I am currently on openSUSE-Leap-15.2, and have a GeForce GTX 970 video card, which I have been using successfully with IDL (Image Description Language) and the Coyote add-ons: specifically cgSurface.pro — which produces 3D Surface plots in a re-sizeable window with manual manipulation of rotations etc. This has now stopped working: I believe since I accepted the xf86-video-nouveau Accelerated Open Source driver for nVidia cards. 1.0.15-lp152.5.6.
Worryingly, I have looked at the Nouveau website, noted that the GeForce GTX 970 corresponds to their NV110 family (Maxwell), as NV124, and find that their Feature Status Matrix at https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/FeatureMatrix.html does not include references to NV124. This seems to imply that no work is being done for this card.
When the Nouveau update was offered, I noted that there was a warning that 3D facilities might not work, and did not accept the update. However, I got the impression that after I refused this update, it was merely offered later — and I got the impression that this refusal, in practice, had prevented all further updates. Therefore, with misgivings, I installed the update on Tue 28 Dec 2021 16:47:48 GMT. I believe my problems started at that point, although I cannot be certain.
I now do not know the best approach to take. This 3D facility was of particular value to myself, and it worked. If I go through the hassle of attempting to re-install the previous nVidia drivers (which does not seem straightforward), will I then be forever cut off from routine updates as I have to refuse any Nouveau updates? I have attempted to load a snapshot from before the Nouveau install date, but it did not seem to help. My impression is that no suitable Nouveau driver will be available for the forseeable future.
xf86-video-nouveau is the only nouveau DDX display driver I’m aware of for 15.2, which was (is?) scheduled for support cessation today. There’s nothing special about it, unless you count the facts that it’s reverse-engineered, and old technology. The default modesetting DIX display driver is newer technology. Are you finding equivalent performance and behavior whether using nouveau DDX or modesetting DIX?
This driver primer might clarify if you aren’t sure. xf86-video-nouveau is usually installed via a meta-package, xorg-x11-driver-video, which commonly will be installed, which typically, but not always, overrides the upstream default modesetting DIX. Sometimes there is behind the scenes configuration that causes the modesetting DIX to be used while xf86-video-nouveau is installed. I have several NVidia gfxcards, all old, and all running on the modesetting DIX display driver.
Most users of NVidia cards of your vintage, and especially newer, seem to be users of NVidia’s own proprietary drivers. Installation of these typically requires blacklisting of the nouveau kernel device driver (module), which should not be confused with the nouveau DDX display driver provided by xf86-video-nouveau.
Hi Folks, and thanks for your responses. The advice seems to be “use nvidia drivers”, which is what I was trying to do when I trashed my system!
I decided that if I was going to make significant changes (as this seemed to be) I would start by upgrading to Leap 15.3, refuse any Nouveau drivers, get things started, and only then try and install nvidia drivers.
Sadly, I am now having problems with rsync from my Win10 machine to my Linux — an issue of higher priority than the nvidia drivers as this is my means of backing up Win10 (I subsequently use rsync to back up the SuSE system to one of several HDDs). I will start a new thread on the rsync problem before returning to nvidia drivers.