Anybody know what's up with my NVIDIA video card driver issue in Linux?

[IdidAthing]

I'm a noobie linux user (I used it maybe 6 years ago and forgot everything about how to use it) and I decided to try and run some distros, I'm stuck between Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, Manjaro Cinnamon and Pop OS!. I have an Nvidia 980m and my monitor is an Onyx BOOX Max Lumi. My problem is that I'm having issues with my monitor being detected. The thing is that Pop os can use the Proprietary Nvidia drivers and my monitor works with it. But, for some reason my monitor won't work with Manjaro and Ubuntu if I install the proprietary drivers. On Manjaro and Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix only the Nouveau drivers work with my monitor (the proprietary drivers don't even detect my Onyx Boox Max Lumi). Anybody have any clue what's up with this. Also, is it even a problem, I didn't know if because the 980m is over 5 years old if the Nouveau drivers have the same performance as the proprietary ones at this point?

 

*The Onyx BOOX Max Lumi is an ereader with a hdmi in port to use it as a monitor. Onyx says it is only officially compatible with Mac OS and WIndows, but for years people have found that it is compatible with Ubuntu and possible other distros. Onyx doesn't provide any support on the subject of using it with Linux.

[Radium_Angel]

If it works in a mainstream DIstro, and not in niche ones, then the niche distro is the issue. Welcome to the world of edge cases in *nix.

[Sauron]

Anything to do with nvidia proprietary drivers on Linux is a crapshoot, in large part because they are proprietary and no effort goes into optimizing them for different distros. Can't you just stick to Pop if it works?

[IdidAthing]

6 hours ago, Sauron said:

Anything to do with nvidia proprietary drivers on Linux is a crapshoot, in large part because they are proprietary and no effort goes into optimizing them for different distros. Can't you just stick to Pop if it works?

Yeah I could. I've just been having some driver issues and Pop OS doesn't have a driver menu and was also wanting to use the cinnamon desktop environment. Do you know if the cinnamon packages in any way conflict with the Cosmic desktop environment? I was reading and online it said that sometimes installing a different desktop environment from what your distro came with can cause package conflicts.

[Sauron]

41 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

Do you know if the cinnamon packages in any way conflict with the Cosmic desktop environment?

It might, particularly with icon sets. You can try it out though, it shouldn't destroy it entirely... and if you're still in the distrohopping stage it shouldn't cost you much to reinstall if something goes wrong.

[D-reaper]

On 11/18/2021 at 12:53 PM, IdidAthing said:

I'm a noobie linux user (I used it maybe 6 years ago and forgot everything about how to use it) and I decided to try and run some distros, I'm stuck between Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, Manjaro Cinnamon and Pop OS!. I have an Nvidia 980m and my monitor is an Onyx BOOX Max Lumi. My problem is that I'm having issues with my monitor being detected. The thing is that Pop os can use the Proprietary Nvidia drivers and my monitor works with it. But, for some reason my monitor won't work with Manjaro and Ubuntu if I install the proprietary drivers. On Manjaro and Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix only the Nouveau drivers work with my monitor (the proprietary drivers don't even detect my Onyx Boox Max Lumi). Anybody have any clue what's up with this. Also, is it even a problem, I didn't know if because the 980m is over 5 years old if the Nouveau drivers have the same performance as the proprietary ones at this point?

 

*The Onyx BOOX Max Lumi is an ereader with a hdmi in port to use it as a monitor. Onyx says it is only officially compatible with Mac OS and WIndows, but for years people have found that it is compatible with Ubuntu and possible other distros. Onyx doesn't provide any support on the subject of using it with Linux.

Don't. Use. Anything. With. Nvidia. Period.

 

I can't stress this enough as a full time Linux user myself; who had used a Nvidia GPU for over 5 years on Linux dealing with drivers, screen tearing, font issues, etc.. After going to an AMD RX 570, I will never buy another Nvidia GPU again. So I can vouch for this. Especially with a system that has an older Nvidia GPU. I recently had to chuck out a 15 year old laptop that had a Nvidia GPU that my mom used because the legacy driver didn't support newer kernel releases. Went to a used AMD laptop and everything has been smooth. No messing with drivers either. Just plug and play.

 

Takeaway from this is, the older the Nvidia GPU, the harder it will be to use with any Linux distro. But yeah. For the sake of sanity, avoid Nvidia GPUs at all costs. I wish I switched to AMD as soon as I started shifting over to Linux.

[IdidAthing]

5 hours ago, D-reaper said:

Don't. Use. Anything. With. Nvidia. Period.

 

I can't stress this enough as a full time Linux user myself; who had used a Nvidia GPU for over 5 years on Linux dealing with drivers, screen tearing, font issues, etc.. After going to an AMD RX 570, I will never buy another Nvidia GPU again. So I can vouch for this. Especially with a system that has an older Nvidia GPU. I recently had to chuck out a 15 year old laptop that had a Nvidia GPU that my mom used because the legacy driver didn't support newer kernel releases. Went to a used AMD laptop and everything has been smooth. No messing with drivers either. Just plug and play.

 

Takeaway from this is, the older the Nvidia GPU, the harder it will be to use with any Linux distro. But yeah. For the sake of sanity, avoid Nvidia GPUs at all costs. I wish I switched to AMD as soon as I started shifting over to Linux.

I would, but I kinda don't have the money to buy a whole new PC. I've been using this one since 2015. I have a external graphics card port on my pc, but gpus are through the roof right now. I've seen the only good way to get one is to get a prebuilt computer rather than building one yourself. Jayz2cents made a video about it.

[D-reaper]

16 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

I would, but I kinda don't have the money to buy a whole new PC. I've been using this one since 2015. I have a external graphics card port on my pc, but gpus are through the roof right now. I've seen the only good way to get one is to get a prebuilt computer rather than building one yourself. Jayz2cents made a video about it.

Or, here's another idea. Get a used laptop. It is a laptop with the 980m, right? All of my stuff is used. It works very well. What are the specs of the laptop? But if it's a desktop, your options will be much easier. Get a used AMD GPU. So you see? You don't have to buy a whole new PC. Work with what you have and just change the GPU.

[IdidAthing]

On 11/28/2021 at 12:15 PM, D-reaper said:

Or, here's another idea. Get a used laptop. It is a laptop with the 980m, right? All of my stuff is used. It works very well. What are the specs of the laptop? But if it's a desktop, your options will be much easier. Get a used AMD GPU. So you see? You don't have to buy a whole new PC. Work with what you have and just change the GPU.

I don't think I can get a laptop worth anything. I have around $100 usd that I have available to spend on non necessities. Thanks though. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

[D-reaper]

54 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

I don't think I can get a laptop worth anything. I have around $100 usd that I have available to spend on non necessities. Thanks though. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

$100? Well, that could get me an AMD dual core laptop at the electronics recycling place in my city. At $200, I could get a laptop with a quad core AMD A10 7th gen CPU and 8 GB of ram. So yeah. Buy a used AMD system or GPU. Not only will it be cheaper, it will be most likely guaranteed to work. Waste not want not, I say. BTW, I never had a new laptop in my life. It was always refurbished or used. Same goes for my desktop. At most, I just bought hard drives, power supplies, and two GPUs over the course of 16 years.

 

Last year, I switched to my brother's old computer (He went all out on his new custom rig). At most, I just spent $500. Which was for a better board, extra ram, a power supply and an AMD RX 570. Other than that, I kept the original CPU (FX 6300) and ram. It works rather well. And my old Nvidia GPU, which I got off my brother as well is used for GPU pass through so that I can use it with a Windows VM.

 

My main reason for upgrading to that from my old system (which was 13 years old), was for GPU pass through. But the perks of better performance helps too.

 

With 11 as it stands with the ridiculous hardware requirements, I see more used computers that are not even a few years old (that are decent), being sold at bargain prices. Which means more options for me.

[finest feck fips]

On 11/18/2021 at 12:53 PM, IdidAthing said:

I'm a noobie linux user (I used it maybe 6 years ago and forgot everything about how to use it) and I decided to try and run some distros, I'm stuck between Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, Manjaro Cinnamon and Pop OS!. I have an Nvidia 980m and my monitor is an Onyx BOOX Max Lumi. My problem is that I'm having issues with my monitor being detected. The thing is that Pop os can use the Proprietary Nvidia drivers and my monitor works with it. But, for some reason my monitor won't work with Manjaro and Ubuntu if I install the proprietary drivers. On Manjaro and Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix only the Nouveau drivers work with my monitor (the proprietary drivers don't even detect my Onyx Boox Max Lumi). Anybody have any clue what's up with this. Also, is it even a problem, I didn't know if because the 980m is over 5 years old if the Nouveau drivers have the same performance as the proprietary ones at this point?

 

*The Onyx BOOX Max Lumi is an ereader with a hdmi in port to use it as a monitor. Onyx says it is only officially compatible with Mac OS and WIndows, but for years people have found that it is compatible with Ubuntu and possible other distros. Onyx doesn't provide any support on the subject of using it with Linux.

Do you have all three distros installed atm or have you been cycling through them? If you have all of them installed, this might be possible to figure out. (Pop!_OS and Ubuntu probably won't play nice with each other on the same EFI partition.)

 

If you're not gaming on it, Nouveau is probably fine. Feel free to continue to use the Nouveau drivers unless you see an actual performance or stability issue where they're holding you back.

[D-reaper]

32 minutes ago, finest feck fips said:

Do you have all three distros installed atm or have you been cycling through them? If you have all of them installed, this might be possible to figure out. (Pop!_OS and Ubuntu probably won't play nice with each other on the same EFI partition.)

 

If you're not gaming on it, Nouveau is probably fine. Feel free to continue to use the Nouveau drivers unless you see an actual performance or stability issue where they're holding you back.

Nouveau drivers in general are not that great as they are reversed engineered drivers. And the proprietary ones are not much better. As a former Nvidia user on Linux, I can confidently say that I had issue after issue with Nvidia.

 

This is why I always suggest AMD GPUs if one wants to use Linux. Because at least the AMD drivers are open source and are integrated into Linux. So they are just plug and play. Then forget it.

[dragonfly43]

Did you try MX Linux ? Puppy ?

They have menu option just to deal with Nvidia.

[IdidAthing]

9 hours ago, finest feck fips said:

Do you have all three distros installed atm or have you been cycling through them? If you have all of them installed, this might be possible to figure out. (Pop!_OS and Ubuntu probably won't play nice with each other on the same EFI partition.)

 

If you're not gaming on it, Nouveau is probably fine. Feel free to continue to use the Nouveau drivers unless you see an actual performance or stability issue where they're holding you back.

The only thing I was planning on doing in linux that uses my gpu is video editing. I planed on gaming in windows because I saw that as the easiest option rather than fiddling around with lutris, wine, or playonlinxu and have shoddy compatibility. Do you know if Noveau works okay with Davinci Resolve?

[IdidAthing]

2 hours ago, dragonfly43 said:

Did you try MX Linux ? Puppy ?

They have menu option just to deal with Nvidia.

Are you talking about the Nvidia X Server Settings? That was available within ubuntu and Pop OS once I installed the proprietary drivers.

[IdidAthing]

8 hours ago, D-reaper said:

Nouveau drivers in general are not that great as they are reversed engineered drivers. And the proprietary ones are not much better. As a former Nvidia user on Linux, I can confidently say that I had issue after issue with Nvidia.

 

This is why I always suggest AMD GPUs if one wants to use Linux. Because at least the AMD drivers are open source and are integrated into Linux. So they are just plug and play. Then forget it.

I'll think about that for the future. I think I'll probably be able to get another computer within the next 5 years. I'll try to get an AMD one.

[finest feck fips]

6 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

Do you know if Noveau works okay with Davinci Resolve?

I would assume not, because I doubt the Resolve developers test against Nouveau.

If you still have all three distros installed, you can compare what versions of the NVIDIA drivers they have installed and other configuration details to figure out what versions are necessary for your ereader's display to be used as an external monitor.

[D-reaper]

4 hours ago, IdidAthing said:

I'll think about that for the future. I think I'll probably be able to get another computer within the next 5 years. I'll try to get an AMD one.

In the meantime, you can perhaps get a cheap laptop that's AMD and discover the difference for yourself. Then you'll see what I mean. There's lots of used laptops if you know where to find them. Try Kijiji, or an electronics recycling place in your area where they resell older computers. You might be able to find a decent dual core system for $150 or less.

[IdidAthing]

20 hours ago, finest feck fips said:

I would assume not, because I doubt the Resolve developers test against Nouveau.

If you still have all three distros installed, you can compare what versions of the NVIDIA drivers they have installed and other configuration details to figure out what versions are necessary for your ereader's display to be used as an external monitor.

Do you know what else I would look at besides driver version? I installed the same driver on all the distros I believe it's the nvidia 470 proprietary drivers

 

[finest feck fips]

3 hours ago, IdidAthing said:

Do you know what else I would look at besides driver version? I installed the same driver on all the distros I believe it's the nvidia 470 proprietary drivers

 

Yeah, but it's technical and I don't have hardware to test on anymore. It might have to do with the details of each distro's hybrid graphics configuration.

NVIDIA's support for hybrid graphics on Linux was notoriously poor for a very long time, so it's unsurprising that Nouveau does better. Supposedly things have improved somewhat now with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers, but a glance at the Arch Wiki indicates that for many users it's still a kludgy mess.

One possible issue has to do with how external displays are physically wired (or not) to the NVIDIA dGPU on your laptop, which you can address by changing which GPU (the discrete NVIDIA GPU or the Intel integrated GPU built into your CPU) you're using as the main one.

The other possibility is that NVIDIA's normal EDID handling for some Optimus laptops is apparently broken, and Pop!_OS may configure or patch around this in the way they set up their NVIDIA drivers.

This stuff is solvable, and in principle I'm generally in favor of learning how something works so that you can fix it on any distro vs. hopping around from distro to distro until you find one where everything you want happens to be pre-configured the right way. But video settings are kind of tricky for new users, because if you fuck them up you can end up without a GUI until you fix them.

How deep do you wanna go? Are you comfortable editing text files at the command line? If not, are you interested in learning how in order to solve this problem?

[IdidAthing]

14 hours ago, finest feck fips said:

Yeah, but it's technical and I don't have hardware to test on anymore. It might have to do with the details of each distro's hybrid graphics configuration.

NVIDIA's support for hybrid graphics on Linux was notoriously poor for a very long time, so it's unsurprising that Nouveau does better. Supposedly things have improved somewhat now with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers, but a glance at the Arch Wiki indicates that for many users it's still a kludgy mess.

One possible issue has to do with how external displays are physically wired (or not) to the NVIDIA dGPU on your laptop, which you can address by changing which GPU (the discrete NVIDIA GPU or the Intel integrated GPU built into your CPU) you're using as the main one.

The other possibility is that NVIDIA's normal EDID handling for some Optimus laptops is apparently broken, and Pop!_OS may configure or patch around this in the way they set up their NVIDIA drivers.

This stuff is solvable, and in principle I'm generally in favor of learning how something works so that you can fix it on any distro vs. hopping around from distro to distro until you find one where everything you want happens to be pre-configured the right way. But video settings are kind of tricky for new users, because if you fuck them up you can end up without a GUI until you fix them.

How deep do you wanna go? Are you comfortable editing text files at the command line? If not, are you interested in learning how in order to solve this problem?

I could try editing command line sure. I'm not necessarily the most comfortable though. I've had to give up a few times because even with stuff I found on forums being very detailed I still had no clue what to do.

[D-reaper]

50 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

I could try editing command line sure. I'm not necessarily the most comfortable though. I've had to give up a few times because even with stuff I found on forums being very detailed I still had no clue what to do.

Given this, you may want to get an AMD system much sooner than in 5 years. You'll just spare yourself much grief in the long run if you want to use Linux. Like finest feck fips above you said; "NVIDIA's support for hybrid graphics on Linux was notoriously poor for a very long time."

 

So I think the answer to your problem is clear; especially if you are not comfortable with using the command line to troubleshoot this issue you are having. Because in order to make Nvidia work for you at all (given Nvidia's stink-hole of support for Linux), you'll have to use command line. I know I had to when I had a Nvidia card.

[finest feck fips]

9 hours ago, IdidAthing said:

I could try editing command line sure. I'm not necessarily the most comfortable though. I've had to give up a few times because even with stuff I found on forums being very detailed I still had no clue what to do.

Cool! I'm happy to help you get started, and if you need more details or for me to re-explain something at any time, that's fine.

Which distro is installed at the moment? That's the one we're going to troubleshoot with

[IdidAthing]

15 hours ago, finest feck fips said:

Cool! I'm happy to help you get started, and if you need more details or for me to re-explain something at any time, that's fine.

Which distro is installed at the moment? That's the one we're going to troubleshoot with

I have Pop OS! installed at the moment. I've had a few other's recommended, MX linux and Puppy Linux (I still have to see if those have a broken bootloader also). Though I'm not sure if Puppy LInux is good for my reasons I plan on writing documents and video editing as well as doing a little bit of photo editing.

[finest feck fips]

22 minutes ago, IdidAthing said:

I have Pop OS! installed at the moment. I've had a few other's recommended, MX linux and Puppy Linux (I still have to see if those have a broken bootloader also). Though I'm not sure if Puppy LInux is good for my reasons I plan on writing documents and video editing as well as doing a little bit of photo editing.

Ok, having the distro that actually works right installed is best, since it will let us identify a known-good configuration that you can then reproduce on whatever distro you like.

You mind pinging me about this on Monday?

Also what's the broken bootloader stuff you've witnessed? Is it to do with booting multiple distros with one EFI partition? If so, the issue is likely that some distros use the same names for their EFI images and/or variables as one another. If your motherboard won't freak out and/or you aren't running Windows, you can work around this by creating multiple ESPs on the same physical disk. Then you can have, e.g., Pop!_OS and Ubuntu live happily on the same disk. (Pop!_OS and Ubuntu may actually no longer conflict since Pop!_OS now has a different default bootloader than Ubuntu does, but the same idea applies broadly.)