David C. Rankin composed on 2024-08-28 13:05 (UTC-0500):
the nouveau driver
The above is a fallacy: 1-every openSUSE kernel package "set" contains *a* nouveau module (driver) named nouveau.ko. This module is required by all NVidia GPUs that are neither older than ancient, or too new, for nouveau support, and not using NVidia's proprietary drivers. I used the term "set" above because in Leap, instead of in kernel-<type>, nouveau.ko is provided by optional package kernel-<type>-extra. 2-standard repos contain optional package xf86-video-nouveau, which contains *an* reverse-engineered, "experimental", display driver for X named nouveau_drv.so. Most installations of openSUSE include xorg-x11-driver-video, which is a meta-package that causes installation of the optional xf86-video-nouveau package. The X11 server package includes a newer technology that competently supports a single AMD, Intel or NVidia GPU OOTB, with no fuss, at least in theory, and here in practice. IIW, pure FOSS using upstream defaults is supposed to just work no matter which mainstream GPU you have. Those who find this doesn't happen for them should report a bug if they can't determine their problem is a known issue. 3-Leap provides libdrm_nouveau2 for NVidia GPUs providing libdrm_nouveau.so.2 which provides userspace interface for Kernel DRM services. This has multiple depends, so is in effect part of basesystem. In TW & Slowroll it is apparently in process of being purged. What may have replaced it I do not yet know. 4-libvdpau_nouveau - optional package 5-libXvMC_nouveau - optional package 6-Mesa-dri-nouveau - optional package None, to my knowledge, of my NVidia discrete GPU cards, all of which are too old for proprietary driver support, require #s 2, 4, 5 or 6 for normal desktop use. All require #1, else fall back to crude low performance drivers vesa or fbdev, if anything at all. Thus, multiple nouveaus exist. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata