Reverting to older nvidia drivers

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 02:33:19

I recently discovered the simplistic beauty of Archlinux. I finally found a distro that I'm happy with!

With that said, I'm having trouble finding archive repositories, or even archived packages for that matter, that contain versions of packages that I need to revert back to. In this particular instance, I need to revert my nvidia driver back to 100.14.x because the newer drivers completely hose UT2004.

What's the proper way to do this, and can pacman handle it?

Thanks.

brebs · 2008-03-27 02:44:13

Copy the nvidia & nvidia-utils pkgbuilds to /var/abs/local/... and recompile them (also lib32-nvidia-utils if you're using it on x86_64).

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 02:48:44

Well the first obstacle is locating the older pkgbuilds. I'm not reverting to something I had previously installed. Where can I find the pkg builds so that I can recompile them?

brebs · 2008-03-27 02:53:14

abs
find /var/abs -maxdepth 4 -type d -iname "*nvidia*"

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 03:04:15

Ok, that's cool. Thanks for your help by the way.

I've rebuilt the drivers, but that still leaves me with version 169.12.... Is there a PKGBUILD available for 100.14 anywhere?

bgc1954 · 2008-03-27 03:07:50

Nexuiz quit working for me on a GeForce 6200 with the nvidia-169.12 and a post said to go back to nvidia-96xx which worked for me. #pacman -S nvidia-96xx

brebs · 2008-03-27 03:11:57

Edit the pkgbuilds - change the pkgver.

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 03:12:44

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I'm running a GeForce 7900. Even if that works, I'm still curious to know how to locate and downgrade to packages that are no longer in the repository. It's a feature that I must have in my linux distro. I can't count the number of times that I've had to downgrade packages.

So back to my original question... does Arch provide a way to downgrade to previous packages that are no longer in the repository? If so, where are they located?

Misfit138 · 2008-03-27 03:13:04

badger101101 wrote:

Ok, that's cool. Thanks for your help by the way.
I've rebuilt the drivers, but that still leaves me with version 169.12.... Is there a PKGBUILD available for 100.14 anywhere?

Edit the PKGBUILD version number.

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 03:14:02

looks like your post beat mine. Is that really all that has to be done? abs is smart enough to checkout the correct source tree based on that value?

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 03:18:08

ok, one last question. Is there a way to list all versions in CVS of a particular pkg?

Misfit138 · 2008-03-27 03:21:43

Read the PKGBUILD. It doesn't matter what versions are in cvs. _The user_ specifies which version he wants to build.
The $pkgver is merely part of a URL. Check it out.

bgc1954 · 2008-03-27 03:22:35

I run e-cvs on all of my computers and since it is constantly being updated, I have had some issues with the newest update not working quite right. I just go to /var/cache/pacman/pkg and check the previous version and do a #pacman -U e-cvs-previous_version. Works for me.

badger101101 · 2008-03-27 03:24:50

I just noticed that. The md5sum is wrong of course, but that shouldn't be a problem.

You guys rock, thanks for the help

Misfit138 · 2008-03-27 03:24:53

bgc1954 wrote:

I run e-cvs on all of my computers and since it is constantly being updated, I have had some issues with the newest update not working quite right. I just go to /var/cache/pacman/pkg and check the previous version and do a #pacman -U e-cvs-previous_version. Works for me.

This works perfectly well if you have not cleared your cache, and have the older version of the package in question. (Plus it saves you having to build from source... Give me binaries or give me death. )

bgc1954 · 2008-03-27 03:34:06

To clear or not to clear...that is the question.

Misfit138 · 2008-03-27 03:36:16

bgc1954 wrote:

To clear or not to clear...that is the question.

HEhe. I never clear..Harddrives are big enough nowadays, aren't they?

# pacman-optmize

chris_ak · 2008-03-27 05:19:37

couldn't you just install the driver without messing with pacman? I don't really see the point if you're going to stick with an older driver. In ubuntu I never used the driver in the repositories.

brebs · 2008-03-27 05:28:51

Installing the nvidia driver manually will just cause problems later, like orphan files (especially library files) lying around to mess up a configuration in the future. Or just a future nvidia pkgbuild failing to install because of those orphan files.

It's far better to just do it the proper way, and let the package manager handle it. That is, after all, its job, and why we use a package manager in the first place.

bgc1954 · 2008-03-27 14:34:03

brebs wrote:
Installing the nvidia driver manually will just cause problems later, like orphan files (especially library files) lying around to mess up a configuration in the future. Or just a future nvidia pkgbuild failing to install because of those orphan files.

I'll agree heartily with brebs, IMO it unnecessarily complicates your life. I still play around with a debian partition on my hdd and to get compiz to work right I found I had to use the nvidia proprietary drivers for some reason, and every time there is a kernel upgrade you have to reinstall the drivers.. To me, it's a pain.

Misfit138 · 2008-03-27 15:06:40

brebs wrote:

Installing the nvidia driver manually will just cause problems later, like orphan files (especially library files) lying around to mess up a configuration in the future. Or just a future nvidia pkgbuild failing to install because of those orphan files.
It's far better to just do it the proper way, and let the package manager handle it. That is, after all, its job, and why we use a package manager in the first place.

+1 x 10.

Arch has some beautiful tools that handle everything so cleanly and should be used. Users shouldn't be averted by the ABS 'learning curve'. It's almost too easy.

brebs · 2008-03-28 07:39:51

bgc1954 wrote:

every time there is a kernel upgrade you have to reinstall the drivers.. To me, it's a pain.

Er, you should do that *anyway*. (Edit:) Just because binary distros can usually get away with not doing so, doesn't mean it's a good idea to assume that it's not necessary.

The point is, you should reinstall the nvidia drivers using a pkgbuild.

Last edited by brebs (2008-03-28 07:43:11)

Misfit138 · 2008-03-30 22:11:54

brebs wrote:

bgc1954 wrote:
every time there is a kernel upgrade you have to reinstall the drivers.. To me, it's a pain.
Er, you should do that *anyway*. (Edit:) Just because binary distros can usually get away with not doing so, doesn't mean it's a good idea to assume that it's not necessary.
The point is, you should reinstall the nvidia drivers using a pkgbuild.

So far as I can remember, the nvidia packages (nvidia and nvidia-utils for me, i686) are upgraded coinciding with each kernel upgrade. Though, I have been zonked by a kernel upgrade which preceded an nvidia upgrade that followed a day later- In which case I simply built against the new kernel with a PKGBUILD, as you suggest.

Basically, whenever I have an nvidia issue that I can't solve, I check the forums and Brebs usually has already posted the answer.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-27 02:33:19

Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#2 2008-03-27 02:44:13

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#3 2008-03-27 02:48:44

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#4 2008-03-27 02:53:14

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#5 2008-03-27 03:04:15

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#6 2008-03-27 03:07:50

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#7 2008-03-27 03:11:57

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#8 2008-03-27 03:12:44

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#9 2008-03-27 03:13:04

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#10 2008-03-27 03:14:02

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#11 2008-03-27 03:18:08

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#12 2008-03-27 03:21:43

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#13 2008-03-27 03:22:35

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#14 2008-03-27 03:24:50

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#15 2008-03-27 03:24:53

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#16 2008-03-27 03:34:06

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#17 2008-03-27 03:36:16

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#18 2008-03-27 05:19:37

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#19 2008-03-27 05:28:51

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#20 2008-03-27 14:34:03

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#21 2008-03-27 15:06:40

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#22 2008-03-28 07:39:51

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

#23 2008-03-30 22:11:54

Re: Reverting to older nvidia drivers

Board footer