Best way or best distro to use Nvidia video cards

Hi everyone, so I’ll start by saying that at the moment it’s just a “talking point”, since I don’t actually have any nvidia video cards to run with linux, but it’s more of a hypothetical discussion, “in anticipation of using an nvidia graphics card”.

As I find some old hardware to try out my nvidia 980ti, I could install a linux distro and a version of the nvidia proprietary drivers to actually see how to manage them, and what problems I would have to deal with.

But in this case the first problem arises, the video card I would like to try is old, and the proprietary drivers I should use are old too, and I don’t know if these drivers can work with the most recent kernel versions.

I would like to point out that I would like to use the nvidia proprietary drivers instead of the open drivers because I need access to the more advanced functions of the video card, something that the open drivers do not guarantee (from what I’ve read).

Now, regarding the open post issue, or rather the management of nvidia drivers, probably having more recent nvidia video cards this could change slightly compared to my case (future). But I still want to get an idea “on the field” to see what problems you run into and how to solve them, and if for me the “game is worth the candle” so to speak.

In your opinion, which distros and how to manage the closed nvidia drivers to have as few problems as possible at the user-side management level?

I wouldn’t want it to become a sort of job, having to struggle every time to fix things (at that point I would remain on amd video cards and goodbye), so the fewer problems I can have the better.

It’s a thorny issue, because the “fault” of all this is mainly nvidia’s, not linux’s obviously. But then it’s the users who have to struggle to solve the problem.

Your card is still supported by the latest Nvidia driver version 570.124.04.
You can simply boot the EndeavourOS installer and select the Nvidia option.

Alternatively you can boot the installer with the default option (the nouveau driver will be used), and after install (and reboot) use program nvidia-inst to install the Nvidia driver. For more details see the help with command
nvidia-inst --help

To easily see if your plugged-in Nvidia card is supported, run command
nvidia-driver-supported-branches
It is in package nvidia-inst.

Additionally you may want to switch between the integrated and dedicated GPUs.
There are a few alternatives for that as well, see e.g.
https://discovery.endeavouros.com/?s=nvidia

3 Likes

Ok perfect thanks.

But I read and saw videos around that with every kernel update there could be problems with closed source drivers.

Since EOS is rolling, the kernel is updated quite often and continuously, compared to other non-rolling distros.

What problems can I expect?

And if for example, once EOS is installed with the closed nvidia drivers, I wanted to switch from the vanilla kernel to the zen kernel, could I run into problems?

There are alternative Nvidia driver packages.

The nvidia-dkms driver package will build when kernel changes, so that should take care of most such issues. This is what nvidia-inst installs by default for Nvidia GPUs.

The nvidia driver package usually changes when the kernel changes, so that also is mostly OK. However there have been situations that the kernel and the nvidia package have a small time delay between updates, and if you update during the delay, then the problem has realized.
But if you update with program eos-update, it should detect and warn about such cases, and a small wait before updating again should solve the issue.

With nvidia-dkms driver you can install any of the supported kernels.

2 Likes

Ok thanks.

A question, but if I install EOS for the first time with the Nvidia option, will it install the closed nvidia-dkms driver right?

Sorry for the really stupid question, but now having all amd (processor and video card) I don’t have the problem and so I have never been able to see how it works.

Just checked this: the installer used to install nvidia-dkms, but after a relatively recent change the installer will install nvidia now.
So if you want nvidia-dkms instead (after install), you can simply run nvidia-inst to change the driver to nvidia-dkms.

I’m using an old Nvidia GPU too, and mostly it works OK. There have been some issues before, but lately it has been running quite well. The only problem that has persisted for a long time is related to resume after suspend (sleep in RAM). It used to crash at resume, but that stopped some time ago. Instead, now it heats up the machine strongly and I have to reboot in order to stop that. After reboot all works again as expected.

All in all, if you are reasonably happy with AMD GPUs, I’d suggest sticking with the AMD GPUs instead of Nvidia GPUs. AMD GPUs seem to have much less (driver) issues in the Linux world.
But if you really want to use Nvidia GPUs, it should be OK too. Maybe you’d want to read the forum threads about Nvidia issues to get a good view about what the situation is. While reading, please note that usually the issues are solvable, but simply may take time to do so.

1 Like

Eos update is the same way as terminal right ?

sudo pacman -Syu && yay -Sua

It is also a command line utility. It runs essentially those commands and some other helpful things.
See eos-update --help for more details.

1 Like

The initial question is a bit confusing.. best way could say on EndeavourOS or general on Linux.. Best Distro for Nvidia? i do not think there is any Distro that is specialized on keeping Nvidia propritary packages “stable” Distros liek Garuda or Manjaro have an “GUI” option to manage drivers, EndeavourOS have a toolset (nvidia-inst) and we have us the community to resolve issues when they arise.
The thing is that you have to know your system a bit in case running Linux in general and special on rolling releases.

But Arch rolling base is incredible stable, only keep in mind that does not say it makes sure you will be able to start graphical Interface on a million possible combinations of hardware, and ways to install arch/based systems and configure them.

I have an modern Nvidia GPU and since never had a single issue using it or getting it working in a minute in case i do something wrong or an update changed something i had setup and was not working anymore.

It is more about a mindset and workflow on tinkering the system, go to revert unworking changes if you try something. Be it having snapshots to revert system or simply undoing the actual change. Keep yourself informed on changes of your Distro, read the archnews and keep EndeavourOS telegram running or regularly open the forum, you will got the info in case.

moving post to lounge

Pick your favorite distro and then find out which driver supports your video card, follow the instructions to install the driver, then reboot. Some distros, for example, debian, mx, cachy, (eos also, but not 100% sure) have utilities to detect your video card and suggest which driver to install. Alternatively, you could use Nvidia driver page to find out yourself.

One thing to keep in mind, if you plan to use Wayland in the near future, stay away from Nvida cards. It’s a hassle to get it to work right.

It used to be awful but now it’s fine, just install the driver and go. I think from the version 50 or 55 or so.

1 Like

I have not seen an issue on my second notebook running a GTX 1070 8gb card with wayland.

Thx, good to know. Will try it again on my Lenovo Legion 15. Seems that they’ve made some progress since version 565.