X11 unleash your nvidia card, swapping nouveau driver for modesetting
by UrbanDesimator from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6PT8M)
Hello good folks I was reading threw some forum.xfce.org posts about graphics issues with Nvidia cards in X11 and xfce and found the info I'm sharing here. With an additional part about disabling dithering on nvidia card's when your not using nvidia's proprietary driver.
Brian one of xfce's devs recommended swapping nouveau driver for modesetting in X11. I will share how I've done that in Slackware, the benefits I have seen from the change are fantastic.
To change driver for X11 I did the following:
First I would make a backup copy of the 10-nouveau.conf file to your home dir so if you make a mistake your covered.
when I edit this type of file I use kwrite/kate and then when your done press save you can type your root password to complete the save.
On a full Slackware install you should have file "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nouveau.conf" if your file
has this at the top:
Section "OutputClass"
Identifier "Nouveau"
MatchDriver "nouveau"
Driver "nouveau"
EndSection
Simply use # to block it's use i,e:
#Section "OutputClass"
#Identifier "Nouveau"
#MatchDriver "nouveau"
#Driver "nouveau"
#EndSection
If you have already edited this file to add additional nouveau driver options either use # at the start of each line or delete
Then we will add the new settings we want to use, we DO NOT have to create a complete xorg.conf file
like we did in the past.
Below is the lines needed:
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia0"
Driver "modesetting"
BusID "PCI:01:00:0"
Screen 0
Option "AccelMethos" "glamor"
Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection
You will need to change your BusID to what lspci gives you as detailed below.
This is the output from lspci on my system:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 660 Ti] (rev a1)
^ ^
You may have more numbers depending on your system but you can see above they are at the start of line for your Graphics card.
You don't need to add any thing else to the file.
I have been amazed at the difference in swapping the gpu driver in X11, no more artifacts/noise/flicker fonts look cleaner and are easier to read. Video playback via mpv playing at 1080p file of the film w.a.l.l-e which is a file as I've said has been watched many times was so much sharper and stable I didn't realise just how glossy/bright Eve's colouring was, I would say it is very very close in quality to the proprietary nvidia driver is when setup corectly for video playback. My desktop backgrounds are also sharper/crisper, and the real big one is how the mouse feel I use a high dpi usb wired mouse and even being used at very high setting felt stiff/sluggish with nouveau driver. And is a very pleasing change indeed with the modesetting driver.
I have made no other changes/software upgrades to my system during the change over.
I am also aware that there is a patch that should force the use of the modesetting driver for X11 on geforce cards 9000 and above without making the changes I have. But with the10-nouveau.conf file in it's default state that was making the nouveau driver load on a fresh install. I haven't tested whether simply swapping the driver used in the Output Class part of the conf file as I simply copied what had been posted as the option glamor and PCIID was needed.
I use a PCIe MSI Geforce GTX 660 Ti Twin Frozr in my main PC.
I set dithering to off with xrandr at startx To help reduce some of the artifacts/noise and reduce eye strain as it gave me migraine's.
Nvidia obviously know there hardware is causing a very conciderable amount of people some serious heralth issues. The dithering function is one of the biggest issues, I highly recommend you turn it off even if you don't get headaches you may find using your pc/laptop less tyring.
In X11/xfce4 I get small artifacts light sparkles/flutters on white or bright colored fonts. The artifacts are quite random but often on the tittle bar of programs.
To set dithering to off on a nvidia card with xrandr, in a terminal type xrandr --verbose you'll get a list of graphics card outputs. And will be able to identify the one your using.
The command to change from "auto" the default setting to off is:
you can make this change as login user name no root required.
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --set "dithering mode" "off"
^ ^
that's set for my system I only use 1 output the HDMI. simply change ^ ^ the output name exactly as xrandr --verbose lists it and hit enter then run xrandr --verbose again and you should see the mode has changed as below.
Before i,e dithering enabled
dithering mode: auto
supported: auto, off, static 2x2, dynamic 2x2, temporal
After you have run the above command.
dithering mode: off
supported: auto, off, static 2x2, dynamic 2x2, temporal
To automate this simply add for example in xfce > session and startup > application autostart
a new item Name it "disable dithering" and in the command box either copy and paste or write the command you just used to switch dithering of in the terminal. As you startup xfce it will run the command and disable it for you.
I hope you find this information help
Brian one of xfce's devs recommended swapping nouveau driver for modesetting in X11. I will share how I've done that in Slackware, the benefits I have seen from the change are fantastic.
To change driver for X11 I did the following:
First I would make a backup copy of the 10-nouveau.conf file to your home dir so if you make a mistake your covered.
when I edit this type of file I use kwrite/kate and then when your done press save you can type your root password to complete the save.
On a full Slackware install you should have file "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nouveau.conf" if your file
has this at the top:
Section "OutputClass"
Identifier "Nouveau"
MatchDriver "nouveau"
Driver "nouveau"
EndSection
Simply use # to block it's use i,e:
#Section "OutputClass"
#Identifier "Nouveau"
#MatchDriver "nouveau"
#Driver "nouveau"
#EndSection
If you have already edited this file to add additional nouveau driver options either use # at the start of each line or delete
Then we will add the new settings we want to use, we DO NOT have to create a complete xorg.conf file
like we did in the past.
Below is the lines needed:
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia0"
Driver "modesetting"
BusID "PCI:01:00:0"
Screen 0
Option "AccelMethos" "glamor"
Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection
You will need to change your BusID to what lspci gives you as detailed below.
This is the output from lspci on my system:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 660 Ti] (rev a1)
^ ^
You may have more numbers depending on your system but you can see above they are at the start of line for your Graphics card.
You don't need to add any thing else to the file.
I have been amazed at the difference in swapping the gpu driver in X11, no more artifacts/noise/flicker fonts look cleaner and are easier to read. Video playback via mpv playing at 1080p file of the film w.a.l.l-e which is a file as I've said has been watched many times was so much sharper and stable I didn't realise just how glossy/bright Eve's colouring was, I would say it is very very close in quality to the proprietary nvidia driver is when setup corectly for video playback. My desktop backgrounds are also sharper/crisper, and the real big one is how the mouse feel I use a high dpi usb wired mouse and even being used at very high setting felt stiff/sluggish with nouveau driver. And is a very pleasing change indeed with the modesetting driver.
I have made no other changes/software upgrades to my system during the change over.
I am also aware that there is a patch that should force the use of the modesetting driver for X11 on geforce cards 9000 and above without making the changes I have. But with the10-nouveau.conf file in it's default state that was making the nouveau driver load on a fresh install. I haven't tested whether simply swapping the driver used in the Output Class part of the conf file as I simply copied what had been posted as the option glamor and PCIID was needed.
I use a PCIe MSI Geforce GTX 660 Ti Twin Frozr in my main PC.
I set dithering to off with xrandr at startx To help reduce some of the artifacts/noise and reduce eye strain as it gave me migraine's.
Nvidia obviously know there hardware is causing a very conciderable amount of people some serious heralth issues. The dithering function is one of the biggest issues, I highly recommend you turn it off even if you don't get headaches you may find using your pc/laptop less tyring.
In X11/xfce4 I get small artifacts light sparkles/flutters on white or bright colored fonts. The artifacts are quite random but often on the tittle bar of programs.
To set dithering to off on a nvidia card with xrandr, in a terminal type xrandr --verbose you'll get a list of graphics card outputs. And will be able to identify the one your using.
The command to change from "auto" the default setting to off is:
you can make this change as login user name no root required.
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --set "dithering mode" "off"
^ ^
that's set for my system I only use 1 output the HDMI. simply change ^ ^ the output name exactly as xrandr --verbose lists it and hit enter then run xrandr --verbose again and you should see the mode has changed as below.
Before i,e dithering enabled
dithering mode: auto
supported: auto, off, static 2x2, dynamic 2x2, temporal
After you have run the above command.
dithering mode: off
supported: auto, off, static 2x2, dynamic 2x2, temporal
To automate this simply add for example in xfce > session and startup > application autostart
a new item Name it "disable dithering" and in the command box either copy and paste or write the command you just used to switch dithering of in the terminal. As you startup xfce it will run the command and disable it for you.
I hope you find this information help