloading and running NIVIDA-xxx.run.

I remember some page recommended that with a GTX 970 I shouldn’t use what at the time was the newest driver on nVidia’s site, that it wouldn’t work (and this info was right)

Well, the latest driver (G04) that supports your card was missing from the repo till some months ago, but it is available meanwhile.

You should be able to run this to uninstall the driver then:

sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall

Afterwards, do as the instructions you mention tell you:
Enter YaST->Software Repositories, click on “Add”, choose “Community Repositories” and activate the nvidia repo.
Then enter YaST->Software Management, and the correct driver packages should be selected for installation automatically.
If not, select them manually, you need those packages:
nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-desktop, nvidia-uvm-gfxG04-kmp-desktop, nvidia-computeG04, nvidia-glG04, x11-video-nvidia
(if you select the last one, all others should be chosen automatically)

Or run this in a terminal window:

sudo zypper ar -f ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/13.2 nvidia
sudo zypper in nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-desktop, nvidia-uvm-gfxG04-kmp-desktop, nvidia-computeG04, nvidia-glG04, x11-video-nvidia

Note that these exact packages only apply if you are using kernel-desktop.
To be sure, please post the output of “uname -a”.

3

Thank you :slight_smile: I’m writing this having just restarted and let the new kernel boot, succesfully :).

rpm -qa | grep nvidia

returned nothing, with or without sudo, and I couldn’t spot anything in rpm -qa’s output that looked relevant.

I decided to try

sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall

It loaded up an uninstaller, so I cancelled it first run and checked I was running kernel-desktop and then ran it again, then used the YaST instructions, which I chose because I didn’t know if I’d get updates automatically if I use zypper instead.

Hope you’re having a great day :).

4

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/510681-Installing-proprietary-Nvidia-drivers-breaks-my-system-(GTX-970)

Check there. I wrote how I fixed it at my GTX 970