Slowroll release 2026-05-08: Nvidia card graphics with Nouveau hangs often

English Hardware
1

With the Slowroll release 2026-05-08 and Kernel vmlinuz-7.0.3-1.0.4.sr20260504-default and Nouveau driver with Nvidia card exhibits visual artifact and hangs quite often. Same behaviour with the older v7 kernel

Using, on the same system, kernel vmlinuz-6.19.12-1-default is much more stable.

I am not sure how to report this exactly, as after the system hangs, I cannot do anything. but hard-reboot.

This is my software:

zypper search --installed-only Mesa nouveau
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

S | Name | Summary | Type
—±--------------------------±-----------------------------------±-------
i+ | libdrm_nouveau2 | Userspace interface for Kernel D-> | package
i+ | libvulkan_nouveau | Mesa vulkan driver for NVK (Nouv-> | package
i+ | Mesa | System for rendering 3-D graphics | package
i | Mesa-demo-x | GLX-based demos | package
i | Mesa-dri | DRI plug-ins for 3D acceleration | package
i+ | Mesa-dri-nouveau | Mesa DRI plug-in for 3D accelera-> | package
i | Mesa-libEGL1 | EGL API implementation | package
i | Mesa-libGL1 | The GL/GLX runtime of the Mesa 3-> | package
i | Mesa-libva | Mesa VA-API implementation | package
i+ | Mesa-vulkan-anti-lag | Vulkan layer to reduce the laten-> | package
i+ | Mesa-vulkan-device-select | Vulkan layer to select Vulkan de-> | package
i+ | xf86-video-nouveau | Accelerated Open Source driver f-> | package

And this is the graphics (reported on the working kernel 6.19)

inxi --full
System:
Host: home-server Kernel: 6.19.12-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.6.4 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed-Slowroll 20260504
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X570-P v: Rev X.0x
serial: Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends
v: 5044 date: 01/04/2026
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1724 min/max: 558/4208 cores: 1: 1724 2: 1724 3: 1724
4: 1724 5: 1724 6: 1724 7: 1724 8: 1724 9: 1724 10: 1724 11: 1724 12: 1724
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce GTX 1650] driver: nouveau v: kernel
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.11
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nouveau
unloaded: vesa dri: zink gpu: nouveau resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: mesa v: 26.0.6 renderer: zink Vulkan
1.4(NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (NVK TU106) (MESA_NVK))
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: nvk,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel
API: ALSA v: k6.19.12-1-default status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.4 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8169
IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 04:d9:f5:f6:1a:a4
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 874.17 GiB (62.6%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 840 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 200 GiB used: 72.11 GiB (36.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 499.7 MiB used: 6.6 MiB (1.3%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda1
ID-3: /home size: 249.55 GiB used: 144.67 GiB (58.0%) fs: xfs
dev: /dev/sda4
ID-4: /opt size: 200 GiB used: 72.11 GiB (36.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3
ID-5: /tmp size: 200 GiB used: 72.11 GiB (36.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3
ID-6: /var size: 200 GiB used: 72.11 GiB (36.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda3
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 15.6 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 53.9 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.25 GiB used: 9.96 GiB (31.9%)
Processes: 392 Uptime: 0h 29m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.40

2

This isn’t just happening in Slowroll. I had the same issue with Leap and Tumbleweed. Switching to Nvidia drivers helped. But since driver support ended (I’m using 390.157), switching to Tumbleweed with patched Nvidia drivers solved the problem. Updating the kernel to 7 brought back a lot of the issues. So, I’m waiting for a driver update and staying with kernel 6.19.12. My next step is probably switching to Arch Linux or buying a new graphics card.

3

Thanks for the follow up. The kernel update to 7 seems so far the longest period of instability of OpenSUSE regarding NVIDIA. I have been actually using NVIDIA-open before and during the update to 7, but everything stopped working completely, so I moved to Nouveau which sort of works even on K7, some of the time, but it is still unusable in any prolonged use. So like you, staying with 6.19.12. I was wondering how to help reporting issues, but video driver issues are hard when everything just hangs with no trace (that I know of to find after reboot). I am staying with OpenSUSE though, in the past other rolling distros were worse than OpenSUSE during such upgrades (when using NVIDIA cards) . etc.

4

Nouveau and Wayland does not really work together. As long as you are using Nouveau, you need to use X11 or you will have massive hangs and lags.

1 Like
5

Hmm, thanks for the heads up. It seems Nouveau is OK with Wayland on K6.19.12, but I see what you mean. There are lags, although hangs are very rare. Problem is with K7, NVIDIA drivers (open or closed) do not seem to work at all - at least I cannot get them to work - and Nouveau is hanging so often it is unusable. I’ll see if switching to X11 helps. Thanks.