[PLUG] trying to simplify my Linux operating system graphics components

[Robert Citek]

In the vein of not answering the question but instead making a side
comment, I always connect to a video conference ( Zoom, Jitsi, Google Meet,
etc. ) with at least two different devices: my smart phone and a laptop.
They also are via two different data paths: cell and Ethernet. In the event
one goes down, I can let people know with the other device.  That doesn’t
happen often, but it’s nice to have that fallback when it does.

Regards,
- Robert

On Tue, Sep 6, 2022 at 6:30 PM American Citizen <website.reader3 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi all:
>
> Yesterday, I was in a key Zoom meeting with a person, talking for about
> 10 mins, setting up the interview, when BOOM!, the openSuse linx Leap
> 15.4 system suddenly dropped down to initlevel 3 and all the graphics
> screens were erased. (later investigations showed the xserver software
> was actually scrubbed from my active OS and I had to do a reinstall of
> the xserver software)
>
> My system is 64 bit, Linux localhost 5.14.21-150400.24.18-default #1 SMP
> PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Aug 4 14:17:48 UTC 2022 (e9f7bfc) x86_64 x86_64
> x86_64 GNU/Linux openSuse system, at current levels.
>
> After this mysterious crash, I decided to look at the state of graphics
> drivers for my Nvidia GEForce series 710 graphics card which is the only
> graphics card I have.
>
> Unfortunately lsmod shows that nouveau graphics driver is active, and
> even though I enabled the Nvidia G06 drivers
>
> lsmod shows: Reading installed packages...
>
> S  | Name                        | Summary | Type
>
> ---+-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+--------
> i+ | nvidia-computeG06           | NVIDIA driver for computing with
> GPGPU                                | package
> i  | nvidia-computeG06-32bit     | 32bit NVIDIA driver for computing
> with GPGPU                          | package
> i  | nvidia-gfxG06-kmp-default   | NVIDIA graphics driver kernel module
> for GeForce 700 series and newer | package
> i+ | nvidia-glG06                | NVIDIA OpenGL libraries for OpenGL
> acceleration                       | package
> i  | nvidia-glG06-32bit          | 32bit NVIDIA OpenGL libraries for
> OpenGL acceleration                 | package
> i+ | x11-video-nvidiaG06         | NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce
> 700 series and newer               | package
> i  | x11-video-nvidiaG06-32bit   | 32bit NVIDIA graphics driver for
> GeForce 700 series and newer         | package
>
> Unfortunately, and to me, disconcerting, lsmod does NOT show a single
> nvidia mod installed, but rather the nouveau drivers or kernal modules
> instead.
>
> localhost:/home/owner # lsmod | grep nou
> nouveau              2351104  4
> video                  57344  1 nouveau
> drm_ttm_helper         16384  1 nouveau
> ttm                    81920  2 drm_ttm_helper,nouveau
> i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 nouveau
> mxm_wmi                16384  1 nouveau
> drm_kms_helper        303104  1 nouveau
> drm                   630784  8 drm_kms_helper,drm_ttm_helper,ttm,nouveau
> wmi                    36864  4 hp_wmi,wmi_bmof,mxm_wmi,nouveau
> button                 24576  1 nouveau
> --------------------
>
> If I attempt to remove the nouveau kernal modules, the x-server
> complains, and expects nouveau to be installed as the PRIMARY video
> driver, in fact it demands it!!
>
> But I only have a lowly GE Force 710 card. (and yes, I installed the
> Nvidia software repository so I could install the Nvidia native drivers
> for this card and I did install the appropriate G06 drivers according to
> Yast2.
>
> But, and this is really confusing, the KDE desktop alludes to 4 graphics
> systems installed:
>
>          egl
>          glx
>          vulkan
>          x-server
>
> I know that Mesa has some video drivers installed on my system.
>
> But my question is this,
>
> How do I get everything down to a simple Nvidia Ge Force 710 graphics
> card? (and run the KDE desktop?)
>
> - Randall
>
>