Hello, I have an old Dell E521 (circa 2007) computer that I took out of storage. It has an nvidia geforce 8400 video card. I installed opensuse Leap 15.2 KDE, but the G03 driver isn't available for the stock 5.3 kernel. It's using the nouveau driver but that causes some weird screen blanking (even with XRenderer), random screen corruption and system freezes. I have used opensuse on it 10.0-11.3. Been so long I forget, but it has always been suse/opensuse. Is there a repo that I can use to downgrade the kernel to 4.3 (or any 4.x) that I can use with 15.2? I know it's a weird question, but I figure the machine is so old that it wouldn't benefit from any kernel after 4.x any way. Thanks. Alvin
Alvin composed on 2020-12-24 10:22 (UTC-0400):
I have an old Dell E521 (circa 2007) computer that I took out of storage. It has an nvidia geforce 8400 video card. I installed opensuse Leap 15.2 KDE, but the G03 driver isn't available for the stock 5.3 kernel. It's using the nouveau driver but that causes some weird screen blanking (even with XRenderer), random screen corruption and system freezes. I have used opensuse on it 10.0-11.3. Been so long I forget, but it has always been suse/opensuse.
Which "the" Nouveau? There are two. <https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/541438-AMD-Intel-amp-NVidia-X-graphics-driver-primer> explains. If you are using the Nouveau DDX, try the Modesetting instead. My 8400 works just fine with its 2007 motherboard. My 8400 uses Plasma only for TW. In 15.2 it uses TDE. Disabling compositing in System/Desktop Settings -> Display might help with your problems. Switching to KDE3 or TDE is another option. Does any of the trouble manifest if you open an IceWM session instead of Plasma? -- Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion, is based on faith, not on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 1:19 PM Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
Alvin composed on 2020-12-24 10:22 (UTC-0400):
I have an old Dell E521 (circa 2007) computer ... It has an nvidia geforce 8400 video card. I installed opensuse Leap 15.2 KDE, but ... It's using the nouveau driver but that causes some weird screen blanking (even with XRenderer), random screen corruption and system freezes....
Which "the" Nouveau? There are two. <https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/541438-AMD-Intel-amp-NVidia-X-graphics-driver-primer> explains. If you are using the Nouveau DDX, try the Modesetting instead. My 8400 works just fine with its 2007 motherboard. My 8400 uses Plasma only for TW. In 15.2 it uses TDE. Disabling compositing in System/Desktop Settings -> Display might help with your problems. Switching to KDE3 or TDE is another option. Does any of the trouble manifest if you open an IceWM session instead of Plasma? -- Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion, is based on faith, not on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
Thank you Felix for the link to that information. I have tried the nouveau module (DDX I believe) as well as the one built into X11 (modesetting I believe). After some time with both, the "most stable" is the nouveau module from xf86-video-nouveau (It's a shame both use the same name). The modesetting forces 640x480. If I set grub to 1280x1024 (max for the old LCD monitor), that works but the screen can never switch to any other modes. Some games (e.g. Alien blaster) want 640x480 and is displayed as a small square with black boxing all around. There still is screen corruption and random "lock ups" with the DDX module, but it's intermittent. The lock ups aren't truly freezes as I am able to ssh into the machine and reboot it and pressing the power button does a clean shutdown. I think the contents of the screen are not updated. This typically happens at the login screen after entering the right password. I will need to try with the compositor turned off but that is less than ideal. What's frustrating is that I know the GPU works and performs decently enough. Just wish it could be used to its full potential. At the risk of going off-topic, do you know of another distribution that would offer KDE5 but also support for the older G03 nvidia driver? I have a Geforce 8400 GS. Which 8400 do you have? Which nouveau "driver" are you using? Thanks. Alvin
Hello Alvin, I do not know whether or not this still would work with openSUSE 15.2, but did you consider using the original Nvidia drivers instead? Take care Dieter Am Montag, 4. Januar 2021, 17:10:17 CET schrieb Alvin:
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 1:19 PM Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
Alvin composed on 2020-12-24 10:22 (UTC-0400):
I have an old Dell E521 (circa 2007) computer ... It has an nvidia geforce 8400 video card. I installed opensuse Leap 15.2 KDE, but ... It's using the nouveau driver but that causes some weird screen blanking (even with XRenderer), random screen corruption and system freezes....
Which "the" Nouveau? There are two. <https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/541438-AMD-Intel-amp-NVidia-X-> > graphics-driver-primer> explains. If you are using the Nouveau DDX, try the Modesetting instead. My 8400 works just fine with its 2007 motherboard. My 8400 uses Plasma only for TW. In 15.2 it uses TDE. Disabling compositing in System/Desktop Settings -> Display might help with your problems. Switching to KDE3 or TDE is another option. Does any of the trouble manifest if you open an IceWM session instead of Plasma? -- Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion,
is based on faith, not on science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
Thank you Felix for the link to that information. I have tried the nouveau module (DDX I believe) as well as the one built into X11 (modesetting I believe). After some time with both, the "most stable" is the nouveau module from xf86-video-nouveau (It's a shame both use the same name). The modesetting forces 640x480. If I set grub to 1280x1024 (max for the old LCD monitor), that works but the screen can never switch to any other modes. Some games (e.g. Alien blaster) want 640x480 and is displayed as a small square with black boxing all around. There still is screen corruption and random "lock ups" with the DDX module, but it's intermittent. The lock ups aren't truly freezes as I am able to ssh into the machine and reboot it and pressing the power button does a clean shutdown. I think the contents of the screen are not updated. This typically happens at the login screen after entering the right password.
I will need to try with the compositor turned off but that is less than ideal. What's frustrating is that I know the GPU works and performs decently enough. Just wish it could be used to its full potential. At the risk of going off-topic, do you know of another distribution that would offer KDE5 but also support for the older G03 nvidia driver?
I have a Geforce 8400 GS. Which 8400 do you have? Which nouveau "driver" are you using? Thanks.
Alvin
-- ----------------------------------------------------------- Dr.-Ing. Dieter Jurzitza 76131 Karlsruhe
Hello Alvin, On Mon, 04 Jan 2021, Dr.-Ing. Dieter Jurzitza wrote:
I do not know whether or not this still would work with openSUSE 15.2, but did you consider using the original Nvidia drivers instead?
Using a vanilla LTS 4.x kernel and the proprietary drivers from nvidia should work. I'm using 4.14.x and nvidia-driver 340.x (both LTS). And I've used this driver with a GeForce GT610, GeForce 210, and GT710 (in that order, the 610 died). I think I also used a < 395.x driver version before upgrading to the 610, which is not supported by the < 395 versions. I just looked it up: 340.108 fits for your 8400 :) See: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/156163/en-us under "supported products" [..] GeForce 8 Series: GeForce 8800 Ultra, GeForce 8800 GTX, GeForce 8800 GTS 512, GeForce 8800 GTS, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GS, GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, GeForce 8600 GS, GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, GeForce 8400 SE, GeForce 8400, GeForce 8300 GS, GeForce 8300, GeForce 8200, GeForce 8100 /nForce 720a [..] Using both LTS kernel and nvidia-driver should work for quite some time still. HTH, -dnh -- The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it. -- BSD fortune file
Alvin composed on 2021-01-04 12:10 (UTC-0400):
Thank you Felix for the link to that information. I have tried the nouveau module (DDX I believe) as well as the one built into X11 (modesetting I believe). After some time with both, the "most stable" is the nouveau module from xf86-video-nouveau
Both X drivers, Modesetting and Nouveau, are DDX drivers. Modesetting is not "built-in" per se. It's a separate driver like all others, but instead of being provided by a separate xf86-video-* package, apparently because it's the default, it's provided by the server package.
The modesetting forces 640x480.
I can't imagine why this could happen, other than possibly using an older kernel than that provided for the distro.
If I set grub to 1280x1024 (max for the old LCD monitor), that works but the screen can never switch to any other modes.
Ditto.
Some games (e.g. Alien blaster) want 640x480 and is displayed as a small square with black boxing all around. There still is screen corruption and random "lock ups" with the DDX module, but it's intermittent. The lock ups aren't truly freezes as I am able to ssh into the machine and reboot it and pressing the power button does a clean shutdown. I think the contents of the screen are not updated. This typically happens at the login screen after entering the right password.
Random screen corruption can occur when the RAM on the graphics card is failing, or the card needs reseating and/or contacts cleaned. I suppose it could also result from using an older kernel than what shipped with the distro. Screen freezing and losing mouse and keyboard are I/O trouble, not foundational, which is why remote login can succeed.
do you know of another distribution that would offer KDE5 but also support for the older G03 nvidia driver?
No idea. I don't ever use proprietary drivers in any Linux distribution.
I have a Geforce 8400 GS. Which 8400 do you have? Which nouveau "driver" are you using? Thanks.
Kernel driver: nouveau DDX driver: modesetting Model and drivers are shown below: # inxi -GISay System: Host: g5eas Kernel: 5.8.14-1-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 parameters:...noresume mitigations=auto consoleblank=0 video=1440x900@60 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.0 tk: Qt 5.15.1 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210102 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA G98 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 2] vendor: PNY driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 0b:00.0 chip ID: 10de:06e4 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: nouveau,nv,nvidia display ID: :0 screens: 1 Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1200 s-dpi: 108 s-size: 451x282mm (17.8x11.1") s-diag: 532mm (20.9") Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 size: 519x324mm (20.4x12.8") diag: 612mm (24.1") OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 10.0.1 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 20.1.8 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes Info:...Shell: Bash v: 5.0.18 running in: konsole inxi: 3.2.01 Compositing is disabled in Plasma's "System Settings". Note in "parameters" above that I do not have Grub messing with video configuration. KMS sets the ttys' mode according to video= specification, and the X server autoconfigures, both without any assistance from Grub. Note Grub's kernel command line also has neither quiet nor splash=. -- Evolution as taught in public schools, like religion, is based on faith, not on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
On 12/25/20 12:52 AM, Alvin wrote:
Hello,
I have an old Dell E521 (circa 2007) computer that I took out of storage. It has an nvidia geforce 8400 video card. I installed opensuse Leap 15.2 KDE, but the G03 driver isn't available for the stock 5.3 kernel. It's using the nouveau driver but that causes some weird screen blanking (even with XRenderer), random screen corruption and system freezes. I have used opensuse on it 10.0-11.3. Been so long I forget, but it has always been suse/opensuse.
Its not kernel version but X11 version that is the bigger issue, I can't suggest a sane way to use an older X11 with a current leap. Leap 15.1 is still supported for a little while so that might be an option. (I have the same problem). -- Simon Lees (Simotek) http://simotek.net Emergency Update Team keybase.io/simotek SUSE Linux Adelaide Australia, UTC+10:30 GPG Fingerprint: 5B87 DB9D 88DC F606 E489 CEC5 0922 C246 02F0 014B
participants (5)
-
Alvin -
David Haller -
Dr.-Ing. Dieter Jurzitza -
Felix Miata -
Simon Lees