Hi,
I have a HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop with AMD Turion 64x2 and NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M Graphics.
When I first installed Solus 4 Budgie it was usable but had the odd graphics bug such as not displaying various desktop wallpapers but still functional.
Recently though this has descended into the abyss to the point I cannot interact with the os eg opened windows do not display, flicker, the size is all wrong, I get a oval dark spot appear opening certain windows etc etc.
I know it's graphics card related but is there a fix and if so how.
I am prepared to do a fresh install if it's really necessary.

:

4 days later

Mark as solved I installed POP! OS on it which has a NVIDIA distro. 😅

    bigrammy We have Nvidia drivers too, it's just that the Nvidia 340 driver is no longer supported, which unfortunately means your card is limited to Nouveau.

        DataDrake Thanks for the reply and Sorry for my ignorance but can you explain a little more I am still learning after 2 years it would seem.
        Is there a Solus version I can use? If so which and where never heard of Nouveau.
        Solus works perfect on my main laptop with the Intel i5. Needed a laptop for my wife with all this covid stuff going so found this old one in the attic and thought I would give it a shot.

            bigrammy Alright, I'll back up a bit and explain a little more in depth. There are two kinds of Nvidia drivers. The first is the proprietary drivers that Nvidia provide directly, and we repackage for Solus. The second is the open-source Nouveau driver which has been reverse-engineered by members of the Linux community who don't want to rely on the Nvidia proprietary drivers continuing to work.

            Your card, the Nvidia 7150m was first release 14 years ago with the Geforce 7 series of cards. I was incorrect in my assessment that your card was still supported under the Nvidia 340 proprietary drivers. Support for your card was actually only carried through the end of the Nvidia 304 proprietary driver. The latest version of the 304 driver is now over 2.5 years old. As a result, it is no longer compatible with the version of xorg-server that serves as the framework for all of the Desktop Environments in Solus. In fact, we retired the Nvidia 304 driver last year when that became the case. Which means that today, the only option for you in Solus is the Nouveau open-source driver, which unfortunately doesn't have as good support for such an old graphics chipset, with most of their focus on newer cards.

            I am unsure what specifically is causing you issues with the Solus Budgie Edition on the Nouveau drivers. What I can tell you is that the 18.04 version of Pop OS that you likely installed has an older version of xorg-server which still supported the Nvidia 304 proprietary driver, which I believe they have installed for you.

              Wow Thanks for the detail 😀 I did not realise I've had the laptop so long but thinking about it, it probably is 13 years old now but because it's built like a tank it doesn't look it's age (wish I could say the same about me). 😂

              POP! is not no where near as nice as Solus and I must Say a massive THANKS to you and all involved in this Solus OS you have done a superb job.