video driver help

[errant agate]

4200m 390.157 mint 22

[cosmic yew]

ok so

ive done some research

the legacy drivers dont really work with newer kernel versions

but someone has patched them to work

ive found an ubuntu ppa containing a patched version of the nvidia 390.157 legacy driver

and i can't guarantee it will work

so before anything else, i would suggest you make a timeshift backup

@errant agate

[errant agate]

personal data has been moved to flashdrive..... timeshift is something that records what happens to the os; right?

[cosmic yew]

timeshift makes a backup of root system files

with home folder being optional

so if you mess up your system with some sort of update

you can just revert with timeshift using mint live installation usb

or any other linux live installation that has timeshift in it

[errant agate]

i'm running a fresh install of mint 22 on my harddrive right now.... doing another fresh install is not a big deal.... i have the live flashdrive. i can reinstall whenever i want..... it just takes time, thats all

[cosmic yew]

i see

so youre fine if something does break?

[errant agate]

it's not a problem. if need be i have a second computer that i can use. to make sure my connection to discord doesn't get broken.

[cosmic yew]

alright

here is the link to the webpage for the ppa, i will provide steps to install it shortly
https://launchpad.net/~kelebek333/+archive/ubuntu/nvidia-legacy?field.series_filter=noble

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/nvidia-legacy
this will add the ppa to your repository list

sudo apt update
this will refresh apt to get all the latest packages from all currently installed repositories

sudo apt install nvidia-graphics-drivers-390
this should intiate installation of the patched legacy drivers

the commands are to be ran in the order i posted them

[errant agate]

ok great. i will log in to discord through my second computer, then execute those commands in my mint box

ok..... i'm switched over

[cosmic yew]

let me know if something does go wrong

[errant agate]

says unable to locate package

[cosmic yew]

was the ppa added

[errant agate]

yes

[cosmic yew]

did you run sudo apt update?

[errant agate]

yes

[cosmic yew]

launch synpatic

synaptic

lets see if it can be found in there

[errant agate]

ok.... im running synaptic

[cosmic yew]

press search

[errant agate]

done

[cosmic yew]

use these filters

[errant agate]

ok a bunch of stuff showed up

[cosmic yew]

try search again

but with nvidia-graphics in the search field

[errant agate]

ok..... the list went blank

[cosmic yew]

weird

could you open software sources

then look at the PPA section

is it there?

[errant agate]

i'd like to... how do i do that?

[cosmic yew]

Software Sources is an application

it should be already installed

[errant agate]

ok opening it

i have software sources on my screen

[cosmic yew]

there is a PPA section of it

[errant agate]

i see it

[cosmic yew]

is it empty?

[errant agate]

no

[cosmic yew]

are there any errors or warnings when you run sudo apt update about the PPA?

[errant agate]

prepping screenshots

[cosmic yew]

is there both a normal and source ppa listed?

[cosmic yew]

alright

[errant agate]

2 more coming

[cosmic yew]

install the update

thats exactly what you need

[errant agate]

installing

update done

what is next?

[cosmic yew]

reboot

[errant agate]

ok doing that now

got a new system report

prep screenshot

[cosmic yew]

alright

[cosmic yew]

is nvidia x server settings available

as an app

[errant agate]

i don't see it

[cosmic yew]

what if you ran nvidia-smi in terminal

[errant agate]

ok

says not found

[cosmic yew]

open driver manager

[errant agate]

there is something there in the drivermanager

[cosmic yew]

what does it show

[cosmic yew]

select 390

and then apply changes

[errant agate]

done ...... waiting for results

[cosmic yew]

you will need to restart once its installed

[errant agate]

finished downloading.... now it's installing

doing restart

seems like a long wait

still a black screen

i think it failed

[cosmic yew]

hmm

damn

can you use the tty

@errant agate

[errant agate]

no but i will try other boot options in grub

i have video by using a prior boot option in grub

[cosmic yew]

well

since you cant get legacy drivers working

i guess your only choice is to stick with nouveau

[errant agate]

driver manager says the nvidia driver is in use..... don't know if i should believe what it says

[cosmic yew]

well

try running nvidia-smi

[errant agate]

terminal says the nvidia driver is not installed

[cosmic yew]

yeah

[errant agate]

is this a normal thing to happen when machines get older?

[cosmic yew]

this is more of a thing with nvidia drivers being propriatery

you can also try this but I have zero idea how to make use it

https://github.com/MeowIce/nvidia-legacy/tree/main

[errant agate]

ok.... looking at it now

[cosmic yew]

i just wanna add on though

nouveau might be all you really need

your gpu only supports opengl and not vulkan

and nouveau brings opengl support

[errant agate]

yeah.... the stuff i do isn't video driver intensive anyway.

[cosmic yew]

then it might be better to switch back to nouveau

[errant agate]

ok..... might be simpler for me to do a fresh install of the OS at this point, so i can effectively erase any "mistakes" i've made while using the terminal.

[cosmic yew]

you dont need to reinstall, the only things you need to revert is switch to nouveau on driver manager and remove the ppa i had you add with software sources

and it should be just fine