PSA for users of "older" Nvidia cards

RicSense

Staudey Hi. Please, help a noob 🙂 I'm using this kernel "5.15.37-214.current" and this nvidia driver "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645 OEM". So, I presume, I need to switch my card, right?

Staudey

RicSense: You'll most likely need to switch the driver package, yes.

To make sure, it's probably easiest to open a terminal and check the output of the following command:

eopkg li | grep nvidia
(first part lists the installed packages, and the second one searches for "nvidia")

If it lists nvidia-glx-driver-common then you'll have to do the switch. If it also lists nvidia-glx-driver-32bit then use the following command to switch in your case:
sudo eopkg it nvidia-470-glx-driver-current nvidia-470-glx-driver-32bit
(if no 32-bit driver gets listed, then run the command without the nvidia-470-glx-driver-32bitpart)

Sorry for the inconvenience, but we haven't upgraded our tooling (yet) to handle such a switch gracefully.

brent

Staudey the 400, 500, 600, and 700 series were all released within 2 years of each other. I have the MT430. Believe me, I am not complaining, but what's behind the decision to continue support for 400/500s and eliminate support for 600/700? Are the 600/700 'kepler'? (he asks with no idea what kepler is🙂).

RicSense

Staudey Thanks for help me! I switch the driver package and everything is ok.

WetGeek

brent what's behind the decision to continue support for 400/500s and eliminate support for 600/700

With all this uncertainty about Nvidia, it seems likely that a lot of folks who bought Nvidia cards in the past will be looking to upgrade their present cards for something that will continue to be supported for a reasonable time. One might be forgiven for suggesting that they seriously consider a graphics card other than Nvidia for their next purchase.

Wouldn't Intel perhaps be a better choice the next time? The Intel video in my 2014 Dell laptop is still fully supported, and happily working in a machine that's running on Linux. Also in my wife's Dell laptop of approximately that same vintage, also running on Solus Plasma. Seems like a much better record of not only supporting their graphics cards, but also supporting Linux.

Staudey

brent Believe me, I am not complaining, but what's behind the decision to continue support for 400/500s and eliminate support for 600/700?

The 400 and 500 GPUs are already supported by a different, even older, driver branch (the 390.xx series). That one is called nvidia-390-glx-driver-common/current/etc in our repository. So nothing to do for you here; the 390.xx driver will continue to work the same way (until at least the end of 2022, when Nvidia will in fact drop support for it, see also here).

brent

Staudey I use the 390's but what happens to me when they drop support in 2023? Go back to Nouveau? Buy a new one? Sorry I'm pestering, I know you're busy.

WetGeek Is it too much to ask to have something built to last? 😉--I know the answer. I have intel on the board, so it wouldn't be a leap to get a compatible Intel graphics card. Lord knows I'm not a gamer and don't need no AMD but this sh*t ain't getting any cheaper$$$.....

WetGeek

brent I'm not a gamer

Neither am I. I can't imagine why some folks are willing to pay this kind of money

on a video card. I wonder how long Nvidia plans to support that puppy.

Staudey

brent I use the 390's but what happens to me when they drop support in 2023? Go back to Nouveau? Buy a new one? Sorry I'm pestering, I know you're busy.

We'll have to see. Even if they don't continue support after 2022 there will probably be third-party patches to keep the drivers compatible with new kernel versions. But at some point I'm afraid we'll actually have to retire that driver series and then it'll mean back to nouveau. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it (as my favorite malaphor goes ^^).

Btw @everyone, please try to keep this thread mostly on topic from here on out. While it is about Nvidia phasing out support for some products, discussions about this practice are more at home in a separate thread. This one is about our particular driver packages and related support.

In related news, info for users of the Unstable repository: It will still be a bit until I actually switch the driver series for thenvidia-glx-driver packages. Due to the GCC 12 toolchain update I can't build the packages until the kernel has been updated/rebuilt (I was too slow to get it done before that). The plan still stands though.

brent

Staudey Thank you for the info on the 400 series.

DataDrake

Staudey brent

I'm cautiously optimistic that the new open-source kernel modules will help with longer-term kernel compatibility issues, so long as Nvidia's closed stuff stays compatible with user space. We've had good luck with the Nvidia long-term releases. 340 only had to be retired because it was no longer compatible with Xorg.

joluveba

Staudey Thank you very much for the info, and for the instructions to switch to the legacy Nvidia 470 drivers. I switched to the legacy drivers and my machine (GeForce GT 710) rebooted without any issue.

I guess this issue is what is delaying this week's update, am I right?

Staudey

joluveba I guess this issue is what is delaying this week's update, am I right?

Funnily enough that's just a coincidence, and the sync is being held up mostly for different reasons.

Jumpy

I have a Geforce GTX 680. I installed everything matching "nvidia-470*". And then did a "sudo eopkg update". Now I have a no signal situation. Please advice?

Message sent from Windows 10.

Jumpy

Jumpy I'm back in Solus. I added " single " to the boot parameters after pressing e-key on the systemd boot menu. Then wrote "exit" to the command prompt and Solus Budgie opened up. Then uninstalled everything matching "nvidia-470*".

My GTX680 seem to work with just these installed for now:
$ eopkg li | grep nvidia
nvidia-390-glx-driver-modaliases
nvidia-glx-driver-modaliases

I don't really know what I'm doing. According to this output above, I have no nvidia drivers installed just some "modalias" files.

How can I check which drivers are currently in use?

Staudey

Jumpy Now you have no proprietary Nvidia driver installed and your system uses nouveau (the open source driver).
What you need to do is use one of the commands I posted at the start of the thread. It sounds like you installed ALL of the nvidia-470-* driver packages, which will include both the modules for the current and LTS kernel, which I think (without testing) will cause issues.

So if you use the linux-current kernel (i.e. the default, if you haven't manually switched to LTS), use the following to install the drivers:

sudo eopkg it nvidia-470-glx-driver-current

(and make sure your system has all updates installed too, to avoid a mismatch between driver and kernel)

joluveba

Staudey Funnily enough that's just a coincidence, and the sync is being held up mostly for different reasons.

May I ask the reason? It's just curiosity.

Staudey

joluveba May I ask the reason? It's just curiosity.

Mainly the mesalib update, kernel update and LSI issue(s)

Abhinav1217 What about DoFlicky, Will it be able to detect that system is using older drivers and configure 4xx drivers on those system, or do we have to do it manually still?

Yes, after this PR is merged and commited to our repository, DoFlicky will detect the correct driver branch for such cards.
But it will not automatically warn or notify you in any way if you're on the wrong driver branch. User intervention is required in any case.

Abhinav1217

What about DoFlicky, Will it be able to detect that system is using older drivers and configure 4xx drivers on those system, or do we have to do it manually still?

WetGeek

Staudey Mainly the mesalib update, kernel update and LSI issue(s)

Is the next sync officially postponed until next Friday? I've been checking for a refreshed repository 8 or 10 times a day since last Friday, and I won't continue that if it's simply been postponed a week.