Graphics Crash With Old Nvidia Graphics Card

English Hardware
1

Hello,

I am a new to Linux.

I am trying to install LEAP 15.3 on a very old desktop and I am facing issues.

My hardware is as below:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2
Motherboard: ASUS CROSSHAIR AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
GPU: ASUS NVIDIA 7900 GTO

I am trying to install off a bootable USB drive.

During the installation, all hardware is identified properly.

The installer starts with no issues and the graphics are fine. I go through all the steps to install KDE Desktop while choosing all online repositories.

The installer finishes and asks for a reboot.

During bootup there are lots of errors reported for nouveau.

I get a boot screen with moving circle animation at the bottom of the screen. Then suddenly the graphics goes all bonkers and it is like a screen filled with noise. I can see the placement of taskbar and items in the taskbar but it is all filled with noise.

I tried rebooting to recovery mode and the noise issue is still there.

I have couple of questions as below:

  1. How do I resolve this issue with graphics?
  2. How the installer has no issues with the graphics? What graphics drivers are used at this phase?
  3. Is there a way I can use the graphics driver used during the install phase?
    Why
2

Probably the NVIDA card is too old. You should be able to boot with nomodeset

At boot screen (grub) pres e to edit boot. find line starting linux go to end of that line (probably line raps) add a space and nomodeset press F10 to continue boot. This will boot with fall back drivers but resolution will be low. but it will be usable.

Not sure that the proprietary drivers still supports GPU that old. Best solution get a low end more modern card.

You did not say what memory you have which also may be an issue

3

It might be the issue from the graphic driver.
You might try to boot the system with “nomodeset”.
See “SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE Wiki” for more details.
And you might install the driver for your NVIDIA card from here “Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver | 304.137 | Linux 64-bit | NVIDIA”
This is an old driver and is not included in the repositories for opensuse.
So you need to install it using the “hard way”.
You can check here “SDB:NVIDIA the hard way - openSUSE Wiki” for how to do it~

Good luck~

4

I seriously doubt this is OP’s problem. The following NVidia card is about 3 years older than OP’s:

# inxi -Sy
System:
  Host: gx270 Kernel: 5.7.11-1-default **i686** bits: 32 Desktop: KDE 3.5.10
  Distro: openSUSE **Tumbleweed 20211021**
# inxi -Gay
Graphics:
  **Device**-1: NVIDIA NV34 **GeForce FX 5200**] **driver: nouveau** v: kernel
  bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0322 class-ID: 0300
  **Display**: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 **driver: loaded: nouveau** display-ID: :0
  screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 108 s-size: 395x246mm (15.6x9.7")
  s-diag: 465mm (18.3")
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 size: 474x296mm (18.7x11.7")
  diag: 559mm (22")
  OpenGL: renderer: NV34 v: 1.5 Mesa 21.2.4 direct render: Yes

I’m guessing OP’s 7900 GTO either needs a reseat, or has a failing component.

5

KDE has issues with nouveau. You’re using KDE 3.5.10.

To OP: use Radeon HD 2000+. Maybe old Nvidia card will work with software OpenGL (modesetting driver, etc.).

6

Reliable and undemanding of resources, just right for old hardware, in which a 15 year old 7900 GTO qualifies.

7

How can OP use KDE 3.5.10?

8

Save http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE3/openSUSE_Leap_15.3/KDE:KDE3.repo to /etc/zypp/repos.d/, then install with YaST or zypper.