I have question regarding how does Manjaro handle NVIDIA installations depending which kernel am I using like Linux or Linux LTS.
Lets say I am on Manjaro 6.1LTS and I want to install NVIDIA driver from Manjaro GUI driver manager, will it automatically install NVIDIA-LTS? And vice versa if I am on just Linux kernel like 6.5 will it automatically install just NVIDIA driver?
Is there a way to check which NVIDIA type driver the system is using?(NVIDIA or NVIDIA-LTS)
Do I need to remove each driver and reinstall the other one depending on which Kernel I am on? Or does Manjaro detect that I have multiple kernels so it will install NVIDIA and NVIDIA LTS for those kernels?
I am new this so would appreciate help regarding this confusion.
The easiest way to check what’s installed, run the following:
mhwd --listinstalled
Mine, for example:
$ mhwd --listinstalled
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME VERSION FREEDRIVER TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
video-nvidia 2023.03.23 false PCI
Warning: No installed USB configs!
I understand, just I hear how Nvidia is not so to say friendly with Linux compared how AMD is, so I just want simply to make sure everything is alright with my settings.
If your device is a laptop with dual gpu you would likely be using one of the prime variants.
The current Nvidia driver is labelled
video-nvidia
with the following considered legacy
video-nvidia-390xx
video-nvidia-470xx
Which ever kernel your system is using - mhwd will install the corresponding files matching your the currently running kernel.
This pose a significant point of trouble IF you fail to remove unsupported kernels in due time.
The above mentioned point can usually be mitigated by using the nvidia-dkms - in which case you need to insure you have the relevant kernel headers installed - again - mhwd-kernel will handle this situation gracefully.
BUT with Nvidia there is always a chance you need to manual intervention on system sync or to configure the GPU to your preferences.
In other words - there is no one size fits all - you must be prepared to manually intervene when required.
I am just a fresh Linux user and pretty much when I noticed about existence of NVIDIA, NVIDIA LTS and NVIDIA-DKMS, (There are also NVIDIA-OPEN-BETA and NVIDIA-OPEN-BETA-DKMS from AUR) I kind of panicked.
On 6.5 kernel I couldn’t launch a single game with nvidia-drm.modeset=1.
On 6.1(LTS) kernel I was able to launch games with nvidia-drm.modeset=1.
And for extra measures I reinstalled the NVIDIA driver from mhwd each time I switched the kernel.
I also had to put in my Grub pci=nommconf otherwise my system freezes at random times when browsing web(Firefox and Brave).
I was afraid I might be using wrong NVIDIA type driver because I had these odd problems there and there. So I wondered if I should trust mhwd or do manually myself to install nvidia drivers in the future.
Thanks for the clear explanation. Seems like I don’t have to worry then. So far the system works fine and plays games, capturing videos and rendering without hiccups, so I guess the driver for the nvidia is fine.