Legacy Nvidia GPU and Wayland support: tl;dr reference page

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This night I have upgraded the RAM of the computer.

4gb of DDR2 (800Mhz) give it a little more room to actually function, but the GPU is still the main limiting factor, at least for now.
Until the GPU gets something better than Nouveau, it will manage Desktop use decently enough (480p YouTube is pretty fluid), but games won’t be able to use the GPU properly, especially because of the lack of Vulkan support.

Schermata_20250416_033921
Schermata_20250416_0339211280×1024 207 KB

~$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.14.2-300.fc42.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.0.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.4 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: PEGATRON model: IPM31 v: 1.01G
    serial: <superuser required> BIOS: IPM31 v: 0009 date: 07/17/2009
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Pentium E5300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn rev: A
    cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1200 min/max: 1203/2603 cores: 1: 1200 2: 1200
    bogomips: 10399
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 710] driver: nouveau v: kernel
    arch: Fermi-2 pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: VGA-1
    empty: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:128b temp: 38.0 C
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.6 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: gpu: nouveau display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 model: ROA VGA-1-0x0000 res: 1280x1024 hz: 75 dpi: 86
    diag: 378mm (14.88")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau wayland: drv: nouveau x11:
    drv: nouveau
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.3 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.2 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NV106 device-ID: 10de:128b display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 0 type: cpu
    driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Pegatron
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:27d8
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e0f
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.2-300.fc42.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 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: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Pegatron driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: d800 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 536.57 GiB used: 25.77 GiB (4.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDS721032CLA362 size: 298.09 GiB
    speed: <unknown> serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Kingfast model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB
    speed: <unknown> serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 237.47 GiB used: 25.2 GiB (10.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 583 MiB (59.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2
  ID-3: /home size: 237.47 GiB used: 25.2 GiB (10.6%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sdb3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 3.81 GiB used: 1.33 GiB (35.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 38.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 4 GiB available: 3.81 GiB used: 1.99 GiB (52.1%)
  Processes: 257 Power: uptime: 13m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 257
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm Compilers: N/A Shell: Bash
    v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

I have been here for a couple of hours, between fighting the hardware and waiting off the software.

I bought a 4x2gb pack of DDR2, and of the 3 sticks I’ve tried, one was dead (always remember to sanity-check your hardware for the simple stuff people, or you’ll waste 2 hours googling MOBO specifics, which I didn’t do this time). The computer posts.

It’s regrettable that the smooth plastic slipped under my smooth, dry skin, because I managed to crack the screen.
I’m in a good mood, so it’s no big problem.
I believe that only the acrylic panel inside the touch screen cracked, and since this PC isn’t a priority, I’m just a little bitter about the damage.

.

That said, it’s impressive that Fedora 42 KDE runs on what’s basically 2008 hardware (with a 2013-ish GPU comparable to a mid-tier 2007 GPU) even if with some stutters (solitaire runs good : ) ).
This is no reason to close the post, I just wanted to update it. There are not many sources online about this stuff, so updating is good.

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