Damon Register composed on 2016-07-28 06:56 (UTC-0400):
Is there anyone here with Mint 17 experience along with SuSE experience. I have been trying Mint 17.3 and find myself comparing to what I know with SuSE, I guess since I have worked with that a lot longer.
Mint is a Debian derivative. I installed both 17 and LMDE 2 Betsy (same OS but with a different DE) on one machine. 17 was a full install, and was corrupted by lack of / filesystem freespace not long after installation, so only LMDE works on it any more.
I am installing a new Nvidia 960 video card on a Mint 17.3 system and am running into problems that I once could solve easily. After some Googling and searching this list, I may have some answers but I am hoping that someone here can tell me if I am on the right track.
What gfxcard is the 960 replacing? If whatever the old one was was using a FOSS driver, then the 960 should have worked automagically, unless the FOSS driver for the new (xserver-xorg-video-nouveau is the .deb containing it in Mint; xf86-video-nouveau is the .rpm containing it in openSUSE) was not already installed.
One thing I don't know with either system is how do I get the system to recognize the new card and reconfigure the xserver for the new card? How is this done with SuSE (I haven't tried it yet)? In all my searching so far I haven't found the method for Mint either.
Default behavior on both Debians and openSUSE is there is no configuration to be done. IOW, gfxcard recognition is supposed to be automagically handled. The primary deviation from default behavior results from NVidia gfxcard owners who cannot be satisfied with a 100% FOSS installation, breaking from the default by installing a proprietary video driver that does require manipulation of otherwise unnecessary X configuration. Swapping gfxcards around here is a fairly common occurrence, and simple, because proprietary video drivers are never used here in any Linux distro. As long as the video driver a gfxcard requires is actually installed, X will normally find and use it automagically. With the latest gfxchips that cannot always be expected to work except maybe in Tumbleweed, as there's normally weeks or months long time lag between new hardware release and support in Linux. Given that the 960 launch was 18 months ago, I would expect full FOSS support for it to exist in both 42.1 and TW, but not in 13.2.
I downloaded the 960 driver from Nvidia but the instructions said I have to be in text only with no xserver. I spent a few evenings on that problem with Mint. Most forum suggestions seemed very old and useless for the current Mint.
Search engines often provide stale hits unless directed to limit results to a recent time period. With Google I commonly click on the one year limitation.
The one that finally worked was to tamper with /etc/default/grub, changing three lines so now it boots and stays in text mode and I can run startx if I want to.
I see from this list that systemd has changed the runlevel concept and now the method for SuSE (if I understand correctly) is systemctl set-default multi-user.target Is this correct?
It is if your goal is to make systemd's closest equivalent to "runlevel 3" your default - your preference being to use startx instead of a GUI greeter to launch your X sessions.
Is YaST System->Boot Loader->Boot Loader Options just another way to accomplish that?
It seems that Mint 17 doesn't yet have systemd so am I correct in
Why do you think that? According to distrowatch.com, Mint has been using systemd since v15. LMDE 2 uses it, so I have to think distrowatch is correct about 17.
understanding that for Mint I tamper with /etc/default/grub while for SuSE I use the systemctl method? One forum (don't remember which forum) post that suggested the grub tampering that worked for me said that I must also do the systemctl in addition to the grub tampering. Does SuSE have the /etc/default/grub and if so, would I
That answer depends on your openSUSE version, and which Grub is enabled. That file is owned by Grub2, which has been openSUSE's default for several releases, but not the only possible choice in it.
have to tamper with that in addition to the systemctl?
The "grub tampering" you're referring to must have to do with the NVidia driver's requirement to disable KMS by including nomodeset as a cmdline parameter at boot time. For the Intel, AMD/ATI and NVidia FOSS drivers to work properly, nomodeset must not be present on the kernel cmdline at boot time. There is no distinction between openSUSE and Mint in this regard. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org