[gentoo-user] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-391+ does not support latest GPU?

[Alexey Eschenko]

Hi.

I've just read regular @world build log and found this:

>  * Messages for package x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-396.18-r1:
>
>  * ***** WARNING *****
>  *
>  * You are currently installing a version of nvidia-drivers that is
>  * known not to work with a video card you have installed on your
>  * system. If this is intentional, please ignore this. If it is not
>  * please perform the following steps:
>  *
>  * Add the following mask entry to /etc/portage/package.mask by
>  * echo ">=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-391.0.0" >
> /etc/portage/package.mask/nvidia-drivers
>  *
>  * Failure to perform the steps above could result in a non-working
>  * X setup.
>  *
>  * For more information please read:
>  * http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html

I'm very surprised because I have GTX 1080 GPU:

> # lspci | fgrep VGA
> 42:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP104 [GeForce
> GTX 1080] (rev a1)
Is this some kind of maintainer's mistake or does NVIDIA really messed
up with drivers again?

--
Kind regards,
Alexey Eschenko
https://skobk.in/

[Alexey Eschenko]

[Dale]

It looks to me like the 396 versions of nvidia-drivers is not compatible
with your card.  Most likely, you have to stick with the 391 series.  I
for example have a older card that requires the 340 series.  I have to
mask anything above that.  You for example may need to mask anything 396
or above. 

You should be able to go to the nvidia website and find out exactly what
series of drivers you need and then mask anything above that.  Once that
is done, you shouldn't have this problem again.

Hope that helps.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Dale,

I was also hit by this message...

For me it looks like that sticking to a certain version of the
nvidia-drivers will also bind me to an - then older - kernel version.

In my case I would be bound to the 390.* versions of that drivers.
This drivers compile fine with the linux-kernel 4.16.2 ... but the
boot throws me back to the console.

dmesg shows this then:
[ 32.227140] nvidia: Unknown symbol swiotlb_map_sg_attrs (err 0)
[ 32.281875] nvidia: Unknown symbol swiotlb_map_sg_attrs (err 0)

Do I really need to buy a new nvidia card (I am using Blender a lot)
just to be able to update the kernel??

Slightly alarmed
Meino

[Dale]

I'm not sure on having to buy a new card.  Mine is older, GT220 BUT I'm
still using kernel version 4.5.2.  I've got a newer kernel available, I
just haven't rebooted in many months.  I just tried, the version I'm
using won't build with newer kernels, 4.9.34.  So, you have a
interesting question. 

I seem to recall having to set up a overlay for a slightly older version
because the newer version for my series would build with current 4.5
kernel but my screen was all messed up.  I had trouble getting logged in
so that I could kill X to even get the console to work.  So I'm using a
version of nvidia that isn't even in the tree any longer as it is. 

I may have to check into this more later.  Funny thing is, I was looking
at newer video cards just the other day.  I was just wanting a spare, in
case the current one burnt out.  I wasn't thinking about the software
not working. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Dale,

hmmmm...sticking to old cards has a couple of drawbacks in my case:
-- I am using Blender a lot. Blender loves CUDA (and recentlu becomes
better with AMD cards, which has more to do with AMD than with
Blender as far as I can remember) to render on the GPU instead
with CPU, which is much more faster. Even Blender becomes more
power hungry (CPU power, not necessarily electrical power ;)
because it get more and more features (Physical based shading
technics for example). So from time to time I need a new
graphics card.
But I dont like it if nvidia is dictating me what to buy when.
The opensourced nvidia driver of the kernel by far is not that
capable when it comes to GPU rendering as far as I know. So no option here.

-- Not only because of meltdown and spectre I dont want to stick
with old kernels. As the kernel is the heart of my system, I
want to update the kernel as soon as possible. Due the problem
with the nvidia-drivers currentlu I am urged to stick with
linux-15.15 currently.

-- I have two graphic cards in my system:
NVIDIA Corporation GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] (rev a1)
NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
The smaller one is for the desktop, the newer one for rendering.
If one renders with the same card as being used for the desktop,
it makes the desktop quite stuttering while a render process is
running.
Rendering animations can take HOURS...
The GT 430 seems to cause the driver problem...

BUT: The older driver does not work with the newer kernel
(linux.4.16.*)

The GTX960 is "too powerful" to be used for desktop perposes only
(I am no gamer and using a simple windowmanager (openbox) without any
graphical gimmicks or gadgets.)

Problem: Buying another "small card" will present me the same
situation too soon again.
A bigger, newer card than the GTX960 will give me lot of render
power (good!), but overfeatures my desktop (the GTX960 will feed
my desktop then) Its like buying a ROLEX just for the purpose of knowing
the time.
(Hrmmm....wait....A ROLEX *is* displaying the time only....it semms that
I have a misconception of the usage purpose of a ROLEX...may be ;) )
Not comparing a GTX 960 with a ROLEX here...

The whole situation is ,,, [CENSORED].

"Software is buyong hardware."
The last time I heard of that was in the context of Windows.
Didn't thought, that Linux will present it to me one day.

DAMN!
sorry

Cheers
Meino

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 12/04/18 16:31, Alexey Eschenko wrote:
> Is this some kind of maintainer's mistake or does NVIDIA really messed
> up with drivers again?

Before updating the nvidia driver, you should always check here:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx

and see if the version you're updating to is a beta driver or not.

As a long time nvidia-drivers user, I really recommend to:

1. Use an LTS kernel series (latest LTS series is 4.14.x.)
2. Do not install nvidia beta drivers.
3. Do not use X.Org pre-releases.

Currently, that means these in package.mask:

>=sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-4.15
>=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-391
>=x11-base/xorg-server-1.19.99

Unless you're using Chrome, where 390 has a bug that makes it unusable
slow, so you need:

>=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-385

You need to check on the available versions these packages manually from
time to time to see if it's safe to update them.

Also, nvidia driver version can be confusing. 390 is the latest stable
series, while 384 is the "LTS-like" stable series. To be frank, I find
it impossible to tell what's happening with driver releases from nvidia
if I don't read phoronix.com news.

In any event, the TL;DR is that sticking to non-beta drivers and
non-beta xorg and the latest LTS kernel will result in avoiding the
majority of breakages.

[tu...@posteo.de]

hi Alexey,

which in turn is, what I said before:
I will be bound to older versions of software.
It is, what I try to avoid.

Cheers!
Meino

[tu...@posteo.de]

On 04/13 01:29, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:

> Do you have something specific in mind? I'm not aware of software that
> requires a non-LTS kernel right now, or a beta X.Org driver, or a beta
> nvidia-driver.
>
>

I think of security incidents like meltdown/spectre for example...

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 13/04/18 01:18, tu...@posteo.de wrote:

[Nikos Chantziaras]

It's an LTS kernel. "Long-Term Support." It gets all the security fixes
and bugfixes for years to come, while kernels like 4.15 and 4.16 will
stop getting updated after a short while. LTS kernels on the other hand
are updated for years.

[Adam Carter]

I think of security incidents like meltdown/spectre for example...

LTS kernels are maintained, so they get all the required patches.

[Arve Barsnes]

On 12 April 2018 at 15:31, Alexey Eschenko <skobk...@ya.ru> wrote:
> I'm very surprised because I have GTX 1080 GPU:
>
>> # lspci | fgrep VGA
>> 42:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP104 [GeForce GTX
>> 1080] (rev a1)

This seems to be a bug in the nvida-drivers.eclass file. I have the
same card, and it is NOT going out of support now. If you look at the
link from the ebuild error message, our card is not one of the cards
on any of the "legacy cards" lists. If you search for drivers on
https://www.geforce.com/drivers you will see that this new beta driver
is available for our card.

I'm not sure if this bug is because the eclass checks these cards
against any version higher than 391 and complains, in which case
*everyone* will get the error message, or if something else is going
on, but I feel confident that this driver should work fine for you
(consider that it's a beta driver though).

Arve

[Alexey Eschenko]

> Before updating the nvidia driver, you should always check here:

Yes I've checked. That's why I was surprised by Portage build log. I
didn't build nvidia-drivers manually for a long time and do not remember
where this GPU checks are (ebuild or driver package).

I didn't think that this driver will not work with my GPU. I was
confused by the message and wanted to report. If it's ebuild-side
problem then must I create an issue in the Bugzilla?