Dropping all legacy and older Nvidia drivers ?!?

Even though it’s possible to use AUR versions of the driver the newcomers to distro aren’t going to want to do that (or even know how) even though it’s not arch difficulty level of install the fact that it’s an extra step after installation isn’t newcomer friendly it takes away from there simplicity that the distro markets itself on.

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I definitely cannot use Nouveau drivers for my computer at this time. Many games just do not run with it active, as well as some of my other graphics software. Luckily I’m able to use the 455 drivers just fine, but if proprietary drivers ever stopped working I’d be completely unable to do anything other than desktop work, which is a big problem for me. I realise that proprietary drivers are less than ideal but at least they work.

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I agree. My point was about what users can do about it for now. But the real question is why Manjaro devs do not use dkms instead of compiling modules for each kernel. Let them compile on a user’s machine I would say. Maybe I just don’t see some obvious obstacle though…

They didn’t. Amazing thing is, such an advanced distro’s maintainers doesn’t get why LTS kernels exist. Manjaro was the one of the easiest distros you can stick with LTS kernels and forget it, now there is no point.

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It was already a very “E” thing to do, breaking 5.4 LTS compatibility for no reason at all. I almost got banned from a distro’s channel for saying how easy Manjaro makes to get your gfx card supported for next 5 years thanks to LTS kernel/nvidia 340 combination.

So you say we should bring a driver back, which is not supported by upstream nor the manufacturer? I wrote a guideline on how to compile and install it on your own, if you still need those drivers:

However, we don’t recommend it, to do so. Maybe it is time to upgrade your hardware or use the free drivers.

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I would use it if it was possible. But Nvidia cooperation with its development was always bad and, as a result, it’s developed almost by reverse engineering. It’s not developers’ fault, they do the best they can. The problem is Nvidia and it’s business practices.

The performance when using Nouveau is bad and, for notebooks with hybrid configurations (Intel + Nvidia), there’s no PRIME switching funcionality as the proprietary driver has (so it basically turns your dedicated graphics card into a little brick that uses battery and generates heat).

I see people asking “why do you use the proprietary driver?”. Well, the answer is that there’s no other option. I would ask “why do people use the Nouveau driver?”. As it is, I don’t consider it a viable replacement.

Perfect response. Same case for me. I live in Brazil and hardware here is extremely expensive. And, even if it wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t stop using my aluminum notebook from 2014~2015, in perfect conditions, to keep up using an operational system with the GT 740M. I was talking to people in other forums and some were extremely rude, saying the solution was to get rid of my “very old” (2015) hardware.

Nouveau is not an option, especially for laptops with hybrid configurations. I love Manjaro, but I also had to go back to Ubuntu because it’s easier and more guaranteed. Let’s see how it goes.

In Brazil there is a big community of people that love Manjaro. They’re doing exactly what you said, trying to keep Manjaro alive for older hardware: Driver Nvidia 390 para o kernel 5.10 | Manjariando

It’s a fantastic job.

Sure thing!

I’m new to GNU/Linux, started last year. So it was already a bit too late for me… My laptop has a GT 740M and my desktop has a GTX 1070Ti. But I’m not going to buy anything from Nvidia anymore.

Even if we consider Windows usage, Nvidia always had bad business practices. And the lack of support on GNU/Linux is not Manjaro’s fault, but only Nvidia’s fault.

Nouveau is not a solution for many users. The majority, I think. It’s bad for gaming and unbearable for hybrid notebooks.

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I am no way near experienced as any of you but these are the things I considered when I moved to 5.4 LTS in 5.8 era.

  1. X11 which driver relies on is in maintenance mode, won’t get any major updates.

  2. nvidia 340 isn’t connected to network nor have any kind of network connected part to create security issue

  3. nvidia 9400 is horribly supported by nouveau because of chicken&egg problem. Less users use it, less feedback given and to tell the truth, it is outdated hardware being on less and less systems.

My plan was using kernel 5.4.x on that Mac Mini 3.1 (late 2009) because of that. I can’t expect anything like 5.10 lts with nvidia 340 etc, I don’t think it would be a realistic thing.

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Maybe you should start reading my guide and try it yourself. It is pretty straight forward actually. More or less copy and paste the following lines and forget about it.

Prepare your system for building drivers

  • you may want to install development tools: sudo pacman -S git base-devel
  • then you may want to install your proper kernel headers: sudo pacman -S $(mhwd-kernel -li | grep '*' | cut -d ' ' -f5 | awk '{print $0,"-headers"}' | sed s'/ //'g)

340xx (dkms 5.4 - 5.10)

You need to get the sources first:

 git clone https://gitlab.manjaro.org/packages/extra/nvidia-340xx-utils.git
 git clone https://gitlab.manjaro.org/packages/multilib/lib32-nvidia-340xx-utils.git
 git clone https://github.com/philmmanjaro/nvidia-340xx-dkms.git

Then compile all packages with makepkg :

 cd nvidia-340xx-utils && makepkg -si
 cd ../lib32-nvidia-340xx-utils && makepkg -si
 cd ../nvidia-340xx-dkms && makepkg -si

With this you will have 340xx driver, even Manjaro officially dropped it.

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Hello @philm, one question -> why for the love of god did you forcefully had to remove the nvidia-340 and install carp on sytems ???

Why this just why

:: Do you want to remove these packages? [Y/n] 
:: Processing package changes...
removing lib32-nvidia-340xx-utils...
removing linux54-nvidia-340xx...
removing mhwd-nvidia-340xx...
removing nvidia-340xx-utils...
removing opencl-nvidia-340xx...

There was no need in making me do tutorials for the millionth time.

Why install soooo much drivers ??? asdfasd;fjhlgdag;luh;

You could have just left it as is.

NOW I have to do it allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr again. BIG THANK Y!

I read this topic and I am being sympathetic to users caught in this.
But, well, you brought it upon yourself - nVidia is notoriously bad when it comes to Linux support and this is well know for years. Next time, choose more wisely - don’t buy computer with nvidia in it.

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Would you have any objection to someone creating a thread for legacy drivers ? Somewhere users can upload kernel/nvidia drivers they have compiled to share with other users. I know it’s not ideal but it would help the users who are worried about compiling the kernels themselves. All they would have to do is download and install then.

I managed to uninstall all unwanted drivers and install the nvidia drivers again and finished philm’s tutorial. Now I am in process of updating. See you on the other side if all goes well :smiley:

There’s no need to compile a kernel. Only driver.
@cryptocurious, there won’t be a “next time”. Most users behave another way: if some OS doesn’t support their hw, they choose another OS. And no need to waste money on something unnecessary.

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I was just thinking about simplifying the process for people who are intimidated by building themselves that’s all

If you use the appropriate DKMS packages, the alpm hook will take care of compiling and putting everything where it belongs. I would say it’s not very hard compared to mhwd: you need to install 3 things, instead of one.

I know its not particularly hard but the forum has been flooded with threads/posts from nvidia users in full blown panic. It was just an idea to keep the forums tidy and help the users who are intimidated by building themselves

Don’t you know what [Y/n] means?

I am on kernel 5.4 and I still use 340. Nothing wrong has happened. It wasn’t uninstalled.

There was a discussion about it earlier:

On the other installation I have noveau with kernel 5.9 and it works fine for me. I only had to change to xrender to avoid some glitches.

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Hello @pixel,

Yes I do, and it did it automatically! I did not have the time to press n.

Did you do update in pamac, pacman or in Terminal, TTY?
I always update in Terminal to see what is going on.