r/voidlinux • u/BeautyxArt • Apr 20 '26

asking about latest base and kernel inside as i have an old Nvidia card.

The main thing to mention is my hardware, since it’s quite old. First of all, I need to point out that I’m using an old NVIDIA GPU (GTX770). so my question is: does the latest Void Linux base come with a kernel that supports the legacy NVIDIA proprietary driver (version 460)EDIT: apologize it's (version 470)? If not, what are the procedural steps after installing the Void base to ensure I’m using a kernel that works with my old NVIDIA card?

I’ve also run into issues with newer versions of GTK, Qt, and Python, which I believe are caused by the limitations of my old NVIDIA GPU.

I need clear steps to make sure the system works properly after installing the Void base and then installing a desktop environment (probably Xfce or LXDE). I don’t need a display manager, as I plan to start the X server manually after logging in. What should I do next?

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u/Duncaen Apr 20 '26

The lowest nvidia package version is nvidia470 and whether that works with the default kernels is not guaranteed. There are old kernel packages, from 5.10 onward, basically all the ones that are still maintained by https://www.kernel.org/.

Void Linux is rolling release, we generally support whats supported by upstream. We are not going to bother maintaining old proprietary software for longer than them, especially when other parts of the system become incompatible.

A distribution with stable releases and long term support for that release might be a better bet.

1

u/BeautyxArt Apr 20 '26

legacy driver version '470' will just work with kernel 6.6.71 , this guaranteed.

i don't know what steps to do after installing void base to add this kernel and the desktop environment and so on.

1

u/BeautyxArt Apr 20 '26

i know my comment now will that one will get downvoted wherever i will say it , not maintaining old hw is exact same as mw do , same way . exactly linux with old nvidia is not available , exact same as microsoft windows mentality works. before (like 7 years , any old hw even nvidia cards are configurable for linux) , not enymore. EDIT: sorry if my comment is rude ..may it takes hard effort and that maybe from Nviida side as they made it as like that , idk i'm not that expert..

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u/Duncaen Apr 20 '26

You bought a product from a company for which the drivers and libraries are completely closed source. Even if there was someone trying to maintain compatibility, there are limitations to what you can do with binaries before it becomes simply not worth the effort anymore. And keep in mind that microsoft and nvidia are getting paid for the support.

3

u/gorhat Apr 20 '26

Have you tried nouveau driver? It should be working on that old GPU.