I'm a new Linux user trying to make the switch, but I'm getting really frustrated with the different distros I've tried. I'm running a Ryzen 9 5950X and an RTX 3090. I know Nvidia and Linux don't always get along, but I see many other users with similar setups who seem to have no issues.
Initially, I went with Fedora KDE Plasma, which worked fine until the screen went dark after being idle. I managed to recover by removing the Nvidia drivers via the terminal, but then everything was sluggish without them. I tried reinstalling the drivers, but the problem returned. Then I moved to Nobara, also based on Fedora, and experienced the same dark screen issue. I even switched to CachyOS, but that too resulted in the same problem. I need some advice because I really want to give Linux another shot, but I can't handle not knowing if my system will work one day and fail the next. Using Linux without a fully functional Nvidia GPU seems pointless to me. Any tips for making this transition smoother?
6 Answers
You might want to stick with a well-supported distro like Ubuntu LTS or Mint. The enterprise-grade support can save you a lot of headaches. Trust me, Fedora and Arch can become a constant fix-up game!
Linux Mint has always worked flawlessly for me with my Nvidia 3080. I’ve run dual 4K monitors with no issues while also dual-booting with Windows. Perhaps you should consider giving Mint a shot?
I agree! Mint has been rock solid for me as well, even when I switched to i3 as my desktop environment. You might find it more stable.
I had headaches with drivers but eventually switched to Garuda Linux, and it worked right out of the box with no driver issues. Might be worth a try if you're still exploring options!
You may be dealing with a power management issue. Make sure to enable the Nvidia power management daemon. You can do this by running `sudo systemctl enable nvidia-powerd` and `sudo systemctl start nvidia-powerd`. It might also help to check if your Nvidia card is set to 'on-demand' mode to avoid these problems.
Have you tried disabling sleep mode completely? Sometimes, issues like this can stem from power management settings. Also, switching to an X11 session instead of Wayland might help if you haven’t already tried that. Just a thought!
I attempted to switch to X11, but the problems persisted. It’s strange because this isn’t just a sleep issue; I’ve had dark screens upon startup too.
Without checking the logs, it’s tough to nail down the issue. Sleep and hibernation quirks with Nvidia cards are common. If you can, try using `journalctl` after an incident; it can tell you what went wrong when the issue arises.
I’ll definitely look into getting the logs tomorrow. I wasn’t aware of that tool!
Thanks for the advice! I’ll consider going back to Ubuntu or Mint instead.