NVIDIA Drivers Correct Installation Check

English Hardware
1

Pardon me for being so lost, but I dunno if I’m actually using the proprietary NVIDIA drivers or not and it also seems the desktop is using Intel hardware, how to check please?
https://i.imgur.com/YMoCyDq.png
https://i.imgur.com/Brp2GAX.png
​https://i.imgur.com/OGP3fOl.png
Thank you.

2

You almost found it :wink: …

Info Centre -> Graphics

https://paste.opensuse.org/view/raw/827cdb0c (Oldest PC I have, running nvidia card and the nouveau driver)

Alternatively, install the rather useful utility inxi, it’s in the standard TW repositories, then run “inxi -G”

paul@Orion-15:~$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G84 [GeForce 8600 GTS] driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nv,vesa 
           resolution: 1280x1024~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: NV84 v: 3.3 Mesa 20.1.7 
paul@Orion-15:~$
3

https://i.imgur.com/bKQRG3L.png

So I’m using Intel graphics?

dar@linux:~> inxi -G
**Graphics:  Device-1:** Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics **driver:** i915 **v:** kernel  
           **Device-2:** NVIDIA GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] **driver:** nvidia **v:** 390.138  
           **Device-3:** Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Truevision HD **type:** USB **driver:** uvcvideo  
           **Display:** x11 **server:** X.org 1.20.9 **driver:** modesetting **resolution:** <xdpyinfo missing>  
           **OpenGL:****renderer:** N/A **v:** N/A

How do I have the NVIDIA harwdare kick in instead please?

Also, isn’t Nouveau alternarive to propritary NVIDIA? Should I unistall the former in order to have the latter be used or are both needed by the system?

4

Is this a note book? if so then it probably is a Optimus hybrid graphics setup. Then you would us suse-prime to switch between Intel and NVIDIA . If it s a Desktop machine then you should have options in the BIOS/UEFI to turn off Intel.

5

It’s a notebook, tried with prime-select nvidia which required root privileges, asked to end the session, logged on again and Plasma Shell crashed, logged off once more and got stuck with the SUSE light-bulb, had to roce a reboot, but now the NVIDIA card seems to be the one in use:

dar@linux:~> xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 2
Provider 0: id: 0x279; cap: 0x1 (Source Output); crtcs: 0; outputs: 0; associated providers: 1; name: NVIDIA-0
Provider 1: id: 0x2a0; cap: 0xf (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload); crtcs: 3; outputs: 4; associated 
providers: 1; name: modesetting
    output LVDS-1-1
    output VGA-1-1
    output HDMI-1-1
    output DP-1-1
dar@linux:~> glxinfo | grep 'OpenGL renderer string'
**OpenGL renderer string**: GeForce GT 630M/PCIe/SSE2

Now, can I uninstall the Nouveau drivers since I have propritary NVIDIA ones working please? Or are the former needed by the system anywhere? Thanks.

6

Leave nouveau drivers no need to uninstall you simply don’t use it. It has been blacklisted.Blindly uninstalling stuff can lead to problems

7

What do you mean by blacklisted? Locally by my system after proprietary NVIDIA ones have been installed?

When I perform system updates with zypper dup Nouveau drivers are updated from time to time too, if they aren’t needed why shouldn’t I remove them from YaST (not blindly)?

8

There are config files that allow you to tell the system not to use a driver (ie Blacklisted) the NVIDA driver install auto blacklists nouveau

Removing may force remove other things that you may need

You can lock updates from Yast or zypper to stop package updates from happening for selected packages. Though I don’t see a real reason except personal quark

9

Thanks for the blacklisting explanation, where can I check if it’s actually set on my system please?

My thinking was that unnecessary components should be removed to have a clean/lean system and updating unnecessary components was pointless, no?

Thanks.

10

No removing things can cause problem at times leave well enough alone

If you have a functional NVIDIA driver nouveau is blacklisted. If it was not then the NVIDIA driver would not work.

I forget where file lives someone else can say where

In any case not hard to google

11

Of course you can remove stuff that is unneeded but in this case it is not something I would worry about. You might need it if NVIDIA breaks by a kernel upgrade and those upgrades happen very frequently in Tumbleweed or something else with the graphics stack.

12

Alright, thanks.