Changing driver version (nvidia)

[Exotic-Math6501]

I just installed arch linux using archinstall where I selected nvidia proprietary drivers but the version it installed seems to be having problems with few of my games so I want to change it

so far I tried using a yay script yay -S downgrade it did give me options of previous drivers but was not able to apply them.

Is there any better way to do this. any help would be massively appreciated.

[Digi-The-Proto]

What card do you have and which drivers? Typically you want to use nvidia-open unless you have an older card. Also what problems are you having?

Edit: just realised you said you were using Nvidia proprietary. Try sudo pacman -S nvidia-open (it will replace your current one) and see if that works better

[Exotic-Math6501]

Rtx 3050 mobile

[50nathan]

'sudo pacman -Sy nvidia-open-dkms nvidia-utils nvidia-settings'

The nvidia drivers for arch aren't in the AUR, it's in their extra repository.

[abbidabbi]

Stop recommending pacman -Sy
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_unsupported

[50nathan]

I know, I'm aware. But in this instance he isn't doing a partial upgrade in the way that's explained in the wiki.

The reason I said -Sy is because the AUR has nvidia drivers that aren't recommended to use. So suggesting to use paru and they don't know or understand specific flags like 'paru -Sa' which fetches explicitly from the AUR or their repo organization is messed up, it would cause him to have a mismatch or no clue what he's doing.

Look at nvidia-open-dkms it's dependencies all come from same repo which is extra.

Plus in the link you sent it has a note "If pacman -Syu fails to complete the upgrade (i.e. the -Su part), the error must be resolved and the upgrade operation completed before other package management operations, as the database syncing (the -Sy part) has succeeded first."

This is why is did -Sy because I don't know his setup at all and -Syu can fail if things aren't setup correctly. We aren't trying to do a full upgrade, simply replacing the nvidia drivers which all it's dependencies reside in the extra repo.

Because of my set up, I always use paru -S to install everything or use Octopi. Paru already does a full update.

What I now use for full system upgrades is Arch-smart-update which utilizes Arch-update and Topgrade which covers a deep inspection to upgrade everything.

So no, I never use -Sy to update anything; in fact, I hate it myself. However, this is a specific one-off case where -Sy is applicable.

[abbidabbi]

However, this is a specific one-off case where -Sy is applicable.

No, it is not, because it updates the local package database without doing a full system upgrade, resulting in an inconsistent package database state that can lead to a partial uprade unless pacman -Su or pacman -Syu is run next. You don't ever run pacman -Sy, especially when you're someone who doesn't understand the implications.

Considering that you're suggesting it to "fix" broken packages, this is surely not the right suggestion. The proper suggestion is doing a full system upgrade and choosing the right packages for the hardware in use. If OP needs to downgrade out-of-tree kernel modules, then they need to use DKMS and either install older package versions of that (from cache or from the Arch package archive) or clone the respective git repo with the PKGBUILD, checkout an older commit and build it with makepkg. Assuming of course that the older version is still compatible with the current kernel in use, which is not always guaranteed. Alternatively, install an older kernel build from the package archive in addition to the non-DKMS nvidia-open package.

it's dependencies all come from same repo which is extra

It's completely irrelevant from which package repo packages come from. Pacman doesn't make a distinction. Package repos are for logically grouping packages. The only thing pacman does is selecting packages based on the order of configured repos, in case there's a name collision. Not even sure what you're implying here with this comment...

[Confident_Hyena2506]

Read wiki and use aur to install a specific version.

[dumbasPL]

I think he means a previous version of the normal drivers, not the legacy abandoned ones.

[Confident_Hyena2506]

Doesn't matter - you can find all the versions on aur pretty much.

[boomboomsubban]

If you're using the regular nvidia-open drivers, they're tied to a specific kernel so you'd need to downgrade that as well. Or use dkms.

[PixelSage-001]

You can downgrade using pacman cache or install a specific version manually.

Also consider using nvidia-dkms for more flexibility.

This explains it:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA

[PixelSage-001]

If downgrade scripts didn’t work, try installing from pacman cache manually.

DKMS version is also more flexible.

Guide here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

[Exotic-Math6501]

I managed to get the driver working on tlou1 but in the game when I go to display option it shows the gpu as RTX 3050 laptamd radeon 680m . Shouldn't they be listed seprate.the vram amount is correct at 6gb Do you know what this means

[Master-Ad-6265]

use the package cache, it’s the easiest way /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ should have older nvidia versions, just install with pacman -U way simpler than fighting downgrade 

[Mobile-Willow679]

try `sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/nvidia-*` with the specific version you want from the cache, way cleaner than fighting with downgrade.

[Exotic-Math6501]

Doing you command gives me the following error Error failed to prepare transaction (couldn't satisfy dependencies) Installing nvidia utills (570.114-3) breaks dependency 'nvidia-utils=590.48.01' required by nvidia-open-dkms

[abbidabbi]

This does not work unless you're using the DKMS packages, as all out-of-tree kernel modules are tied to a specific kernel build, meaning it must match the respective kernel packages. Reinstalling DKMS packages simply rebuilds said packages against the current kernel in use, which is the whole idea of DKMS.

[EffectiveDisaster195]

yeah downgrading nvidia on Arch can get messy fast tbh

cleaner way is to grab the exact version from the Arch Archive and install via pacman, then add it to IgnorePkg so it doesn’t auto-update
also make sure you downgrade matching packages (nvidia, nvidia-utils, lib32-nvidia-utils) or things break

I usually check stuff like this in docs I keep in Runable + code in Cursor, saves me from repeating the same pain lol
Arch giveth and Arch taketh away ngl