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[SOLVED] how do i install the proprietary nvidia driver? (self.fedora)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Smorty to c/fedora@lemmy.ml
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First I tried installing CUDA for blender cycles renderer. That broke my driver installation.

Then I removed anything nvidia with sudo dnf remove *nvidia*, which made my system return to the nouveau driver (which works great btw, it's just too slow for what I need)

Now, every time I go sudo dnf install nvidia-driver, it installs it, and when I reboot, my screen is all blown up and using an incorrectly small resolution I cannot change in the settings:

Also nvidia-smi is not being installed. So a lot of stuff is going wrong...
I also think it is not actually running the nvidia driver, since anything accelerated, like the GNOME animations are turned off.

It would be amazing if someone were to provide me with help on this! <3

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[-] TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 weeks ago

It seems you are using fedora, me too. I use the instructions here for the proprietary drivers: https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA#Current_GeForce.2FQuadro.2FTesla

Make sure to start from a clean slate by running the instructions at the bottom to uninstall any previous drivers.

If you need nvidia-smi, cuda etc, run the optional cuda install instructions, part of the link I provided.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

TBH Fedora is kind of funky with this because closed source Nvidia support is 3rd party. You were probably using the open driver to start, right? Do not use the official installer from the Nvidia website, it will just screw up your system even more, lol.

Basically, you need to install the Nvidia driver from the right repo, and carefully check if it’s rolling back or changing other packages before you hit ok.

Then… Well, there’s all sorts of stuff that could go wrong, but in a nutshell if the system is still slow, start debugging.

  • check if the nvidia-smi command works. If it’s not, the driver is not working at all, and you need to debug this specifically.

  • if it is, it’s likely a Wayland problem, and you need to start looking into kernel parameters, nvidia settings, make sure the driver is properly building against the kernel and such. This is quite a rabbit hole.

[-] Smorty 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Could you maybe point me to the right resource?

First you say "don't use the official installer", but the official nvidia website recommends getting a repo for fedora41, which seems reasonable.. but u said i shouldn't use that... im supr confus >~<

EDIT: Also, I started with the proprietary one... soo yea aaaaa ~ ~ ~

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Sorry, was kinda a drive by comment! If it recommends fedora specific repos, that sounds good, TBH I’ve never used fedora/red hat with Nvidia.

If you started with the proprietary drivers, installing CUDA shouldn’t have changed them. What might’ve happened is that it replaced them with drivers that don’t work on your system, so… Where did you get them from before?

[-] Smorty 2 points 2 weeks ago

i.... got them from sudo dnf install nvidia-driver.

Currently, I uninstalled everything nvidia multiple times and then just installed nvidia-driver, aaaand i get the bad aspect ratio again, and nvidia-smi is missing. so something bad is happening. a LOT of stuff is just - missing... i think.

i dun even know if i am no actually RUNNING the proprietary, or open source, or software CPU renderer now.. currently in smol-ui mode.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Nvidia drivers are usually split into many packages, and in that case maybe Nvidia smi is part of a tools/extras package or something like that.

The aspect ratio thing may be a temporary hiccup, though it’s not a good sign.

One possibility is you have mismatched packages? The kernel, nvidia driver, Nvidia tools, ALL of it has to be matched together to work. If you have packages from different sources, it will not, which is why I’m so wary of 3rd party support like this.

[-] jrgd@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

What repos do you have enabled for your system? The recommended way to install the NVidia proprietary drivers (akmod-nvidia for classic proprietary drivers or akmod-nvidia-open for nvidia-open drivers (closed source driver, open source kernel module for attachment)) assumes you have the RPMFusion repos (free, nonfree) enabled in your system. There is also xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda for CUDA support.

I am curious what repo you are pulling the package nvidia-driver from as it doesn't appear in either Fedora repos nor RPMFusion. dnf info nvidia-driver will find this quickly if you don't know what repo the package is coming from. More than likely, installing from sources other than RPMFusion will lead to a poor experience in terms of NVidia drivers. Additionally, ensure you don't have secure boot enabled with NVidia, at least initially. If you really desire or need secure boot, you can follow this guide to register your own MOK.

Additionally (based on recent testing on RTX 4000-series hardware), NVidia may have problems with being stable on Wayland environments other than GNOME. Your mileage may vary, but I had observed severe issues in KDE under Wayland in the past few months.

[-] Smorty 2 points 2 weeks ago

it's solved by now..

i had like - three different sources for the driver, one of which being for fedora 39, so that's where the problems came from.

i removed the extra sources aaand got it to work.

then I actually followed the instructions on how to install cuda aaaaanndddd somehow it actually worked!! :ooooo

i cn use blender with cuda now! (and the drivers work too! <3)

[-] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 weeks ago

The easiest way is to install Nobara with the Nvidia drivers built in the ISO.

Yes, it is a gaming focused distro, but it's just Fedora under the hood with SELinux replaced with AppArmor.

this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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