Nvidia GTX 570 Compatibility with 12.1 Gnome

English Hardware
1

I recently did a fresh install of opensuse 12.1 and after the installation I do not have a GUI when I boot up. I have a Nvidia GTX 570, I was wondering if anyone else has any experience using that with opensuse?

2

Try adding in the kernel load option nomodeset when you are in the Grub OS selection menu. You type in the nomodeset command just before you press the enter key. You can edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as root and add in the nomodeset command if it helps. Here is some more info to read:

Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

LNVHW - Load NVIDIA (driver the) Hard Way from runlevel 3 - Version 1.20 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Thank You,

3

Been there done that. Nomodeset got a black screen, the Linux equivalent of a BSOD. Nothing worked. I am now trying to install the Nvida driver with Yast. The download keeps timing out on me. I think the server is overloaded with people having problems.

If the Nvidia driver does not work then 12.1 is a piece of useless … as far as my computer is concerned. The other distros have the same problem so it is not a Suse thing, its an X11 thing. X11 has stuffed up, badly.

4

If you told us more about your Computer and its video hardware we might be able to help. openSUSE works just fine with nVIDIA, but some video combinations, often with Laptops do not work as well AND there was a decision to not include the nomodeset command in openSUSE 12.1 by default which helps lots of people if added. Anyway, we would love to help if we knew a little bit more information.

Thank You,

5

It worked for me! Well gnome started up I got a message that said that gnome was falling back and that there may be compatibility issues with my driver…but gnome looks like it started up ok. So far no problems with it. I’ll see if I can get that message to go away. I was able to update the grub menu to put it in automatically.

Thanks!

6

If ‘nomodeset’ fails then you could also try the boot code ‘x11failsafe’.

If you can get either ‘nomodeset’ or ‘x11failsafe’ to work, you can then go about (with help from users on this thread) in editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file, to pick an interim graphic driver that provides optimal performance, while checking out an installation of the proprietary nvidia graphic driver.

7

It’s a Gnome3 or more specifically Gnome-shell issue which affect models of both nvidia and ati card. The first thing to do is to not boot into Gnome-shell. Gnome fallback should work in most cases.

Try to enforce fallback:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session session-name "gnome-fallback"

although you have to be in X to use that. Hummm … Try that:

dbus-launch --exit-with-session gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session session-name "gnome-fallback"

or change the command starting Gnome in the desktop session file (usually in /usr/share/xsessions) from :

Exec=gnome

to

Exec=gnome-session --session=gnome-fallback

But I guess we all agree that it sucks.

8

I have the same problem after upgrading from 11.4 to 12.1 on my old Dell8400 with an nvidia 6200 card. I have booted into runlevel 3 and used yast to install the proprietary nvidia drivers (which worked well with 11.4), but still get a black screen with the clock cursor. Strangely, when I boot to runlevel 3 and log in as root I can use “startx” to start the xwindow interface with Gnome so the nvidia drivers seem to be working OK. However if I do a straight boot to the login screen, I continue to get a black screen with just the clock cursor. I have tried most of the suggestions on the NVidia site, on this site and on the Xorg site for nvidia cards without much luck. I think it may be a permissions problem, but I’m not sure what else to try. At least I can still use Gnome when I boot to runlevel 3 and log in as root!

9

I have a bash script that when run, installs inxi (If you have a working network connection) and then runs it (and it can be used anytime you want). Here is the blog pointer:

H.I. Hardware Information - A Bash script to install and run inxi with default options! - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

On my PC, this is just the portion that tells me the video card, driver version, name and OpenGL version. This info might help determine what is really being used on your PC.

Graphics:  Card: nVidia Device 1201 X.Org: 1.9.3 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1200@50.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 560/PCI/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 290.10

Normally, you must use the nomodeset command to allow the nVIDIA driver to load and most often you must black list the nouveau driver to prevent it from being loaded. I have a couple of more blogs on that subject here:

Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

LNVHW - Load NVIDIA (driver the) Hard Way from runlevel 3 - Version 1.20 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Thank You,

10

Thanks James, I will try the Bash script and inxi when I get a chance. I do see the nvidia proprietary splash screen display briefly when the drivers load, so I think it is finding the correct driver. I also previously tried blacklisting the nouveau driver and using nomodeset as suggested in your blogs, but with similar results. The fact that I can use startx as root to get into the gnome GUI but it won’t load the GUI login screen regardless of what drivers or options I set still has me puzzled. I have been running OpenSuse on this box with many upgrades for many years since the late 90’s so maybe it is time for a complete fresh install. Thanks again!