Distro for i3

[markos1315]

Hy to everyone.

I am looking linux distro for i3-2100,4GB ram and GPU is N520GT with driver nvidia 390.157.
I hope without screen tearing ,especially in youtube videos or playing movies.

I install ubuntu 24.04,it is working great,but nvidia driver is not supported anymore.

Thank you for any help.

 

[Brickwizard]

Welcome
Any 64 bit linux, if your having problems with a driver paste the details of terminal code inxi -G [just remember I3 series CPU's are entry level]

oh and what distributions have you tried.?

 

[Brickwizard]

I have to go off line for a while, if your using a Debian based distribution [Mint LMDE, MX,Parrot home,Debian Stable, Ubuntu, & others] then i think this is the legacy driver you need,

Download NVIDIA, GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla Drivers

Download drivers for NVIDIA graphics cards, video cards, GPU accelerators, and for other GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla hardware. US / English download.

www.nvidia.com

 

[markos1315]

I tried a many distribution.My old graphic card is suported on the last kernel 5.15.But i think is no longer safe.
I tried like Opensuse leaf 15.5 but now it is end of life.The higher kernel no support Nvidia 390.157,only nouveau driver.
This driver no good.Tearing is everywhere.

 

[dos2unix]

I tried a many distribution.My old graphic card is suported on the last kernel 5.15.But i think is no longer safe.
I tried like Opensuse leaf 15.5 but now it is end of life.The higher kernel no support Nvidia 390.157,only nouveau driver.
This driver no good.Tearing is everywhere.

Some distro's, (like Ubuntu and Fedora) still include the 340.xx and 390.xx video drivers for nvidia. Even with newer kernels.
I know these work for older cards, I know they support from the geForce 8 series up to the geForce 700 series. The N520GT would fall into that range. There may be other distros that do this also, that I am not aware of.

 

[mg753]

This might help,

Debian 11 (bullseye) has 390.144 listed

NvidiaGraphicsDrivers - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

Depending on how you use the computer, that page notes that Debian unstable (sid) also supports 390.144

DebianUnstable - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

Here is more information on the Debian support lifecycle, as if you choose Debian 11 vs 12 it is at a different place in the support lifecycle. Debian 12 is not Debian unstable, I should mention that.

LTS - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

I only mention the support lifecycle bits as some people like to know that their software is being watched for security issues by the project (in this case Debian) or not.

 

[theLegionWithin]

i personally like the MX distro for a number of reasons, one of the top reasons is the built in nvidia driver installer, it handles the setup. used it without issue on two nvidia cards - one on my testbench laptop, an hp zbook 17 g2 (nvidia k3100m gpu - though currently I've been playing around with Fedora 41, so it's got nvidia drivers v470), and my main rig, a custom/diy desktop - deets below:

theLegionWithin@theLegion:~
$ nvidia-smi
Mon Feb 10 21:57:15 2025       
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 535.216.03             Driver Version: 535.216.03   CUDA Version: 12.2     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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 GTX 1650        Off | 00000000:03:00.0  On |                  N/A |
|  0%   35C    P8               7W /  85W |   1601MiB /  4096MiB |      1%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

if you dont want to have to think about it, give MX a try

 

[markos1315]

How do you eliminate tearing in you tube videos or movies when play in like vlc?

 

[Brickwizard]

You must remember when your machine was made the standard for u-tube and the like was about 450 dpi to day we are talking 100 x finer quality, the graphics and CPU cant cope with it, all you can try is play the chosen clip at the lowest dpi you can and in a small window [not full screen] but i would not hold my breath,

 

[theLegionWithin]

NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 Specs

NVIDIA GF119S, 810 MHz, 48 Cores, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs, 1024 MB DDR3, 900 MHz, 64 bit

www.techpowerup.com

ah, I see - you're going to have to upgrade your hardware. 4gb cards are rather affordable and relatively futureproof - for another 5 - 7 years I'd imagine. might as well relegate the i3 to the scrap heap/server closet while you're at it. anything slower than an i5 really just doesnt cut the mustard anymore

 

[markos1315]

Just one more question.For my configuration,is better xfce or kde?
I try Mx linux Kde and i think is ok.

 

[theLegionWithin]

"better" is largely dependent on the eyes of the beholder. I prefer kde - others prefer xfce. you might want the fluxbox version --> https://mxlinux.org/

 

[Brickwizard]

Is this a desktop or Laptop?? Although I3's are considered entry level they are not the lowest CPU of that era and should run any modern Linux, [up till recently My laptop was 2 yrs older with a Pentium T series CPU that streamed quite happily up to 720dpi [HD quality]]

If you have Linux working, can you run from the terminal inxi -Fnxxz and paste back the results

 

[markos1315]

This is desktop computer.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz 3.10 GHz 4GB ram and 500 SSD

 

[Brickwizard]

I gave you a link to the legacy driver for your Graphics, have you tried it yet? if it works but still stuttering then check all the Ram is working correctly , make sure the vents on the PSU are clean and all connectors to the HDD/SSD's are sound

 

[markos1315]

System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-31-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: MX-23.5_KDE_x64
Libretto Jan 12 2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: MSI product: MS-7680 v: 3.0
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: MSI model: H61M-P21 (MS-7680) v: 3.0 serial: <superuser required>
BIOS: American Megatrends v: 17.6 date: 01/13/2012
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M315/M235
serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: Intel Core i3-2100 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1598 high: 1602 min/max: 1600/3100 cores: 1: 1595
2: 1600 3: 1602 4: 1596 bogomips: 24744
Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF119 [GeForce GT 520] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: nvidia v: 390.157 arch: Fermi pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
active: none off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DVI-I-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:1040
Device-2: Sunplus Innovation HD 720P webcam type: USB
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.4:5 chip-ID: 1bcf:2701
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv gpu: nvidia
display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 92
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled model: VG249QL3A
res: 1920x1080 dpi: 93 diag: 604mm (23.8")
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.157 renderer: GeForce GT 520/PCIe/SSE2
direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
vendor: Micro-Star MSI 6 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 1-1.4:5
chip-ID: 1bcf:2701 bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
Device-2: NVIDIA GF119 HDMI Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e08
Device-3: Sunplus Innovation HD 720P webcam type: USB
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-31-amd64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: atl1c v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000
bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:2062
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 12.18 GiB (2.6%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: A-Data model: SU800 size: 476.94 GiB
speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 468.38 GiB used: 12.18 GiB (2.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 41 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 40%
Info:
Processes: 224 Uptime: 3m Memory: 3.81 GiB used: 1.82 GiB (47.9%)
Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0
alt: 12 Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2611 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.26

 

[Brickwizard]

So your Nvidia graphics card turns out to be a Media star graphics card with Nvidia chipset,..further investigation reveals it should work with kernel 6.5 or higher
now this is your choice, [I would not normaly bother] check and update your BIOS/UEFI from the manufacturers web site

the rest of the kit looks fine, the temps are well within normal tolerances, and the other components look fine.

 

[markos1315]

Sorry one question.At the start Mx linux i have 2 choises:x11 or wayland.Is this important?

 

[Brickwizard]

It's an older machine with an older graphics chip, I would try x11 first [wayland being much newer]

 

[Brickwizard]

And don't be sorry to ask for help or opinions, that's why many of us [long term users] are here