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

[King Beowulf]

On 9/6/22 17:30, American Citizen wrote:
> Hi all:
...
> 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
nouveau is active because you didn't turn it off. nvidia and nouveau can
not coexist.  The current Nvidia driver for the Geforce GT 700 series is
nviidia-141-03 (Legacy) released 2022.8.2
Most distros do a poor job of updating for bug fixes and kernel
compatibility, as well as proper conflict checking. They also do a poor
job rebuilding the nvidia kernel module when the linux kernel is
updated. "on the fly' updates can and will crash X.

ALSO! on a 64-bit system, Nvidia no longer supports 32-bit GPU drivers.
Depending on your repository, be careful what packages you choose.
32-bit compatibility is only available for the userspace libraries
(/usr/lib) - not the kernel driver and modules.
> 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!!

You can't willy nilly remove X and kernel components.  To use the Nvidia
proprietary binary blob, per the Nvidia instructions, you must BLACKLIST
the nouveau module. Since nouveau is a CONFLICT and not  DEPENDENCY I
hazard a guess that OpenSuse is too stupid to know the difference.

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/BLACKLIST-nouveau.conf

# Do not load the kernel nouveau dri module, since it interferes with both
# the nv and binary nvidia drivers.

blacklist nouveau
> But, and this is really confusing, the KDE desktop alludes to 4 graphics
> systems installed:
>
>          egl
>          glx
>          vulkan
>          x-server

MESA (1st 3), X (4th) and the kernel DRM modules ARE the GPU drivers. 
You need them all (and quite a few others). Desktop environments (such
as KDE) depend on MESA and X, but do NOT provide them.

-kb