How can I get my second monitor to work with proprietary NVIDIA drivers?

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Hello,
I have been a Linux user for years. I recently embraced Tumbleweed for the first time in months, and I love it so far! Unfortunately, when I switched from Nouveau to Nvidia using zypper, my second monitor stopped working. What should I do to troubleshoot this and restore my hardware? It works as usual in my dualboot install of Windows 10.

All I’ve done is install the proprietary Nvidia drivers, along with a few flatpaks like Bitwarden, Zen Browser, and Vesktop. My GPU is a Geforce 1050 Ti.

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Welcome to openSUSE Forums. Start by sharing the graphics card and desktop environment details…
inxi -GSaz
There may be further questions to help progress this.

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System:
  Kernel: 6.13.1-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.13.1-1-default
    root=/dev/mapper/system-root splash=silent mitigations=auto quiet
    security=apparmor rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.2.5 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.10.0
    wm: kwin_x11 tools: avail: xscreensaver vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE
    Tumbleweed 20250206
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 630 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:591b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] vendor: Dell
    driver: nvidia v: 570.86.16 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
    non-free: 550/565.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-01; EOL~2026-12-xx)
    arch: Pascal code: GP10x process: TSMC 16nm built: 2016-2021 pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
    active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: none bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1c8c
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Sunplus Innovation Integrated Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-12:5
    chip-ID: 1bcf:2c01 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.15 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.4
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: vesa
    alternate: fbdev,intel,nouveau,nv dri: iris
    gpu: i915,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x286mm (40.00x11.26")
    s-diag: 1055mm (41.55")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1-0 note: disabled pos: primary,right
    model: LG (GoldStar) FULL HD built: 2016 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    scale: 100% (1) dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2 size: 480x270mm (18.9x10.63")
    diag: 551mm (21.7") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: left model: Samsung 0x5544 built: 2015 res:
    mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 142 gamma: 1.2
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0
    drv: nvidia gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: iris
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.3.4 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 630 (KBL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:591b memory: 11.34 GiB unified: yes
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.304 layers: 2 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: Intel
    HD Graphics 630 (KBL GT2) driver: N/A device-ID: 8086:591b
    surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 1 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX
    1050 Ti driver: N/A device-ID: 10de:1c8c surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
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@Cornflake1127 Hi so for the Nvidia output I see active: none off: HDMI-A-1
and Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1-0 note: disabled

On the keyboard function switches, there isn’t a Monitor switch to enable/disable output?

It could also be a Windows Feature to turn this off when shutting down, similar to USB power issues and Windows disabling…

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You could try Gnome Desktop as there seems to be a general problem with KDE.
Or someone over at Arch seemed to solve it by downgrading some of the Nvidia drivers. [Solved] Primary External Monitor on NVIDIA Prime Laptop Does Not Work / Multimedia and Games / Arch Linux Forums

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My laptop is exhibiting this same overall issue. The Arch forum mentioned trying Wayland; that did not work for me. What is the easiest way to downgrade the Nvidia drivers via Zypper? That is something I haven’t had to do with it before.

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Simply sudo zypper in nvidia-drivers-G06. Answer yes when you get asked to downgrade. Or choose v550 in the version tab of the package descriprion in YaST Software.

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Cool! Next question… how do I tell Zypper to keep that old version until I’m ready for it to upgrade?

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sudo zypper addlock <packagename1> <packagename2> …

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Excellent. Thank you! Does that mean Tumbleweed reverted back to 550 and my system just kept 570 because it was newer, or is it standard for Zypper to assume that when you want to install it that you want to go back a version?

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Downgrading addressed the issue for me. Tumbleweed forums are the best. Thank you all for your help!

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nvidia-drivers-G06 is a meta-package for the v550 drivers. The v570 drivers have no meta-package. So by installing the meta-package nvidia-drivers-G06 you effectively perform a downgrade when v570 was installed.

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Is there a way to downgrade package if, in the future, the same sort of thing occurs and there is no suddenly deprecated metapackage to employ this trick with? Don’t get me wrong… I’m very glad this worked. I am just curious about how to fix it in the event I’m not so lucky in the future. The only way that comes to mind would be to use Snapper to go back, freeze the packages, and then update again. The only issue with that, in general, is that sometimes several updates can go by without you realizing a thing broke (e.g., in the event of this Issue/Thread, I haven’t plugged an external monitor in for some time so it broke long before, and many updates before, I noticed it).

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For posterity and those who need to do the same thing, the command with packages I used was:

sudo zypper addlock nvidia-compute-G06 nvidia-compute-G06-32bit nvidia-compute-utils-G06 nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default nvidia-gl-G06 nvidia-gl-G06-32bit nvidia-video-G06 nvidia-video-G06-32bit nvidia-drivers-G06 nvidia-utils-G06
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The latest updates (within the last day or two) that included Nvidia updates seem to have addressed this issue.

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@iqgrande, do you have either switcheroo or suse-prime installed? (I ask because I’m debugging something similar on my laptop.)