graphics card for trisquel - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 ti and Nouveau

Hey guys,

I'm new to Linux in general, and I installed Trisquel 7 about 2 months ago after researching a lot about free software. My desktop pc is new and I bought the best kind of graphics card I thought I could have (i would play overwatch at the time, and I still want to set up dualboot in the future so that I can play again... I don't wanna infect my Trisquel with non free software). The guy at the store sold me a Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 ti. I was on Windows 10 at the time, and now I'm on Trisquel7.

My Trisquel7 had no sound right after installation... I went to the store for some tips and the store guy solved it by installing the Nvidia driver for me on Trisquel7 as a maintenance courtesy service on my PC. After the installation I eventually bumped into the "login loop problem", where you put your password in the login and it doesnt really login...

I re installed the system 3 times after that. Cus I would always install Nvidia's driver and it would end up with that problem.

Now my system is once again re installed, but this time I realized that the login problem is solved by purging nvidia:

$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

Yesterday I found out about Nouveau (https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/). But it seems that Nvidia hates open source software, never mind free software, which undermines Nouveau. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/2911459/why-nvidia-graphics-cards-are-the-worst-for-open-source-but-the-best-for-linux-gaming.html)

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I tried to install Nouveau, but it won't run. I did all the steps:

--> $ sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
---> editted xorg.conf

$ tail xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
Identifier "n"
Driver "nouveau"

EndSection

$sudo reboot

---> The system does login and works under the configuration, but it's not really running the Nvidia card it seems.

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I followed tips on this post too https://trisquel.info/en/forum/how-install-nouveau-nvidia-drivers

$ sudo apt-get install nouveau-kernel-source
returns → E: Unable to locate package nouveau-kernel-source (guess it's outdated)

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By reading this post (https://trisquel.info/it/forum/trouble-getting-nouveau-load-instead-vesa-my-nvidia-970), it sounds like maybe my card won't run without proprietary blobs, nvidia's signed firmware...

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Here are some outputs for some commands:

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sky Lake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Integrated Graphics (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA controller [AHCI mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1d.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #10 (rev f1)
00:1d.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #11 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1c82 (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0fb9 (rev a1)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 09)
05:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 04)

$ dmesg | grep -i chipset
[ 0.713640] nouveau E[ DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown chipset, 0x137000a1

$ sudo lshw -c video
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: NVIDIA Corporation
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:f7000000-f707ffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Sky Lake Integrated Graphics
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 06
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f5000000-f5ffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

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----> both devices listed above in the last command don't even mention the word “driver” after “configuration:”. It only says: “configuration: latency=0”

Will I really need to change my graphics card? Is there any other way around this? Am I missing something? Thanks a lot in advance...