NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

ndavid · 2023-09-11 19:51:11

Hello,

I was wondering about the possibility of creating a new GRUB entry with a snapshot of an older version of the kernel + NVIDIA driver.
I would like to still be able to have my current setup (everything up-to-date) while being able to switch to an older version of the NVIDIA driver (525) where I'd be able to play certain games, which are broken in the current driver.

Thanks for the attention!

Last edited by ndavid (2023-09-11 19:56:40)

seth · 2023-09-11 20:59:42

Kernel and module are not the problem, but the nvidia userspace libs have to match the nvidia kernel module version, you'd have to LD_PRELOAD them into existence out of a non-canonical path.

Did you consider just installing the 525 nvidia-dkms and nvidia-utils packages?

ndavid · 2023-09-11 21:05:42

seth wrote:

Did you consider just installing the 525 nvidia-dkms and nvidia-utils packages?

No, I have not considered it. Now that I checked I have the 535 nvidia-dkms installed. Why did you recommend that specifically? I don't see how it would solve my problem

seth · 2023-09-11 21:10:08

You could simply run the 525 nvidia module along the latest kernel as single solution?

ndavid · 2023-09-11 21:15:07

seth wrote:

You could simply run the 525 nvidia module along the latest kernel as single solution?

Oh, right! Honestly I don't know why I have it installed.. I don't know if I need it for something or not ?? (probably not!)
But how would I then switch between outdated dkms and up-to-date regular nvidia?

seth · 2023-09-11 21:19:51

You don't.
switching the nvidia version is tedious because of the userspace dependency, so the suggestion for the time being would be to stick w/ 525 only.

ndavid · 2023-09-11 21:23:37

I see. I thought this was a simpler thing to do. I'll probably just keep using the latest version then.

ndavid · 2023-09-12 21:14:24

Just to confirm, I can't just downgrade the NVIDIA driver and keep the current Linux kernel right? I'd need to get the kernel version that matches the NVIDIA 525, right?

seth · 2023-09-12 21:26:36

You can principally downgrade to the 525 versuon of nvidia-dkms and nvidia-utils and keep the current kernel.
This might fail on occasion (if the module doesn't build for kernel api changes) but usually works fine and is the idea behind dkms.

ndavid · 2023-09-12 21:33:52

Oh nice. So from that I have 2 questions:
- Which way would you recommend to downgrade nvidia-dkms and nvidia-utils?
- How do I then get back to having it up to date (in case it doesn't work or in case a new fixed driver gets released)?

seth · 2023-09-12 21:42:06

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_L … ne_package
If you don't put it into https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … g_upgraded the next update will get you the latest version again.

ndavid · 2023-09-12 21:53:15

I get this:
```
paru -U https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/ … kg.tar.zst
:: Retrieving packages...
nvidia-utils-525.89.02-2-x86_64 260.3 MiB 13.7 MiB/s 00:19 [----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] 100%
loading packages...
warning: downgrading package nvidia-utils (535.104.05-1 => 525.89.02-2)
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: installing nvidia-utils (525.89.02-2) breaks dependency 'nvidia-utils=535.104.05' required by lib32-nvidia-utils
:: installing nvidia-utils (525.89.02-2) breaks dependency 'nvidia-utils=535.104.05' required by nvidia-dkms
```

ndavid · 2023-09-12 22:52:00

Perhaps it's not worth it then, I guess it's not compatible with the latest kernel https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=288667

seth · 2023-09-13 04:15:25

The error in #12 because you tried to downgrade only nvidia-utils in isolation, what doesn't work.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nvidia-525xx seems to suffer from the same issues, it might get some patch to compile w/ 6.4+ kernels (the 390xx series for older GPUs has such)
Otherwise you'll have to do as scimmia suggested and use the LTS kernel.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-09-11 19:51:11

NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#2 2023-09-11 20:59:42

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#3 2023-09-11 21:05:42

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#4 2023-09-11 21:10:08

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#5 2023-09-11 21:15:07

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#6 2023-09-11 21:19:51

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#7 2023-09-11 21:23:37

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#8 2023-09-12 21:14:24

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#9 2023-09-12 21:26:36

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#10 2023-09-12 21:33:52

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#11 2023-09-12 21:42:06

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#12 2023-09-12 21:53:15

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#13 2023-09-12 22:52:00

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

#14 2023-09-13 04:15:25

Re: NVIDIA drivers snapshot question

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