Help needed: Leap 42.2 updates destroyed graphics driver, Plasma settings and what else

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

This morning, Leap 42.2 offered to update lots of software components. Last update before today had been on Friday.

I am not sure what all it did. What I see on the surface is:
(1) The KDE Plasma desktop looks awful now; typefaces have been enlarged a lot, texts are exceeding their boxes and so on.
(2) It seems to have switched to an nvidia graphics driver. I had the nouveau driver before, and it was working fine. I didn’t ask the system to do so!!! My reason for sticking to the nouveau driver had been (i) my graphics card is quite old (cf. below), and I don’t know exactly which nvidia driver to pick, and (ii) it had been working nicely under Linux Mint, too.
(3) It installed a new Kernel, 4.4.62
(4) After the update ran through without errors, a reboot was asked for. Sure, new Kernel. When I hit the “Reboot” button, the system threw an error message stating a crash of the kde-system-greeter (don’t remember its name exactly). “shutdown -h now” in the terminal seems to have an orderly shutdown at this point. At restart, a message like “repository not available” showed up. But it did reboot; however, at this point the messed-up Plasma showed its ugly face.

Here’s the system as of now:

inxi -Fxzdw 
Resuming in non X mode: xdpyinfo not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends
System:    Host: susy422-et.suse Kernel: 4.4.62-18.6-default x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.5)
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.6 (Qt 5.6.1) Distro: openSUSE Leap 42.2
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP EliteBook 8560w v: A0001C02
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1631 v: KBC Version 01.3F
           UEFI: Hewlett-Packard v: 68SVD Ver. F.61 date: 05/25/2016
Battery    BAT0: charge: 39.0 Wh 100.0% condition: 39.0/39.0 Wh (100%)
           model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Full
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-2540M (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10376
           clock speeds: max: 3300 MHz 1: 806 MHz 2: 1041 MHz 3: 811 MHz
           4: 808 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GF108GLM [Quadro 1000M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.org 1.18.3 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,nv,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 77x37
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: ALSA v: k4.4.62-18.6-default
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
           driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 5020 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
           driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 25:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (30.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_850 size: 500.1GB
           Optical-1: /dev/cdc-wdm0 model: N/A rev: N/A dev-links: N/A
           Features: speed: N/A multisession: N/A
           audio: N/A dvd: N/A rw: none state: N/A
           Optical-2: /dev/cdc-wdm1 model: N/A rev: N/A dev-links: N/A
           Features: speed: N/A multisession: N/A
           audio: N/A dvd: N/A rw: none state: N/A
           Optical-3: /dev/sr0 model: hp CDDVDW TS-L633R
           rev: 0400 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
           Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
           audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition: ID-1: / size: 126G used: 16G (13%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 20.14GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Weather:   Conditions: 45 F (7 C) - light rain Wind: From the NNE at 6 MPH
           Time: May 2, 1:05 PM CEST (Europe/Berlin)
Info:      Processes: 174 Uptime: 0:14 Memory: 1075.5/15992.5MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.8.5
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.3.8

Please, I want my system back to look as nice as before!!! The previous Leap 42.2 settings right after fresh install had been very nice.
My lines of thought for that:
(a) Going back to the nouveau graphics driver - please, how would I do that? And how to adjust settings if any?
(b) If going with an nvidia driver, which one to pick for my graphics card Quadro 1000M? Cf. above.
(c) Would I have to readjust the Plasma appearance? How would I do that?

Please, can you folks help me out. And sorry for probably not being precise enough in many respects here.

#2

It sounds like you have the nvidia repo enabled probably others that shouldn’t be as well. I don’t think it’s possible to obtain any nvidia driver from an official opensuse repo.

It sounds like you need more help than I can offer but in respect to the nvidia driver if you run yast - software management and search for nvidia you will see several of their drivers that are available from nvidia. For all I know there may be some on packman as well. You can uninstall and install drivers from there.

In terms of help with the cause of the problem you will be asked to enter zypper lr in the console and copy paste the output on here.

John

#3

How did you do the update? Did you do a “zypper up” from a console or did you use YaST2 Software Management or KDEs apper?

The proprietary NVIDIA driver is not part of the openSUSE standard install. One must either add the NVIDIA repository or install the NVIDIA .run file in order to get the proprietary NVIDIA driver. Did you do so?

Using a search engine or a visit here http://www.nvidia.de/Download/index.aspx?lang=en might help.

Can you recall which repository was missing?

Please post the result of

zypper lr -upPE

Regards

susejunky

#4

Okay, shame on me - thank you so much for your thoughts and time. For some reason, the nvidia repo had gotten onto my repo list; I know for sure to not have installed any nvidia driver, but maybe that repo got there when I wanted to look at what nvidia drivers are available in order to find out which one would be good for my card.

Did my update today via YaST2 Software Manager. Could help myself by comparing between my Leap 42.2 and Tumbleweed installations; complicated way of looking at stuff- :slight_smile: Thus, what did I learn? Why did YaST2 actually install four nvidia packages during the update with the nvidia repo enabled, when there were NONE installed before?

Here’s my repo list - the nvidia (probably had been #10) was gone already before I saw your reply, susejunky:

zypper lr -upPE
#  | Alias                               | Name                                                    | Aktiviert | GPG-Überprüfung | Aktualisierung | Priorität | URI                                                                             
---+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+----------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 | adobe                               | Adobe                                                   | Ja        | ( p) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/x86_64/                                    
 2 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss       | Haupt-Repository (NON-OSS)                              | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/42.2/repo/non-oss/               
 3 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss_1     | Aktualisierungs-Repository (Nicht-Open-Source-Software) | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/42.2/non-oss/                          
 4 | download.opensuse.org-oss           | Haupt-Repository (OSS)                                  | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/42.2/repo/oss/                   
 5 | download.opensuse.org-oss_1         | Hauptaktualisierungs-Repository                         | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/42.2/oss                               
 6 | http-download.opensuse.org-55e928ea | openSUSE:Leap:42.2:Update                               | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Leap:/42.2:/Update/standard/
 7 | http-download.opensuse.org-ca1397d3 | openSUSE-Leap-42.2 Utilities                            | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/utilities/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/         
 8 | http-download.opensuse.org-d70595be | KDE:Frameworks5                                         | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Frameworks5/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/  
 9 | http-download.opensuse.org-edce845d | KDE:Qt5                                                 | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Qt5/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/          
11 | openSUSE_Leap_42.2                  | openSUSE-Leap-42.2 Multimedia_Libs                      | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/libs/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/  
12 | openSUSE_Leap_42.2_1                | openSUSE-Leap-42.2 Graphics                             | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/graphics/openSUSE_Leap_42.2           
13 | openSUSE_Leap_42.2_2                | openSUSE-Leap-42.2 Multimedia_Apps                      | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/multimedia:/apps/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/  
14 | opensuse-guide.org-repo             | Libdvdcss Repository                                    | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://opensuse-guide.org/repo/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/                              
15 | packman.inode.at-suse               | Packman Repository                                      | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_Leap_42.2/                                
22 | x86_64                              | Google-x86_64 Stable                                    | Ja        | (r ) Ja         | Ja             |   99      | http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64/

I should be very grateful, susejunky, for your comments. Of course, anybody else’s, too…

Regards,
111MilesToGo

#5

NVIDIA comes in 4 or 5 packages depending on version I doubt it installed 4 versions. It was probably marked recommended not a requirement since the system saw a NVIDIA card and you had NVIDIA repo active.

Is this a notebook? if so probably need bumblebee so uninstall NVIDIA package and follow instructions here

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Bumblebee

If not a notebook then you may need a different driver version depending on the card or maybe best to just use nouveau. Details are important

#6

Are you really sure about this?

Repositories 8 (KDE:Frameworks5) and 9 (KDE:QT5) are development repositories! If you have problems using KDE it might be better to disable those repositories!

Regards

susejunky

#7

Thanks, susejunky, removed those repos.

Sure about NO NVIDIA driver? Cf. my system from like 10 days ago: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/524406-Leap-42-2-KDE-Network-manager-icon-DL-UL-speed-indicators-disappear. Whatever, today’s problem solved. Thanks to all!

#8

I’m 100% sure that I had to tell YAST to install the nvidia driver after I had added their repo to my list.

This what I always do with none supported repo’s. Use them when needed and then disable them. Even packman can cause grief at times.


john@dhcppc0:~> zypper lr
Repository priorities are without effect. All enabled repositories share the same priority.

#  | Alias                               | Name                              | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh
---+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+---------+-----------+--------
 1 | Perl_Development                    | Perl Development                  | No      | ----      | ----   
 2 | Varrious_files_systems              | Varrious files systems            | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
 3 | download.nvidia.com-leap            | nVidia Graphics Drivers           | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
 4 | http-download.opensuse.org-178b527f | openSUSE:Leap:42.2:Ports          | No      | ----      | ----   
 5 | http-download.opensuse.org-7b61e500 | multimedia:photo ######## Fotoxx  | No      | ----      | ----   
 6 | http-download.opensuse.org-87633179 | home:rawtherapee ############     | No      | ----      | ----   
 7 | openSUSE-42.2-0                     | openSUSE-42.2-0                   | No      | ----      | ----   
 8 | packman.inode.at-suse               | Packman Repository                | No      | ----      | ----   
 9 | repo-non-oss                        | openSUSE-Leap-42.2-Non-Oss        | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
10 | repo-oss                            | openSUSE-Leap-42.2-Oss            | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
11 | repo-source                         | openSUSE-Leap-42.2-Source         | No      | ----      | ----   
12 | repo-update                         | openSUSE-Leap-42.2-Update         | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
13 | repo-update-non-oss                 | openSUSE-Leap-42.2-Update-Non-Oss | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes    
john@dhcppc0:~>

They can be enabled/disabled refreshed or not via settings in yast - repositories.

John

#9

I have experienced this twice now on 42.2. I cannot tell you what will work in your specific situation but
I can tell you that I have a copy of the 340.96 manual nVidia installer that I keep in my Downloads folder.
Whenever I boot and plasma KDE is trashed, I open a shell and su - root. Issue an init 1 to enter maintenance mode.
From there I go to /usr/bin and run nvidia-uninstall. Normally when this happens it will tell me that my install is broken
and symlinks are missing or pointing to something wrong. Just say okay and let it try to sort it out. Once the install
is ‘complete’ It’ll probably say it counldn’t do some things and ask to restore a previous xConfig. I let it do it.

Next after the uninstall exits, I go to my Downloads folder and run the 340.96 installer. Install the driver.

I reboot the box at this point but I have also just done an init 5 to switch back to multi-user mode.

This method has never failed to fix my nVidia/Plasma/KDE problems. I assume at some point I’ll need
to keep a newer version of the nVidia installer but presently this one seems to always work.

PS: I blacklist the nouveau driver.