NVidia Woes Again

I have maintained a list of quirks and unresolved issues as I have worked toward updating my systems from Slackware 14.1 to 14.2.

One such bug includes extra wide pkexec dialogs. Normally the dialogs look like this. The anomaly appears only on my office desktop. I thought a possible cause might be video drivers.

On my office desktop I have been using the NVidia 304 drivers. The motherboard has an 8300 series chip set. According to the NVidia web site, I should be using the 340 drivers. Yes, that is not a typo.

I downloaded the latest 340.101 drivers. I built and installed the package. All Hell broke loose. A fireworks display and then my system froze such that only a power switch cycle restored the system. Sometimes the system froze running glxgears. I tested this a few times and was convinced the drivers are flawed. I next tried the 340.96 version. Same horrible results.

I have no clue why the NVidia web site identifies the 340 series when they utterly fail on my motherboard.

I returned to the 304 series.

I still had elongated pkexec dialogs.

Later I decided to run a while with the nouveau drivers.

For the moment the elongated dialogs have stopped. I have not yet returned to testing the proprietary drivers.

On my to do list is to replace the office desktop motherboard with a something using Intel video drivers. I have had enough of NVidia.

Posted: March 16, 2017 Category: Usability Tagged: Slackware

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