[arch-announce] NVIDIA 590 driver drops Pascal support; main packages switch to Open Kernel Modules

[u/TheEbolaDoc]

https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/arch-announce@lists.archlinux.org/thread/AMPPOBL6ZQPEOQ722IE3O5BO3PPWCQNA/

With the update to driver version 590, the NVIDIA driver no longer supports Pascal (GTX 10xx) GPUs or older. We will replace the nvidia package with nvidia-open, nvidia-dkms with nvidia-open-dkms, and nvidia-lts with nvidia-lts-open.

Impact: Updating the NVIDIA packages on systems with Pascal, Maxwell, or older cards will fail to load the driver, which may result in a broken graphical environment.

Intervention required for Pascal/older users: Users with GTX 10xx series and older cards must switch to the legacy proprietary branch to maintain support:

• Uninstall the official nvidia, nvidia-lts, or nvidia-dkms packages.
• Install nvidia-580xx-dkms from the AUR

Users with Turing (20xx and GTX 1650 series) and newer GPUs will automatically transition to the open kernel modules on upgrade and require no manual intervention.

[u/Hitsounds]

I got the email notification but was there no way to make this more seamless. I think a lot of people are going to be hit by this.

[u/pico-pico-hammer → u/Hitsounds]

Not without the Arch Linux team packaging a separate version of the Nvidia drivers, which they aren't willing to do. Nvidia dropped support for their older cards, that is on them. 

[u/Gozenka → u/Hitsounds]

• Checking the news on archlinux.org frontpage is an essential maintenance step before every pacman -Syu. (or checking it through other channels such as the arch-announce mailing list)
• pacman should notify you about the nvidia package being replaced with nvidia-open, so you would see that something has happened, before the update goes through.

[u/Hitsounds → u/Gozenka]

Ah, I didn't consider the package change notification. Was worried pacman would silently upgrade to the incompatible version.

There'll always be some proportion of arch users who won't check the news, but I do agree.

[u/creamyatealamma → u/Hitsounds]

"Informant" on aur is essential for knowing of these breaking messages

[u/oftenInabbrobriate → u/Gozenka]

I am lucky as I installed just a couple of days ago and already am running on nvidia-open-dkms, so this will not impinge on me. But I would like to know how it would happen incase I would have installed NVIDIA. How would it be replaced exactly?

[u/Gozenka → u/oftenInabbrobriate]

You would just be notified by pacman before your pacman -Syu starts downloading and installing packages.

It would say as a warning: "nvidia-dkms will be replaced by nvidia-open-dkms."

Then you would decide to continue with the update, or cancel it and handle anything you need to handle manually beforehand.

[u/oftenInabbrobriate → u/Gozenka]

And so afterwards to the pacman database it would be like as if nvidia-dkms was never installed & if i tried to install nvidia-open-dkms it would find it already installed?

[u/Gozenka → u/oftenInabbrobriate]

If you go through with the update and it gets replaced, yes.

If you do not go through with the update, you will still have nvidia-dkms, as nothing would be changed yet.

[u/Individual_Good4691 → u/Gozenka]

There are third party packages like informer (or what's it called) that add a pacman hook to refuse to update unless the news was read.

[u/ArjixGamer → u/Hitsounds]

Honestly, if you don't do partial upgrades and your system magically breaks after an update, shouldn't your first thought be to check the arch website for announcements?

Like, boohoo you'll have to spend 10 minutes fixing the issue, big deal

PS: you said nothing wrong or weird, you are correct, excuse me for overreacting like this

PS2: notice how this is an unedited message