Arch Linux

dougalg

Member

Registered: 2017-08-19

Posts: 10

System Update broke display output - nvidia - GTX670

I dusted off my old Arch setup and wanted to get it going again and everything was working well until I ran the `pacman -Syu`. It's been about 2 years or so, so I'm not surprised that there were some issues.

Before I updated, my display worked totally fine, but after the update, it only recognizes an `800x600` display resolution, instead of the native `2560x1440`.

Previously I was using the `nvidia-beta` drivers, but according to the nvidia setup page, I should actually be using `nvidia-470-dkms` for my GTX670. After installing, I ran `mkinitcpio` and also deleted the auto-generated `xorg.conf` file, as it crashed otherwise.

After installing, I see that only `nouveau` is listed in the `kernal modules` from running `lspci`:

1:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 670] [10de:1189] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:3542]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
	Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel modules: nouveau

In the journal log I see

Failed to find module 'nvidia-uvm'

which led me to this post Nvidia-470xx dkms not loading. In that case the issue was a missing patch for the kernel, but looking at the pkgbuild for the current version of nvidia-470-dkms it seems to already be patched for the v6 kernel, so I guess that that's not the issue in my case.

Last edited by dougalg (2025-05-05 02:00:26)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,156

Re: System Update broke display output - nvidia - GTX670

Do you actually have the "current version" of nvidia-470xx-dkms?

pacman -Q nvidia-470xx-{dkms,utils} linux{,-headers}
dkms status

Note that DKMS packages can only work if you have the -headers of the kernel you're running as you will need to compile a kernel module.

Did you otherwise follow the normal nvidia guide, especially in regards to removing the kms hook from mkinitcpio?

Last edited by V1del (2025-05-05 10:14:23)

dougalg

Member

Registered: 2017-08-19

Posts: 10

Re: System Update broke display output - nvidia - GTX670

Thanks for the reply, I was indeed missing the headers package, but the rest was correct. Is the headers requirement documented somewhere that I missed it?

Now that I've got it installed I get the following:

 ~> lspci -v -nn -d ::03xx
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 670] [10de:1189] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device [1458:3542]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at e8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
	Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

and

 ~> pacman -Q nvidia-470xx-{dkms,utils} linux{,-headers}
nvidia-470xx-dkms 470.256.02-7.98
nvidia-470xx-utils 470.256.02-7.98
linux 6.14.4.arch1-2
linux-headers 6.14.4.arch1-2

Is this correct?

It still does not auto-detect the resolution of my monitor. `xrandr` outputs my monitor as `None-1` with only `800x600` resolution still.

This is what I see in the journal when I search for nvidia:

May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia: module license taints kernel.
May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 240
May 06 08:02:47 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: VGA decodes changed: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem
May 06 08:02:48 cheesemonster kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  470.256.02  Thu May  2 14:37:44 UTC 2024
May 06 08:02:48 cheesemonster (udev-worker)[337]: nvidia: Process '/usr/bin/bash -c 'if [ ! -c /dev/nvidiactl ]; then /usr/bin/mknod -Z -m 666 /dev/nvidiactl c $(grep nvidia-frontend /proc/devices | cut -d \  -f 1) 255; fi'' failed with exit code 1.
May 06 08:02:48 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia_uvm: module uses symbols nvUvmInterfaceDisableAccessCntr from proprietary module nvidia, inheriting taint.
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster systemd-modules-load[280]: Inserted module 'nvidia_uvm'
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia-uvm: Loaded the UVM driver, major device number 235.
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms  470.256.02  Thu May  2 14:50:40 UTC 2024
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input11
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input12
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input13
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input14
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Loading driver
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: Failed to initialize the nv-hotplug-helper DRM client (ensure DRM kernel mode setting is enabled via nvidia-drm.modeset=1).
May 06 08:02:49 cheesemonster kernel: [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Unloading driver

is the drm modeset requirement actually important?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,156

Re: System Update broke display output - nvidia - GTX670

You generally want that parameter, if only to get rid of the simpledrm device that can otherwise cause trouble as well, but it's generally useful to set that for virtual consoles as well.

As for DKMS requiring headers, yes: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dynami … stallation