Kernel update breaks display

English Hardware
1

I have two pc’s. Each dual boots with Windows. I left one pc unused for many weeks and decided it was time to update it. I booted to the existing kernel 7.0.9 and ran a Myrlyn update. There were over 1,200 updates. When I rebooted after update, I was in kernel 7.0.12.

I run two monitors. My primary monitor is an old wide-screen tv that has a resolution of 1360x768. The second monitor is a vga with a resolution of 1920x1080. I have an Nvidia chip GeForce GT 730 using the 470.256.02 driver. Under kernel 7.0.9 and under Windows too, they work perfectly. However, when I boot into kernel 7.0.12, I have only one screen. The second monitor is not found. On the display editing screen, it says the second screen is disconnected but still shows it’s background image. There is only one resolution available, 800x600, no matter which monitor I connect. It is very difficult to use either monitor at that resolution. As I type this, I just realized I did not check which driver the 7.0.12 kernel is using.

I thought the problem might be hdmi related. The tv has 3 hdmi inputs and an RGB input. The monitor has only vga. The tv gets a display only when I disconnect the hdmi input and connect the RGB input (the tv menu says HDMI and RGB, not vga.) That display is 800x600 with no possibility of changing it. The display is a bit easier to use if I scale it to 75%. I have tried loading X11, Wayland and IceWM. All have the same issue. I am afraid to do any more updates for fear of losing the working kernel.

The only other unusual issue, probably completely unrelated, is on every boot, light-locker crashes. I don’t know if there is a cascade that affects the display but I can’t think of how.

2

As usual, show (booted from latest kernel):

inxi -GSaz
and
zypper se -si nvidia

There appears to be no matching kernel kmp package for the G05 drivers. This seems to be because this card and driver is legacy.

1 Like
3

Hui just beat me to requesting the same information. Commands and output are more useful to us than stories prexy.

4 
inxi -GSaz
System:
  Kernel: 7.0.12-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1 clocksource: tsc
    avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-7.0.12-1-default
    root=UUID=d2adbf2d-e357-4d14-be1d-e80851fdac1c
    splash=silent systemd.show_status=yes quiet
    security=apparmor fbdev=1 nvidia_drm.modeset=1
    mitigations=auto
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.7.0 tk: Qt v: N/A
    info: frameworks v: 6.27.0 wm: kwin_x11 tools:
    avail: light-locker,xscreensaver vt: 2 dm:
    1: LightDM v: 1.32.0 note: stopped 2: SDDM
    note: stopped Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed
    20260618
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 730]
    vendor: Bitland Information driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: series: 470.xx+
    status: legacy-active (EOL~2024-09-xx)
    arch: Kepler-2 code: GKxxx process: TSMC 28nm
    built: 2012-2018 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
    lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1287
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.21
    with: Xwayland v: 24.1.11 compositor: kwin_x11
    driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: vesa
    failed: nvidia alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv
    gpu: N/A display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 800x600 s-dpi: 96
    s-size: 211x158mm (8.31x6.22")
    s-diag: 264mm (10.38")
  Monitor-1: Unknown-1 mapped: None-1
    model: Lenovo LEN LI2223swA serial: <filter>
    built: 2015 res: mode: 800x600 hz: 60
    scale: 100% (1) dpi: 43 gamma: 1.2
    size: 476x268mm (18.74x10.55")
    diag: 546mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: 800x600
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0
    drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast x11:
    drv: swrast inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: mesa v: 26.1.3
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe
    (LLVM 22.1.7 256 bits)
    device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff memory: 7.51 GiB
    unified: yes
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.350 layers: 2 device: 0
    type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 22.1.7 256 bits)
    driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 26.1.3 (LLVM 22.1.7)
    device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor
    gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
5 
zypper se -si nvidia
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name                      | Type    | Version                   | Arch   | Repository
---+---------------------------+---------+---------------------------+--------+------------------------
i+ | kernel-firmware-nvidia    | package | 20260408-1.1              | noarch | repo-oss
i+ | libnvidia-egl-wayland1    | package | 1.1.22-1.4                | x86_64 | repo-oss
i+ | nvidia-computeG05         | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | nvidia-computeG05-32bit   | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default | package | 470.256.02_k7.0.9_2-92.14 | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | nvidia-glG05              | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | nvidia-glG05-32bit        | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | x11-video-nvidiaG05       | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
i+ | x11-video-nvidiaG05-32bit | package | 470.256.02-92.1           | x86_64 | nVidia Graphics Drivers
6

No Nvidia driver loaded, likely the 470.256 driver didn’t rebuild for kernel 7.0.12.
What does lsmod | grep nvidiareport?
Can you boot the previous kernel and does graphics still work there?

7

All the “legacy” kmp’s (G06, G05, G04) are currently at 7.0.9 but they should rebuild for newer kernels as well; at least the G06 does rebuild for 7.0.12, I don’t have HW to check the G05 though.

8

I have (fairly) normal graphics on 7.0.9 with G05 driver and related files. The blacks pixelate with dark blue popping in, but that is tolerable.

I was about to install G06 rather than wait to see if G05 gets built against 7.0.12 but I don’t want to lose the display altogether. For the time being, I will boot into 7.0.9.

Also, I must be doing something wrong. lsmod | grep nvidia gives no output at all.

9

Your GT 730 is only supported by G05 aka v470 drivers. G06 is for newer cards and does not support legacy GT 730.

You can try to force the reinstallation of the kmp. You have to do this booted from the latest kernel.
sudo zypper in -f nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default

Also check that you have the matching kernel-default-devel installed.

10

The inxi output confirmed already there was no driver loaded…

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 730]
    vendor: Bitland Information driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: series: 470.xx+
    status: legacy-active (EOL~2024-09-xx)
    arch: Kepler-2 code: GKxxx process: TSMC 28nm
    built: 2012-2018 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
    lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1287
    class-ID: 0300

You need G05 driver support for your old graphics card.

11

I just booted into 7.0.9 and got this

 lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia_drm             86016  6
nvidia_modeset       1515520  18 nvidia_drm
nvidia              40759296  1005 nvidia_modeset
video                  81920  1 nvidia_modeset

Going back to 7.0.12 to do what @hui suggests.

12

Please have a look at nvidia-470-issues-after-7-0-12-1-low-res-only#7
maybe you are seeing the same error in the zypp log.