Hi all,
I am using 12.3 KDE and had a few problems with the nouveau graphics driver: kwin would crash when I shut down the PC and a few other annoyances.
I decided to try out the legacy nvidia driver (via the one click install), this PC has a Quadro NVS 285 adapter, but that it is not working well- the nouveau driver was better!
How do I reverse the nvidia driver install and go back to nouveau?
Thanks for any help
There is a known problem on openSUSE 12.3 with the nvidia driver: https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/i386/openSUSE/12.3/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#idm1261534012
Have you added your user to the “video” group?
That may very well make the nvidia driver work better for you. (even better than nouveau!;))
How do I reverse the nvidia driver install and go back to nouveau?
Just open YaST->Software Management, type “nvidia” in the searchbox and uninstall the 3 packages that are installed…
On 2013-04-25 14:26, wolfi323 wrote:
>> How do I reverse the nvidia driver install and go back to nouveau?
> Just open YaST->Software Management, type “nvidia” in the searchbox and
> uninstall the 3 packages that are installed…
I wonder if there is a method to switch nouveau or nvidia on boot,
without uninstalling anything. I might use this on the occasions I want
to play with the flight simulator…
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Hi,
Thanks for the replies and advice.
I added myself to the video group and rebooted, but I can’t see any difference in the nvidia driver’s performance- it seems a bit twitchy, nouveau was really stable and predictable.
> Open YaST->Software Management, type “nvidia” in the searchbox and uninstall the 3 packages that are installed…
When I type nvidia in Yast2 I get the following as installed (I don’t find yast intuitive):
nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default (NVIDIA graphics driver kernel module)
libdrm_nouveau2 (Userspace interface for Kernel DRM)
nvidia-gfx-kmp-default (NVIDIA graphics driver kernel module)
x11-video-nvidia (NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce4 GPUs)
xf86-video-nv (NVIDIA video driver for the Xorg X)
xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau
Do I get rid of all the ones that Yast2 marks as ‘NVIDIA’?
Thanks again for any help.
It seems something went wrong with your driver installation! This is the oldest legacy driver still usable on openSUSE and is for GeForce4 cards about 10 years old… (it does not support your Quadro NVS 285 card)
So you haven’t been using the nvidia driver at all. No wonder you found the nouveau driver better! rotfl!
Since you said you find YaST unintuitive, please type the following in a terminal window:
sudo zypper rm nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default nvidia-gfx-kmp-default x11-video-nvidia
sudo zypper in nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop x11-video-nvidiaG02 nvidia-computeG02
(I assume you are running the desktop kernel, which is most probable if you did a standard install; if you use a different kernel please exchange the “desktop” with your kernel flavor in the 2nd line)
After a reboot you then should really be using the nvidia driver.
If you are still unsatisfied then, you can uninstall it again with:
sudo zypper rm nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop x11-video-nvidiaG02 nvidia-computeG02
If you remove the blacklisting of the “nouveau” kernel module (the installer creates a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ for this with the content “blacklist nouveau”), then on boot the “nouveau” module would be loaded.
This in turn would make X use the nouveau driver, since the nvidia driver would fail to load. (only if you have no xorg.conf of course; if you do have, X would fail to start because it can’t load the specified driver…)
So you could then switch between between nvidia and nouveau by specifying the kernel parameter “nomodeset” (for nvidia) or not (nouveau)…
Disclaimer: I have not tested this. But it should work (in theory).
wolfi323 wrote:
>
> londondaveuk;2550978 Wrote:
>> When I type nvidia in Yast2 I get the following as installed (I don’t
>> find yast intuitive):
>>
>> nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default (NVIDIA graphics driver kernel
>> module)
>> libdrm_nouveau2 (Userspace
>> interface for Kernel DRM)
>> nvidia-gfx-kmp-default (NVIDIA graphics driver
>> kernel module)
>> X11-VIDEO-NVIDIA (NVIDIA GRAPHICS DRIVER FOR
>> GEFORCE4 GPUS)
>> xf86-video-nv (NVIDIA
>> video driver for the Xorg X)
>> xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau
>>
>> Do I get rid of all the ones that Yast2 marks as ‘NVIDIA’?
> It seems something went wrong with your driver installation! This is
> the oldest legacy driver still usable on openSUSE and is for GeForce4
> cards about 10 years old… (it does not support your Quadro NVS 285
> card)
> So you haven’t been using the nvidia driver at all. No wonder you
> found the nouveau driver better! rotfl!
>
> Since you said you find YaST unintuitive, please type the following in
> a terminal window:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> sudo zypper rm nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default nvidia-gfx-kmp-default
> x11-video-nvidia
> sudo zypper in nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop x11-video-nvidiaG02
> nvidia-computeG02
> --------------------
>
> (I assume you are running the desktop kernel, which is most probable
> if you did a standard install; if you use a different kernel please
> exchange the “desktop” with your kernel flavor in the 2nd line)
>
> After a reboot you then should really be using the nvidia driver.
>
> If you are still unsatisfied then, you can uninstall it again with:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> sudo zypper rm nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop x11-video-nvidiaG02
> nvidia-computeG02
> --------------------
>
>
Just brief note: If his card is supported by the look at the nvidia
310-44 G03 versions. They work fine on my older 8400GS card. They are
available in the Nvidia repo. At least 64 bit is, not sure about 32 bit.
:~> rpm -qa |grep nvidia
x11-video-nvidiaG03-310.44-11.1.x86_64
nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop-310.32_k3.7.9_1.1-15.3.x86_64
nvidia-computeG03-310.44-11.1.x86_64
nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop-310.44_k3.7.10_1.1-11.1.x86_64
–
openSUSE 12.3(Linux 3.7.10-1.1-desktop x86_64)|KDE 4.10.2
“release 556”|Intel core2duo 2.5 MHZ,|8GB DDR3|GeForce
8400GS(NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.32)
Thanks all.
Wolfi323, well done! I had no idea I was using the wrong nvidia driver. I have installed the one you suggested and it works really well, it’s noticeably slicker than nouveau (taking nothing away from the wonderful nouveau developers).
I also noticed, when you mentioned the kernel type, that I had the default kernel installed (and the default-devel package). For some reason, the 12.3 install scripts chose the default over the desktop version of the kernel- so I selected the nvidia driver for desktop, removed the ancient nvidia driver and Yast changed the kernel over to ‘desktop’ - which is good.
When I try to remove kernel-default and kernel-default-devel, Yast wants to remove the kernel-firmware package?? That doesn’t sound like a good idea? Is it ok to lose the firmware package?
Thanks for any advice.
Well, you could just as well stay with kernel-default. You would need nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default then.
But what kernel packages do you actually have installed now?
I’m not sure at the moment why it wants to uninstall kernel-firmware really.
You could try what happens when you lock the kernel-firmware package. YaST should then try to install another needed package when you uninstall kernel-default.
I had a look at the nvidia page before I wrote that.
His card is not listed as supported by the G03 versions…
That’s why I posted the commands for the G02 driver! 
On 2013-04-25 16:26, wolfi323 wrote:
> Disclaimer: I have not tested this. But it should work (in theory).
Thanks. Someday I might try it, time permitting…
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Thanks all,
I removed the kernel-default packages and replaced them with their ‘desktop’ counterparts using zypper, which works in an intuitive and consistent way. I need a tutorial on Yast2 software management, it wants to do strange things at times.
Thanks for all the advice, I have the correct nvidia driver installed and it works well- so problem solved.