Acknowledgements
I appreciate the guidance provided by Bernhard M. Wiedemann on the structure and
contents of Leap, Tumbleweed and Slowroll kernels.
I also appreciate the package updates which wkazubki has developed for the original
kernel 5.4.14-1, without which this implementation would have been impossible.
Why do this ?
I am new to openSUSE, and unlike with other distros, I’ve experienced no problems with
the Leap nouveau drivers which are normally installed on this type of machine. As a
precaution against possible (if unlikely) future difficulties, I’ve proceeded with this
alternative.
PROCEDURE
On my HP Pavilion Media Center m8247cPC test machine, which has a x86_64-v1 processor,
I downloaded and installed the openSUSE-Leap-15.5-NET-x86_64.iso
NB - This procedure does not work for xorg-x11-server versions > 1.19.n
The ABI number for the NVIDIAG02 driver is 23.0. The ABI number for the
standard Leap15.5 xorg server is 24.0. The Leap15.0 xorg server ABI number
is the required match of 23.0.
Accordingly, the relevant Leap15.0 graphics modules were downloaded and collected
in a Leap15.0Graphics directory:
xf86-input-evdev-2.10.5-lp150.1.10.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-joystick-1.6.3-lp150.1.8.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-keyboard-1.9.0-lp150.1.8.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-libinput-0.27.1-lp150.1.1.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-vmmouse-13.1.0-lp150.1.7.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-void-1.4.1-lp150.1.7.x86_64.rpm
xf86-input-wacom-0.34.2-lp150.1.10.x86_64.rpm
xf86-video-fbdev-0.4.4-lp150.1.7.x86_64.rpm
xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.15-lp150.1.9.x86_64.rpm
xf86-video-vesa-2.4.0-lp150.1.1.x86_64.rpm
xorg-x11-driver-video-7.6_1-lp150.2.5.x86_64.rpm
xorg-x11-server-1.19.6-lp150.6.1.x86_64.rpmThe graphics downgrade was implemented from the Leap15.0Graphics
directory with the command,
sudo zypper install --solver-focus update --oldpackage ./*.rpm
NB: This graphics downgrade does not affect the functioning of Leap15.5
under the standard 5.14.21-150500 kernel, so there is no time pressure to
proceed beyond this point.
Install 5.4.14-1 kernel
The required components were collected in a
directory simply name Kernel-5.4.14-1:
kernel-default-5.4.14-1.1.gfc4ea7a.x86_64.rpm
kernel-default-devel-5.4.14-1.1.gfc4ea7a.x86_64.rpm
kernel-devel-5.4.14-1.1.gfc4ea7a.noarch.rpm
kernel-syms-5.4.14-2.26.x86_64.rpm
util-linux-2.36.2-2.29.x86_64.rpm
util-linux-lang-2.36.2-2.29.noarch.rpm
util-linux-systemd-2.36.2-2.1.x86_64.rpmThe kernel installation was implemented from this directory
with the command
sudo zypper install --solver-focus update --oldpackage ./*.rpm
The installation process was characterized by several warning messages:
-several instances of unverifiable security keys: entered i to ignore each one.
-missing dependencies for the kernel-syms package; entered option 2 to ignore
them and proceed with the installation. This problem was caused because
the kernel-syms version number was not an exact match to the other kernel
packages. It was used because it was the only one available.
A reboot was recommended at this point.
After the reboot, both resident kernels were functional with nouveau drivers, so
there was no time pressure to proceed further.
All future work is under the 5.4.14-1 kernel.
Preparation for NVIDIAG02 installation:
In /etc/X11, there is no standard xorg.conf file, so driver
installation depends on the 3 packages in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d:
50-device.conf, 50-screen.conf, and 50-monitor.conf. Those
files after a standard Leap-15.5 installation are merely samples
with no active statements. NVIDIAG02 installation requires
the following edited copies:
50-device.conf
# Having multiple "Device" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
#
# #Driver "radeon"
Driver "nvidia"
#
# ## Required magic for radeon/radeonhd drivers; output name
# ## (here: "DVI-0") can be figured out via 'xrandr -q'
# #Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Default Monitor"
#
EndSection50-screen.conf
# Having multiple "Screen" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
#
Device "Device0"
#
# ## Doesn't help for radeon/radeonhd drivers; use magic in
# ## 50-device.conf instead
Monitor "Monitor0"
#
EndSection50-monitor.conf
# Having multiple "Monitor" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
#
# ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
# ## defaults here
HorizSync 28.0 -33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
# Option "DPMS"
#
# ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool
#
EndSectionNVIDIAG02 Installation
The required components were collected in
a directory name NVIDIAG02:
nvidia-computeG02-304.137-lp155.1.1.x86_64.rpm
nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-default-304.137_k5.4.14_lp155.2-lp155.37.1.x86_64.rpm
x11-video-nvidiaG02-304.137-lp155.1.1.x86_64.rpmThe driver was implemented from this directory with the command
sudo zypper install --solver-focus update --oldpackage ./*.rpm
Again, the installation process was characterized by several warning messages:
-several instances of unverifiable security keys: entered i to ignore each one.
-a missing dependency, “nothing provides ‘ksym(default: PDE_DATA) = fe34717c’
As there was no suitable package available, selected the option to carry on.
Immediately after this install, the /etc/modprobe.d directory should be examined to
verify the presence of the nvidia-default.conf file containing the single statement,
blacklist nouveau. If it’s not there, it should be manually entered.
After reboot, selection of Kernel 5.4.14-1 should result in normal graphics in effect.
The inxi -Gxx command should give the following results:
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: nvidia v: 304.137 arch: Curie bus-ID: 00:0d.0 chip-ID: 10de:03d0
Device-2: Logitech type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.2:4
chip-ID: 046d:080c
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.19.6 driver: N/A display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 90
Monitor-1: VGA-0 res: 1680x1050 dpi: 90 diag: 558mm (21.97")
API: OpenGL v: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.137 renderer: GeForce 6150SE nForce
430/integrated/SSE2 direct render: YesBooting under the original Kernel 5.14-21-150500 will no longer work because
the nvidia library is not present.
Len E.