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 wrote:

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Alvin composed on 2020-12-24 10:22 (UTC-0400):

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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

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/