I get this whenever I switch drivers. None of my games are working, they all crash on startup.
Once I get this solved, is there a way to deny graphic updates? Everything was working fine I don't need updates the whole time.
1 Like
What Driver You want use? And does Your System run in Wayland or X11/Xorg?
Also could you give us the output of;
sudo apt install inxi
inxi -Ga
I wanted to try different drivers to see which one will allow me to run games again. I was running X11, I have now switched to Wayland and just normal apps and desktop elements are running worse too now. One game opens but runs extremely slowly, the other freezes Steam when loading vulkan shaders.
Here is the output:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2070] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nouveau
v: kernel alternate: nvidiafb pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports: active: HDMI-A-1
empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f02
class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.9 driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nouveau
display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Philips PHL 288E2 serial: UK52052000957
built: 2020 res: 3840x2160 dpi: 157 gamma: 1.2 size: 621x341mm (24.4x13.4")
diag: 708mm (27.9") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 720x400
OpenGL: renderer: NV166 v: 4.3 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.3
direct render: Yes
Okay, then we try it with the Terminal.
First uninstall current Drivers with:
sudo apt purge nvidia*
Then delete File Rests with:
sudo apt autoremove
But look at the List with the deleted Packages before You delete them!
Then install the Driver with:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-[Version-Number] nvidia-dkms-[Version-Number]
Replace [Version-Number] with the Driver Number, You want use. For Example:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550 nvidia-dkms-550
To test different Driver repeat the Procedure.
Upon the first command:
The following packages will be REMOVED:
nvidia-compute-utils-570* nvidia-compute-utils-580* nvidia-cuda-dev*
nvidia-cuda-gdb* nvidia-cuda-toolkit* nvidia-cuda-toolkit-doc*
nvidia-dkms-580* nvidia-kernel-common-570* nvidia-kernel-common-580*
nvidia-opencl-dev* nvidia-prime* nvidia-profiler* nvidia-settings*
nvidia-visual-profiler*
Upon the second command:
The following packages will be REMOVED:
javascript-common libaccinj64-11.5 libbabeltrace1 libboost-regex1.74.0
libcub-dev libcublas11 libcublaslt11 libcudart11.0 libcufft10 libcufftw10
libcuinj64-11.5 libcupti-dev libcupti-doc libcupti11.5 libcurand10
libcusolver11 libcusolvermg11 libcusparse11 libdebuginfod-common
libdebuginfod1 libdouble-conversion3 libegl-dev libgl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
libgles-dev libgles1 libglvnd-core-dev libglvnd-dev libglx-dev libipt2
libjs-jquery libjs-sphinxdoc libjs-underscore libnppc11 libnppial11
libnppicc11 libnppidei11 libnppif11 libnppig11 libnppim11 libnppist11
libnppisu11 libnppitc11 libnpps11 libnvblas11 libnvidia-compute-495
libnvidia-compute-510 libnvidia-ml-dev libnvjpeg11 libnvrtc-builtins11.5
libnvrtc11.2 libnvtoolsext1 libnvvm4 libopengl-dev libpcre2-16-0
libpthread-stubs0-dev libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 libqt5network5
libsource-highlight-common libsource-highlight4v5 libtbb-dev libtbb12
libtbbmalloc2 libthrust-dev libvdpau-dev libx11-dev libxau-dev
libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb1-dev libxdmcp-dev node-html5shiv nsight-compute
nsight-compute-target nsight-systems nsight-systems-target
ocl-icd-opencl-dev opencl-c-headers opencl-clhpp-headers
qttranslations5-l10n x11proto-dev xorg-sgml-doctools xtrans-dev
Upon the third command:
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libnvidia-compute-535
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dctrl-tools dkms libnvidia-cfg1-580 libnvidia-common-580
libnvidia-compute-580 libnvidia-compute-580:i386 libnvidia-decode-580
libnvidia-decode-580:i386 libnvidia-egl-wayland1 libnvidia-egl-wayland1:i386
libnvidia-encode-580 libnvidia-encode-580:i386 libnvidia-extra-580
libnvidia-fbc1-580 libnvidia-fbc1-580:i386 libnvidia-gl-580
libnvidia-gl-580:i386 libxnvctrl0 nvidia-compute-utils-580 nvidia-dkms-550
nvidia-dkms-580 nvidia-driver-550 nvidia-driver-580
nvidia-firmware-580-580.95.05 nvidia-kernel-common-580
nvidia-kernel-source-580 nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-580
pkg-config screen-resolution-extra xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-580
I then restarted, and got this before the computer shutdown to start again:
After starting up again:
- One game makes steam flash between loading and "p extremely fast and then doesnt start
- The other game loads vulkan shaders faster but flashes steam to black from time to time. Loads into load screen, keeps flashing (whole screen or parts of it) and is extremely slow.
- My browser is flashing back and forth a few frames (Showing me the state of the screen from 1 to 3 seconds ago), and parts of the browser are also flashing, from time to time (white and back to content). The computer is now almost unusable. I can share a video of how it looks like if you point me at where to upload it.
Current inxi output.
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2070] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia
v: 580.95.05 alternate: nvidiafb,nouveau,nvidia_drm pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:1f02 class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.9 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Philips PHL 288E2 serial: UK52052000957
built: 2020 res: 3840x2160 dpi: 157 gamma: 1.2 size: 621x341mm (24.4x13.4")
diag: 708mm (27.9") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 3840x2160 min: 640x480
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070/PCIe/SSE2
v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 580.95.05 direct render: Yes
Edit: This doesn't really inspire confidence, why is the GUI saying one thing and the CLI another thing?
Go to the Login Screen, not the Lock Screen. Simply reboot for that. On the Login Screen, click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see a Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in.
Done, now it's back to one game not launching and the other crashing upon loading.
What is the Terminal Output for nvidia-smi please?
You must be on Xorg.
Wayland support on a 2070 with 550 driver is essentially nonexistent.
On the 580 driver, it is moderately present, but not reliable.
Fri Oct 17 17:16:31 2025
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.95.05 Driver Version: 580.95.05 CUDA Version: 13.0 |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Off | 00000000:01:00.0 On | N/A |
| 37% 56C P3 37W / 175W | 1016MiB / 8192MiB | 6% Default |
| | | N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=========================================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 19296 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 299MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 19442 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 243MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 21795 G ...ed90a1bc01d11cf8e297297aa3f2d 374MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
I switched back to Xorg now, see above.
Just as an update, tried with the 580 driver and it also doesn't work, testing with 3 different games that used to work flawlessly.
Tried 525, 570, 580 and 550 so far, none make the games work. Really frustrating to have an update make gaming impossible on a system.
One thing about Nvidia is that if anything is left behind, it will jumble it with any new install. Especially if your card is 2070 Super.
I recommend wiping all Nvidia driver files:
sudo apt remove --purge '^nvidia-.*' '^libnvidia-.*'
Once done, install fresh:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install nvidia-driver-580 nvidia-dkms-580
Now, update Mesa for Vulkan support;
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ernstp/mesarc
Tap enter to proceed with the repo addition, then
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
Fully reboot your system, then test.
2 Likes
Thank you so much, it seems like that did the trick! I have a few questions though (in no particular order):
- Is there a way to stop graphics drivers updates to keep this from happening again?
- What happened? Why did everything stop working?
- Why did this fix work/what was missing?
- Why was there a mismatch between the GUI and the actual state of the drivers?
Thank you once again, hope you have a great weekend.
Though separate, I believe all questions touch on:
The GUI relies on these files to know what you are running and if they are mixed, you can get incorrect reporting.
And the GUI driver management lacks the action of removing the old files. For this reason, I recommend installations of the Nvidia Driver be done solely through the CLI after purging all old files.
In the end... this is more a fault with Nvidia, but these are steps we end users can take.
Yes, you can use sudo apt-mark hold on any package you want held from updates.
In your case:
sudo apt-mark hold nvidia-driver-580
However, I would recommend against doing this.
I realize you had trouble this time around... But holding the package can create other troubles. Now you know how to fix this.
1 Like
Sorry to highjack thread, so Zorin runs Wayland?
I only got the Nvidia driver to work on version 535 on a 3050 card, any other version on a boot up, never get a login screen and monitors turn on and off over and over again.
Yes, it (Zorin core, pro) runs on wayland by default. But you can switch to Xorg at login.
By default. You can switch to Xorg though. At the login screen, select your user, and look in the bottom right for an icon. (I believe it's a gear.) It'll have options for Wayland or Xorg.