So you installed and have nouveau drivers. You could have easily resolved the issue installing the proper 580xx version drivers from the AUR.
Yes, youāre probably right. I managed to really mess things up somewhere during the update process, so I wanted to share my experiences in case someone else screws up, too.
Last time I checked, RTD3 power saving mode wasnāt working on open source drivers, so I will have to double check to see if everything will work as expected. Question: Why do we need to switch to open graphics for Turing? I think the automatic switch should be for Pascal or older GPUs. Please correct me if Iām wrong.
Currently the available Nvidia packages (nvidia-open*) from Arch repos support only Turing and newer GPUs.
If you use a GPU older than Turing, then you have e.g. these alternatives
- nvidia-580xx-dkms (AUR, supports Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta)
- vulkan-nouveau
Even for turning NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce MX450], I had to use the 580xx drivers because I have verified that the RTD3 (D3Cold) state does not work with my card using the open-source NVIDIA drivers. The reason is that the open-source driver does not support disabling GSP, which is required for RTD3 to work on Turing mobile GPUs.
So I did
yay 580 and installed aur/nvidia-580xx-dkms, aur/nvidia-580xx-utils, aur/lib32-nvidia-580xx-utils, aur/nvidia-580xx-settings.
This automatically removes all the conflicting nvidia and nvidia-lts packages after prompting for removal.
This is crucial for healthy battery life on these laptops, as documented by me here https://armujahid.me/blog/linux-poor-battery-life-hybrid-graphics-fix.
Thanks for the explanation. Apparently there are reasons to use the older Nvidia driver. Fortunately we have the AUR to support such cases.
Iām also using 580xx because the new nvidia-dkms does not work at all with my old Nvidia GPU.
A question about the drivers, although it doesnāt concern my main PC (where I have an AMD CPU and GPU, so it doesnāt affect me), on the old PC that I need to keep running, from what I understand I should replace the proprietary drivers with the new ones because the new 590 version no longer supports older NVIDIA cards.
I have a 980 Ti (Maxwell architecture), and the proprietary drivers on Arch or EOS at version 580 worked fine.
Now, since Iām on another distro but could go back to Arch or EOS, I would need to use the LTS kernel for this old PC (I use a Wi-Fi router whose driver doesnāt work with the latest kernels).
From what I understand from reading here, I can switch to the AUR version of the 580 DKMS drivers. Am I correct?
If I installed EOS or Arch with the open drivers and then switched to the AUR DKMS drivers at version 580, is that possible?
And in the future, is there a chance theyāll be updated as well, perhaps excluding older cards like mine again?
PS: I also use my old computer for gaming, or to use AI to generate images in a lightweight way, with small models. So I also need CUDA features. Do the AUR drivers guarantee this?
Thanks to anyone who replies.
Yes, correct
If you installed EOS in the past, yes. If are installing EOS offline at the current time, yes.
If you are installing EOS online at the current time, you would need to choose the open source option, not the nvidia option and then switch to the 580xx drivers after the install.
Thanks for the reply!
Having such an old card, I always installed EOS or Arch with the open drivers, then switched to the closed ones once I got to the desktop of the installed distro.
I found that this was a āsaferā procedure, as it usually worked. Also, installing the closed drivers doesnāt necessarily mean installing the dkms version, so since I wanted those, I always installed the open version of the distro first, then switched to the closed one.
EnOS + XFCE + RTX 3050 8GB on HTPC used for streaming & Steam/Epic/GOG (via HGL), a little anxious about breaking thingsā¦
nvidia-inst ātest
2026-01-10 11:16:21: Note: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [Geforce RTX 3050] [10de:2507] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2026-01-10 11:16:21: Note: Currently installed packages related to Nvidia:
2026-01-10 11:16:22: egl-gbm 1.1.2.1-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: egl-wayland 4:1.1.20-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: egl-x11 1.0.3-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: lib32-nvidia-utils 580.105.08-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: libva-nvidia-driver 0.0.14-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: libvdpau 1.5-3
2026-01-10 11:16:22: libxnvctrl 580.105.08-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: linux-firmware-nvidia 20251125-2
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvidia-dkms 580.105.08-5
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvidia-hook 1.5.2-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvidia-inst 25.11-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvidia-settings 580.105.08-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvidia-utils 580.105.08-5
2026-01-10 11:16:22: nvtop 3.2.0-1
2026-01-10 11:16:22: opencl-nvidia 580.105.08-5
2026-01-10 11:16:22: Note: inxi -Gza
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA106 [Geforce RTX 3050] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia
v: 580.105.08 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 550-580.xx+
status: current (as of 2025-11; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Ampere code: GAxxx
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-2023 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none
off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2507
class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.21 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver:
X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1017x572mm (40.04x22.52")
s-diag: 1167mm (45.94")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: Beyond TV
serial: built: 2023 res: N/A dpi: 81 gamma: 1.2
size: 1210x680mm (47.64x26.77") diag: 1387mm (54.6") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2
drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
inactive: wayland,device-1
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.105.08
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050/PCIe/SSE2
memory: 7.81 GiB
Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings
gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
2026-01-10 11:16:23: Info: nvidia-inst version 25.11-1
2026-01-10 11:16:23: Info: Command line: nvidia-inst --test
2026-01-10 11:16:23: Info: Selected mode: nvidia (Nvidiaās open source)
2026-01-10 11:16:23: Info: Installing packages: nvidia-open-dkms
2026-01-10 11:16:23: Info: Removing packages: nvidia-dkms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
COMMANDS TO RUN:
pacman -Rs --noconfirm --noprogressbar --nodeps nvidia-dkms
pacman -Syuq --noconfirm --noprogressbar --needed nvidia-open-dkms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I ran reflector-simple & eos-rankmirrors then eos-update āaur:
eos-update --aur
eos-update: package updater with additional features
Updating native and AUR appsā¦
:: Synchronizing package databasesā¦
endeavouros 13.1 KiB 88.8 KiB/s 00:00 [--------------------------------------] 100%
core 119.5 KiB 43.6 KiB/s 00:03 [--------------------------------------] 100%
extra 8.0 MiB 660 KiB/s 00:12 [--------------------------------------] 100%
multilib 128.5 KiB 46.8 KiB/s 00:03 [--------------------------------------] 100%
resolving dependenciesā¦
looking for conflicting packagesā¦
Package (1) Old Version New Version Net Change Download Size
core/archlinux-keyring 20251116-1 20260107-2 0.01 MiB 1.19 MiB
ā¦ keyring downloaded & installed; btrfs auto snap created ā¦
:: Starting full system upgradeā¦
:: Replace nvidia-dkms with extra/nvidia-open-dkms? [Y/n]
Bit anxious about just hitting Y & hoping for the best, whatās the safest way for me to proceed here?
Your card should be using the nvidia-open-dkms so yes i would say yes and let it replace the current nvidia drivers with the correct ones.
Thanks, here goesā¦
upgrade summary
Replace nvidia-dkms with extra/nvidia-open-dkms? [Y/n] y
resolving dependenciesā¦
looking for conflicting packagesā¦
warning: dependency cycle detected:
warning: nvidia-utils will be installed before its egl-wayland dependency
warning: dependency cycle detected:
warning: eos-reboot-recommended will be installed before its eos-bash-shared dependency
<213-packages-list>
Total Download Size: 1206.90 MiB
Total Installed Size: 4318.05 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 35.36 MiB
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packagesā¦
:: Running pre-transaction hooksā¦
(1/3) Creating Timeshift snapshot before upgradeā¦
==> Skipping timeshift-autosnap because only 1 hours have passed since the last snapshot.
(2/3) Removing initramfsā¦
(3/3) Remove DKMS modules
==> dkms remove --no-depmod nvidia/580.105.08 -k 6.12.61-1-lts
==> dkms remove --no-depmod nvidia/580.105.08 -k 6.17.9-arch1-1
==> depmod 6.17.9-arch1-1
==> depmod 6.12.61-1-lts
:: Processing package changesā¦
(1/1) removing nvidia-dkms [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
( 41/213) upgrading mesa [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
( 42/213) upgrading egl-x11 [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
( 43/213) installing egl-wayland2 [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
( 44/213) upgrading nvidia-utils [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
( 45/213) upgrading egl-wayland [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
( 71/213) upgrading vulkan-icd-loader [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
( 72/213) upgrading shaderc [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
(124/213) upgrading lib32-nvidia-utils [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(125/213) upgrading lib32-mesa [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
(159/213) installing nvidia-open-dkms [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(160/213) upgrading nvidia-hook [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(161/213) upgrading nvidia-inst [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(162/213) upgrading nvidia-settings [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(163/213) upgrading opencl-nvidia [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
(201/213) upgrading vulkan-headers [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
(202/213) upgrading wayland-protocols [---------------------------------------------------] 100%
ā¦etcā¦
:: Running post-transaction hooksā¦
( 1/30) Creating system user accountsā¦
( 2/30) Creating temporary filesā¦
( 3/30) Registering binary formatsā¦
( 4/30) Updating journal message catalogā¦
( 5/30) Updating udev hardware databaseā¦
( 6/30) Applying kernel sysctl settingsā¦
( 7/30) Reloading system manager configurationā¦
( 8/30) Reloading user manager configurationā¦
( 9/30) Updating the MIME type databaseā¦
(10/30) Restarting marked servicesā¦
(11/30) Reloading device manager configurationā¦
(12/30) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdateā¦
(13/30) Updating fontconfig configurationā¦
(14/30) Rebuilding certificate storesā¦
(15/30) Updating module dependenciesā¦
(16/30) Install DKMS modules
==> dkms install --no-depmod nvidia/590.48.01 -k 6.12.63-1-lts
==> dkms install --no-depmod nvidia/590.48.01 -k 6.18.3-arch1-1
==> depmod 6.18.3-arch1-1
==> depmod 6.12.63-1-lts
(17/30) Updating initramfsā¦
:: Building initramfs for linux-lts (6.12.63-1-lts)
dracut[W]: If you need to use bluetooth, please include it explicitly.
dracut[W]: If you need to use bluetooth, please include it explicitly.
:: Building fallback initramfs for linux-lts (6.12.63-1-lts)
:: Building initramfs for linux (6.18.3-arch1-1)
dracut[W]: If you need to use bluetooth, please include it explicitly.
dracut[W]: If you need to use bluetooth, please include it explicitly.
:: Building fallback initramfs for linux (6.18.3-arch1-1)
(18/30) Notifying arch-audit-gtk
(19/30) Reloading system bus configurationā¦
(20/30) Checking for old perl modulesā¦
(21/30) Hook to rank EndeavourOS mirrors after installing or upgrading the related mirrorlist package
ā¦etcā¦
(22/30) Check if user should be informed about rebooting after certain system package upgrades.
(23/30) Updating fontconfig cacheā¦
(24/30) Updating 32-bit fontconfig cacheā¦
(25/30) Compiling GSettings XML schema filesā¦
(26/30) Probing 32-bit GTK3 input method modulesā¦
(27/30) Updating icon theme cachesā¦
(28/30) Checking which packages need to be rebuilt
(29/30) Updating the info directory fileā¦
(30/30) Updating the desktop file MIME type cacheā¦
:: Searching AUR for updatesā¦
:: 3 packages to upgrade/install.
ā¦etcā¦
:: Running post-transaction hooksā¦
(1/5) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdateā¦
(2/5) Notifying arch-audit-gtk
(3/5) Updating icon theme cachesā¦
(4/5) Checking which packages need to be rebuilt
(5/5) Updating the desktop file MIME type cacheā¦
See you all after rebootā¦
A-OK 
inxi -G
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA106 [Geforce RTX 3050] driver: nvidia v: 590.48.01
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.21 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: N/A
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia platforms: gbm
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 590.48.01 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce
RTX 3050/PCIe/SSE2
Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings
gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Is putting nvidia updates in the pacman ignore list an option?
Itās Arch Linux, so yes, itās an option. But itās not recommended. In fact, ignoring any package long term is not recommended.
Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages
- Downgrading one package may require that its dependencies be downgraded as well. When the number of packages to downgrade is large, consider using a snapshot. See Arch Linux Archive#How to restore all packages to a specific date.
- Be careful with changes to configuration files and scripts. For now pacman will handle this for us, as long as we do not bypass its safeguards.
- If a downgrade involves a soname change, all dependencies may need downgrading or rebuilding too.
- Similar to upgrading, downgrades are not picked up by already running processes. If the motivation for downgrading is avoiding a bug, be sure to restart affected programs.
If it is that you already have the 580 drivers installed and have not updated/upgraded your system since this announcement, technically, ignoring the packageās upgrades will keep you on the official Arch repo-provided version instead of the AUR version. BUT, I have no doubt this will eventually cause issues if you donāt remember that youāve done this in a month or two.
And even if you do remember, I think it will still cause issues at some point.
So, again, not recommended.
Thanks. I should have said āviable optionā since I knew I could do the ignore thing.
Part 2: For X11, is nouveau-vulkan a viable option (i.e. how bad is performance degradation; this is a desktop so battery saving stuff is not a consideration)?
And yes, Iām also considering going AMD.
This is actually better tested on an individual basis. If you donāt play games or do lots of screen sharing, then nouveau should be fine. Even so, it would be better to test it.
In addition to a significant performance degradation, you will also see compatibility issues. I would recommend simply switching to the 580xx AUR packages.
Be aware of updating right now, it gives errors. To fix this you need to comment out
patch -Np1 -i "${srcdir}/0002-Fix-compile-for-6.19.patch"
In /home/YOURUSERNAMEHERE/.cache/yay/nvidia-580xx-utils/PKGBUILD
Edit: Fix got released
2 aur/nvidia-580xx-dkms 580.126.18-1 ā 580.126.18-2
1 aur/nvidia-580xx-utils 580.126.18-1 ā 580.126.18-2