Recover From Video Driver Install Attempt

quilaho · February 17, 2024, 10:26pm

I’ve built an EOS box out of an older workstation class machine. After installing and configuring, I went to install the NVidia drivers. I followed the instructions at the NVidia Arch Wiki identifying my Quadro FX 580 as needing the nvidia-340xx drivers and installed them. Well, after reboot, the boot sequence got as far as ‘Reach target Graphical Interface’ and then nothing but a black screen.

I got to a command line with control-alt-f3, removed the package and rebooted. I still have nothing but a black screen.

I reinstalled the mesa package (which research indicated contained the nouveau driver) just to see if it would help. It did not.

`lsmod | grep nouveau’

shows the nouveau driver is loaded.

What do I try next to recover my graphical environment?

ricklinux · February 17, 2024, 10:34pm

Maybe check if installing the nvidia drivers blacklisted nouveau. Check in /etc/modprobe.d/ if there is a conf file that blacklists nouveau.

Edit: You could also try the command nvidia-inst -n but you need to have nvidia-inst installed first.

Edit: You would need to reboot after.

ricklinux · February 17, 2024, 10:39pm

Not sure if this command shows it’s loaded or just that it has the module?

quilaho · February 17, 2024, 11:06pm

I did go through the ‘Tips and Tricks’ on the Nouveau Arch Wiki I did not find any of the blacklist files mentioned.

no nvidia-inst installed and the boot sequence has not got far enough to have networking.

Any tips on bringing up the network?

ricklinux · February 17, 2024, 11:07pm

How did you install the nvidia drivers exactly?

Edit: So you don’t even have networking in tty?

quilaho · February 17, 2024, 11:11pm

I also did a sudo modeprobe nouveau.

A sudo rmmod nouveau tells me “module is in use”. Granted, I’m stabbing in the dark. If there is a more definitive way to know that a module is loaded, I’m all ears.

ricklinux · February 17, 2024, 11:14pm

I’m just used to looking at it from the output inxi -Ga This tells me which driver is loaded and if the gpu is rendering properly.

ricklinux · February 17, 2024, 11:18pm

Is this a fresh install?

quilaho · February 17, 2024, 11:39pm

I spent yesterday afternoon unpacking tars, setting up desktop and software, configuring NFS, etc … But, yes, other than that, it’s a fresh install.

quilaho · February 18, 2024, 12:29am

ricklinux · February 18, 2024, 2:49am

How did you install the nvidia drivers?

Edit: Just wondering if you missed something.

Edit2: Did you get graphics back working?

quilaho · February 18, 2024, 2:42pm

I worked a variety angles from other Arch Linux Forum posts last night then decided I had spent enough time on it. I dropped the hammer and reinstalled EOS. It’s unfortunate. Other distros work so well with the NVidia drivers.

To answer your question, I installed from the AUR using YAY. I believe it was the NVidia Arch Wiki that said to not use the installer from NVidia. That makes sense to me so I rolled with it. Now that I say that, though, I don’t think other distros have it repackaged like that.

I was going to post this to the Arch Forum as there is someone there that knows how to troubleshoot this but, their “rules” clearly outline that I, as an EOS user, are not welcome to post questions. I’ve been using Linux since the 90’s and I’ve never felt that unwelcome. It makes me rethink this whole Arch-based distro in its entirety.

ricklinux · February 18, 2024, 2:54pm

I thought maybe you had reinstalled. I was just asking how you installed Nvidia and by that i meant what commands exactly because i wondered if you didn’t install all the packages needed. Unfortunately Nvidia doesn’t support these drivers. That is why they are packaged in the AUR.

quilaho · February 18, 2024, 3:32pm

sudo yay -S nvidia-340xx

It installed that and a dependent lib package.

Did it have more dependencies that were not listed in the wiki?

Edit: I’d love to feel confident enough to try this again. I might create a second install just for the sake of experimentation.

ricklinux · February 18, 2024, 5:18pm

I think you also need to install nvidia-340xx-utils. Not sure it installs this? Then there is also nvidia-340xx-settings and lib32-nvidia-340xx-utils if needed.

manuel · February 18, 2024, 7:54pm

The other programs might not work with 340 series anymore (cannot test it), so maybe nouveau is needed?

Anyway, some help may be available with command

nvidia-inst -t --series 390

after installing nvidia-inst.
Note that nvidia-inst does not support 340.

ricklinux · February 18, 2024, 8:03pm

I didn’t think the 390.xx drivers supported the Quadro FX 580? Maybe I’m wrong?

manuel · February 18, 2024, 8:07pm

You’re right, but I meant nvidia-inst might help giving the idea of what kind of commands/packages are needed, except change 390 to 340.

quilaho · February 19, 2024, 12:45am

Thanks for continuing to help.

Now that I have this machine stable, my NFS shares are back up making The Wife happy (always an important thing), I can get back to experimenting a bit.

I tried to follow the NVidia Arch Wiki page as much as possible. It pointed to using the NVidia site to determine the needed driver version. According to it, 340.108 is the version I needed.

I’ll research nvidia-inst to learn more.

I also think I’ll DD this hard driver so I can create an environment I can afford to hose.

quilaho · February 19, 2024, 12:59am

Ok … I found this … https://github.com/korvahannu/arch-nvidia-drivers-installation-guide … which seems like a similar, but cleaner, instruction set.

In step 2, it tells me to find my card in the list linked. It’s a G96 which matches best the last line in the table.

I seem to have had the correct driver but, I did not initially use the DKMS nor did I install the utils package. The lib package is installed as a dependency.