I currently have a PC running Manjaro.
It has an AMD graphics card.
Currently the mesa-nonfree drivers (installed as per this link https://nonfree.eu/ )
(The non-free were installed because of an issue with Blender.)
Since the AMD card doesn’t support rendering in Blender, I intend to replace it with an Nvidia card.
What is the best workflow to make swap?
I think I’ll need the Nvidia proprietary drivers to support Blender Cycles.
Do I need to remove the key and repo installed for mesa-nonfree? (After swapping the cards?)
Do I need to change anything before pulling the amd and putting the nvidia card in?
Hi @drmacro,
While I’ve never done this, I’d imagine it’s as simple as:
- Uninstall the AMD drivers, but don’t reboot yet;
- install the free drivers. Shut down;
- swap CPUs;
- boot up. (If it doesn’t boot enter a
chroot environment and continue the instructions below.)
- Install the proprietary drivers with as per the wiki:
sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300
If necessary:
How to chroot
-
Ensure you’ve got a relatively new ISO or at least one with a still supported LTS kernel.
-
Write/copy/dd the ISO to a USB thumb drive.
-
When done, boot with the above mentioned USB thumb drive into the live environment.
-
Once booted, open a terminal and enter the following command to enter the chroot encironment:
manjaro-chroot -a
- If you have more than one Linux installation, select the correct one to use from the list provided.
When done, you should now be in the chroot environment.
But, be careful, as you’re now in an actual root environment on your computer, so any changes you make will persist after a restart.
That makes sense, but…
My first problem is I don’t see how to revert to the free drivers from mesa-nonfree.
If I look at the system it shows this:
But, pacman shows the mesa-nonfree as installed. Attempting to remove says it breaks dependencies.
I think, in that case, just shut down, swap the cards, reboot, and install and uninstall as necessary.
You can always use the AMD card again if it doesn’t start…