On 11/22/20 1:04 PM, Lew Wolfgang wrote:
I ran into this just a couple of days ago after an upgrade from 15.1 to 15.2.
The old 340.108 drivers were left in place, but not used. Zypper and rpm also showed them.
So I went to nvidia.com to download and install the manual way, but the driver package was missing! Their finder pointed to it, but it wasn't there. So maybe we're going to have to wait for Nvidia?
Yes, This is frustrating, but thankfully, with nvidia, the drivers will always be there to be installed (you may have to wait for an nvidia update for kernel or lib or you may have to learn how to build those yourself), but at least there will be a way to build and install the drivers. The problem when distributions like openSUSE drop support is nvidia no longer has any high priority to quickly update the supporting build files, libs, etc.., and there is no longer any communication between the distribution and nvidia regarding what is needed for the driver to run on that distro. The driver itself doesn't change, e.g. nvidia isn't adding anything new to the 340 or 390 drivers, it is just the supporting libraries that go along with the build that must be kept up to date for the driver package to build and install on any distro. If you are not gaming, (and even if you are but running older games) the 8600-9800 models are more than what is needed, and continue to provide all the GPU horsepower needed for the latest highest resolution advanced CAD, etc.. (just not games with all the graphics options dialed up to full) openSUSE isn't alone in this regard, which is sad, because there are a whole lot of these cards out there. The problem this creates is just another instance of the Linux desktop shooting itself in the foot. nvidia drivers for every card are a simple download and install on windows. (now nvidia may intentionally make the web site difficult to navigate to the older drivers, but they are there -- even for the video cards that were made before video cards had fans and used VESA Local Bus -- remember those?) If you have been doing Linux for decades then running into something like this is more a temporary frustration you have learned to expect. If you are new to Linux, or just use Linux and don't build, patch, develop, etc.. than for those, Carlos's answer is the reality, or to download and install on windows. Something Linux swore wouldn't be the case from 2004 on -- but still is.... Now the good news is you can pick up a perfectly fine almost new GTX980 on ebay for ~$160 that are blistering fast and use the current 450 driver. (go for those models that use the single squirrel-cage fan rather than multiple plastic fans -- they last forever) The bad news is they are all 2-case-slot cards now and a lot of times won't fit where the 9800 does. So your options are: 1) Learn to build and install the nvidia drivers manually, which may also require leaning to build and install the libraries, or versions of the libraries needed, or waiting until nvidia updates the supporting packages (I have no idea on what schedule this occurs); 2) Carlos's option or the ebay option for a card that uses the current driver. When buying older models, know the cards, know the GPUs. There are 600 & 700 series cards that out perform the 900 and later cheap models. Rule of thumb, the 60+ versions (last 2-digits, e.g. GTX760, 780, 960, 680) cards provide the top clock-rates and 256bit+ memory interface. The measure of "Memory Bandwidth" is the best general comparison between cards on how they will perform. All GPU and card models are listed at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units Use it. If you do upgrade, make sure the new card will fit where the one you are replace is -- AND that your power supply will support the card, e.g. GTX980 will need a stable 500W power supply that provides a 36A or 38A 12V rail (minimum). 3) The windows option (that's not really an option), but you will find packages for all cards for all versions of windows. This is the real cost of distributions dropping support for older cards. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.