So Arch just moved to NVIDIA 590 and dropped Pascal support. I’m running an older Predator laptop with a GTX 1070 (Pascal) + Intel iGPU. After the update, NVIDIA is basically gone, but Intel fallback still gives me a working desktop.
This machine was always a fallback gaming laptop, not my primary system, but I’d still like to make reasonable use of it.
My current situation: Arch Linux with KDE Plasma, Intel graphics works fine, NVIDIA 1070 is unusable unless I go legacy, Wayland currently working only because I’m on Intel.
From what I understand: NVIDIA legacy (580xx) = X11 only, Wayland + Pascal is basically dead.
Arch will keep moving kernels, so legacy drivers mean ongoing maintenance...
(picture related).
What I’m trying to decide:
Stick with Arch, install legacy NVIDIA, switch to X11, accept maintenance?
Ditch NVIDIA entirely, run Intel + Wayland, and treat the 1070 as dead weight?
Switch to a slower-moving distro (Debian?) just to keep X11 + NVIDIA working longer?
Or is there a better hybrid setup people are actually happy with?
I’m not looking to resurrect Pascal forever, just trying to choose the least stupid path for a secondary machine without fighting my system every update.
Curious what others with GTX 10xx laptops are actually doing in practice.
Unless Arch's
ltskernel switches to a newer lts (in a year or two?), you can run nvidia 580 dkms modules and the lts kernel with basically no maintenance.After that, you can consider something like linux-lts66 from AUR, or switch to another distro if desired. The first option requires compiling the kernel (no maintenance, just processor time), and will keep your system security patched until the last LTS kernel supported by nvidia 580 modules stops being supported.
Whatever kernel you choose, ensure you have the
-headers, likelinux-lts-headers. That way, thenvidia-580xx-dkmspackage can install properly.If you haven't yet, look into an AUR helper like
yayorparu. These significantly improve quality of life when using AUR packages.Doesn't LTS change like twice a year nowadays?
Thank you for a nuanced answer. I start understanding.
For people who’ve gone the linux-lts66 (or similar) route from AUR: is that something you’d consider “set and forget,” or does it eventually turn into a kind of babysitting?
As long as you use an AUR helper to update your system (replace
pacman -Syuwithyay -Syu), and keep the kernel EOLs in your calendar, it shouldn't be constant babysitting. Updating a (non-bin) kernel from the AUR requires compiling the kernel, which makes updates take way longer, but doesn't require extra manual maintenance.You can find when a kernel is EOL on kernel.org. When your chosen LTS goes out of support, you should update (for security reasons). You'll have to hope the 580 nvidia drivers still support the newer kernel version you move to.
This path allows you to run your setup for as long as possible on Arch, when you run into issues with nvidia support, so does every other distro.
Ah! This was key information I did not understand before. Thanks.