nVidia 1-click install webpage bugs

English Hardware
#1

I have found 3 bugs in the nVidia 1-click install webpage at:

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

Bug #1

The package to be installed by the .ymp file for the “NVIDIA legacy cards” radio button does not work. It specifies a package name of x11-video-nvidia which does not exist in the repo.

Bug #2

The “NVIDIA current cards” radio button installs the x11-video-nvidiaG03 package which is driver version 331.38, however that package is actually for many legacy cards. As an example, I am running a 6 year old laptop with a nVidia Quadro FX 3600 card which uses driver version 331.38 as specified here:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/72250/en-us

So, at the very least, the “NVIDIA current cards” radio button is mislabled.

Bug #3

The x11-video-nvidiaG03 package pulls the wrong kernel module dependency when installed with zypper or yast. I am running the “kernel-desktop” kernel, however, the installer selected the nVidia package for the “kernel-default” kernel. In other words, the installer selected the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package when it should have selected the **nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop **package. Therefore, upon rebooting the nVidia driver did not work until I manually removed the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package and installed the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop package instead.

Summary

If nVidia specifies driver version 331.38 for your video card then you need to install the x11-video-nvidiaG03 package and make sure to override the installer and include the following dependencies:

[FONT=Arial][size=3]**nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop**  (instead of [FONT=Arial][size=3][FONT=Arial][size=3]**nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default**[/size][/size])[/FONT]

[/FONT]nvidia-computeG03[/size][/FONT]**
nvidia-glG03**

I was finally able to install the correct nVidia driver for my video card and everything now works properly.

I don’t know where to file a bug report on these issues and so I am posting here. Can someone point me to a bugzilla page for the nVidia 1-click installation webpage?

Thanks,

Gordon

#2

gldickens3 wrote:
>
> I have found 3 bugs in the nVidia 1-click install webpage at:
>
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers_
>
> Bug_#1_
>
> The package to be installed by the .ymp file for the “NVIDIA legacy
> cards” radio button does not work. It specifies a package name of
> x11-video-nvidia which does not exist in the repo.
>
> Bug#2_
>
> The “NVIDIA current cards” radio button installs the
> x11-video-nvidiaG03 package which is driver version 331.38, however
> that package is actually for many legacy cards. As an example, I am
> running a 6 year old laptop with a nVidia Quadro FX 3600 card which uses
> driver version 331.38 as specified here:
>
> http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/72250/en-us
>
> So, at the very least, the “NVIDIA current cards” radio button is
> mislabled.
>
> Bug#3_
>
> The x11-video-nvidiaG03 package pulls the wrong kernel module
> dependency when installed with zypper or yast. I am running the
> “kernel-desktop” kernel, however, the installer selected the nVidia
> package for the “kernel-default” kernel. In other words, the installer
> selected the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package when it should have
> selected the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop package. Therefore, upon
> rebooting the nVidia driver did not work until I manually removed the
> nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package and installed the
> nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop package instead._
>
> Summary_
>
> If nVidia specifies driver version 331.38 for your video card then you
> need to install the x11-video-nvidiaG03 package and make sure to
> override the installer and include the following dependencies:
>
> nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop (instead of
> nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default)
> nvidia-computeG03
> nvidia-glG03
>
> I was finally able to install the correct nVidia driver for my video
> card and everything now works properly.
>
> I don’t know where to file a bug report on these issues and so I am
> posting here. Can someone point me to a bugzilla page for the nVidia
> 1-click installation webpage?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gordon
>
>
Bugzilla link
https://bugzilla.novell.com/index.cgi

Procedure
http://en.opensuse.org/Submitting_Bug_Reports

GNOME 3.10.2
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.11.6-4-desktop

#3

Thanks! I posted a bug report at: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=860495

#4

x11-video-nvidia (i.e. 96.43.xx) does not exist anymore in the repo, as it does not work at all on openSUSE 12.3 and 13.1.
NVidia would have to release a new version of the driver. If/when they do I don’t know, but tbh. I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon or ever. They just seem to have dropped support for that old driver.

I agree though, that this should maybe removed from the wiki page.

The x11-video-nvidiaG03 package pulls the wrong kernel module dependency when installed with zypper or yast. I am running the “kernel-desktop” kernel, however, the installer selected the nVidia package for the “kernel-default” kernel. In other words, the installer selected the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package when it should have selected the **nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop **package. Therefore, upon rebooting the nVidia driver did not work until I manually removed the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-default package and installed the nvidia-gfxG03-kmp-desktop package instead.

That’s no bug in the driver packages or the page.
The driver package only requires any kernel module.
YaST/zypper has to choose the matching one for your kernel.

But if you uninstalled it before, YaST/zypper does not want to install it anymore automatically (since you explicitely uninstalled it), and prefers to install another one and the matching kernel. That’s the way it is designed.
This would therefore be a bug/limitation/design flaw in libzypp.

#5

Hi wolfi323,

Thanks for your reply. Also, I suspected that some of these problems were related to nVidia’s level of cooperation, or lack thereof.

x11-video-nvidia (i.e. 96.43.xx) does not exist anymore in the repo, as it does not work at all on openSUSE 12.3 and 13.1. NVidia would have to release a new version of the driver. If/when they do I don’t know, but tbh. I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon or ever. They just seem to have dropped support for that old driver.

I agree though, that this should maybe removed from the wiki page.

Yes, the “NVIDIA legacy cards” radio button for the[FONT=Arial] x11-video-nvidia package does not work and should be removed.
[/FONT]

That’s no bug in the driver packages or the page. The driver package only requires any kernel module. YaST/zypper has to choose the matching one for your kernel.

But if you uninstalled it before, YaST/zypper does not want to install it anymore automatically (since you explicitely uninstalled it), and prefers to install another one and the matching kernel. That’s the way it is designed. This would therefore be a bug/limitation/design flaw in libzypp.

Then, this problem should be documented so that people can fix this with zypper or yast, by choosing the correct kernel module, prior to rebooting immediately following the 1-click install. A simple note below the radio buttons to verifiy that the correct kernel module (kernel-default or kernel-desktop) was installed would suffice.

I also recommend that the nomenclature in the 1-click webpage be changed to make it easier to figure out which nVidia version to install. That is, instead of having the four buttons reading “NVIDIA current cards”, “NVIDIA recent cards”, “GeForce FX cards (5xxx)” and “NVIDIA legacy cards”, I recommend that you simply have three buttons labeled with the current driver versions as follows: version 173.14.39, version 304.117 and version 331.38. Then add a link to the nVidia website page which has a form for determining the correct driver version for each nVidia video card hardware product:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Alternatively, you could give the nVidia pages that designate which nVidia hardware cards go with which driver. For example:

[FONT=Arial]nVidia driver version 173.14.39 supports the cards listed here under the “Supported Products” tab:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/71302/en-us
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial][FONT=Arial]nVidia driver version 304.117 supports the cards listed here under the “Supported Products” tab:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/71379/en-us

[/FONT]nVidia driver version 331.38 supports the cards listed here under the "Supported Products" tab:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/72250/en-us

So, the user would simply find his video hardware card with something like:

lspci -v | grep -i nvidia
or;
lspci -v | grep -i VGA

and then go to the nVidia website to see which driver version to install. This way, there would not be any confusion as to which driver goes with which card.

FYI,

Gordon

[/FONT]

#6

I’ve fixed the legacy .ymp so it doesn’t think it supports 13.1 and 12.3 - but only 12.2.

I’ve updated the text on the wiki page a bit, including the links to the lists of supported drivers, but I’m afraid they’ll be outdated very fast.

@gldickens3: Feel free to improve/update the wiki page. That’s the whole point of having a wiki.