openSuse 15 again --- My setup: GEFORCE GT740 graphics should use the (latest) NVIDIA driver e.g. NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.67.run (manually installed)
Problem: Standard re-compiled NVIDIA driver installation fails causing X-server crashes (black screen, mouse only, blinking at commandline and so on - essentially to fail beyond recovery.
Prerequisite: Download the NVIDIA driver first e.g. NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.67.run
After an upgrade from Leap v42.3 to LEAP15 the update left me "again" with a black screen mouse only and beeing unable to switch to any console.
May be it is my hardware (which is not that new), however I cannot understand that certain errors persist for years and cannot be fixed.
Basically -- I fixed the issue by installing the driver the hardway, because none of pre-compiled NVIDIA drivers (GF04 or GF03) worked (tried them all).
Found this guide at: "https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_the_hard_way" in a modified way allowed for installation of the latest NVIDIA driver
However - this leaves the system effectively unbootable. The guide suggests to remove
followed by a "reboot" --- which in turn leaves the system unbootable, since the boot entry in grub2 has been completely removed with it!
FIX ---
(1) when booting at the grub menu, select the entry and press "e" to edit the boot parameter. Adding an "init 3 " to the boot parameter line
(including the space after the 3), which allowed for booting into console.
(2) at the console as root:
worked fine --- to have all tools to compile at hand.
(3) Now remove the previously attempted installations of NVIDIA drivers by:
using either the graphical interface "yast" run in console .. search for NVIDIA and remove related packages. When ask do not let yast install the MESA driver as it will crash the Xserver.
Resolve all conflicts if any ..
(4) Remove "drm-kmp-default - if anything left there
In my case -- there was no drm-kmp default when I used yast - so abort it (but good to check). The system might suggest to remove "kernel-default" -- which you should not do!!!
(5) Reboot and press "e" at GRUB2, add "nomodeset" and "3" to the group
"splash=silent quiet showopts". For example: "splash=silent quiet nomodeset 3 showopts"
nomodeset ensures the nouveau driver won't be loaded and the "3 " that you be backup at the console.
(6) at the console, change directory to the location where you downloaded the driver e.g. "NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.67.run" and:
This should work without any error ... Ccheck if everything related to NVIDIA is finally there:
the hwinfo command can be used prior to reboot too ..So finally everything is working. Note: block the installation of the MESA driver in YAST -- to avoid problems.Comment: Still I cannot believe that this problem comes back over and over .. Yes, I understand NVIDIA is NVIDIA and openSuse is openSuse, but it is a common used driver or not. It would be nice if this can be somehow automated by script by the less tech professionals.There is as well no good recovery tools to fix graphical login errors ...