Fedora 33/32/31 NVIDIA Drivers Install Guide

This is guide, howto install NVIDIA proprietary drivers on Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 and disable Nouveau driver. This guide works with GeForce 8/9/200/300/400/500/600/700/800/900/10/20/30 series cards.

• GeForce RTX 30 series cards works with 460.xx NVIDIA drivers, (RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070)
• GeForce RTX 20 series cards works with 450.xx and 460.xx NVIDIA drivers (RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 Ti, RTX 2070, RTX 2060)
• GeForce GT/GTX 600/700/800/900/10 series cards works with 390.xx, 450.xx and 460.xx NVIDIA drivers (GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1070, GTX 1060, GTX 1660 …)
• GeForce GT/GTX 400/500 series cards works with 390.xx NVIDIA drivers
• GeForce GT 8/9/200/300 series cards works with 340.xx NVIDIA drivers

Check video version of guide:

Watch more Fedora NVIDIA Video Guides on YouTube »
Install NVIDIA 390xx Drivers on Fedora 33 »
Install NVIDIA 340xx Drivers on Fedora 33 »
Install NVIDIA 455xx Drivers on Fedora 32 »

I got following question in Youtube:

“What’s wrong with rpmfusion? too easy?” Youtube comment

It’s good question and I decided to add my answer here as well:

Actually nothing, but with manual installation you can control NVIDIA drivers versions as you wish.

You can easily install / change / test / run:

• NVIDIA Long Lived Branch (LLB) drivers
• NVIDIA Short Lived Branch (SLB) drivers
• NVIDIA LEGACY drivers
• NVIDIA BETA drivers
• Install NVIDIA drivers with custom patches
• Just stay in some particular NVIDIA version

This is totally different guide than my earlier guides, like Fedora 20 NVIDIA driver install. This guide uses NVIDIA drivers directly from NVIDIA site and dkms to help on kernel updates. I decided go back to old school (and bit ugly) method and install NVIDIA drivers “manually”. I have tested this guide with 340.xx (patched), 390.xx, 418.xx (patched), 435.xx (patched), 450.xx, 460.xx drivers/cards.

With DKMS, you can just update your kernel and your NVIDIA drivers are compiled automatically. If you want to upgrade NVIDIA drivers, then you have to download new installer package from NVIDIA site.

Let me know, if you have some problems?

Or if you succeed, you could post output of following commands:

nvidia-installer -v |grep version

uname -a

lspci |grep -E "VGA|3D"

Backup first important files before you start installation. And this is of course at your own risk, because graphic cards, components and monitors are different and some combinations might cause totally unexpected results.

1. Before NVIDIA drivers installation

1.1 Check is your NVIDIA card supported

lspci |grep -E "VGA|3D"

## Example outputs ##
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] (rev a1)

List of Supported NVIDIA GPU Products, check best driver for your card.

If you see multiple VGA controllers, then check next step and sometimes you might see example Intel VGA controller which have nothing to do with Optimus, normally you can go to BIOS and simply disable it.

1.2 NVIDIA Optimus Technology

If your lspci |grep -E “VGA|3D” output looks like following:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2n Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GT 555M SDDR3] (rev a1)

Or

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK107M [GeForce GT 750M] (rev a1)

Or you know that your computer have NVIDIA Optimus Technology, and it is impossible to turn Intel Graphics / NVIDIA Optimus off in the BIOS then this guide might not work for you and it’s not tested. You should read this NVIDIA Optimus page first and maybe check Bumblebee Project or NVIDIA XRun Project.

1.3 Disable UEFI Secure Boot or Check Howto Sign NVIDIA Kernel Module

If you have UEFI Secure Boot enabled, then you have to disable Secure Boot or sign your NVIDIA kernel module.

2. Install NVIDIA proprietary drivers on Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 and disable the nouveau driver

2.1 Download NVIDIA Installer Package

Go to http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us and find latest version of installer package. When you use browser this is normally downloaded /home/<username>/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-xxxx.run location.

Tested versions with 5.10+ / 5.9+ kernels:

Fedora 33	Fedora 32	Fedora 31	Fedora 30/29
460.32.03 (January 7, 2021)	460.32.03 (January 7, 2021)	460.32.03 (January 7, 2021)	460.32.03 (January 7, 2021)
450.102.04 (January 7, 2021)	450.102.04 (January 7, 2021)	450.102.04 (January 7, 2021)	450.102.04 (January 7, 2021)
435.21 (August 29, 2019)	435.21 (August 29, 2019)	435.21 (August 29, 2019)	435.21 (August 29, 2019)
418.113 (November 5, 2019)	418.113 (November 5, 2019)	418.113 (November 5, 2019)	418.113 (November 5, 2019)
390.141 (January 7, 2021)	390.141 (January 7, 2021)	390.141 (January 7, 2021)	390.141 (January 7, 2021)
340.108 (December 23, 2019)	340.108 (December 23, 2019)	340.108 (December 23, 2019)	340.108 (December 23, 2019)

Note 340.108 users: 340.108 on Fedora 33/32/31/30 Kernel 5.9/5.10 needs a patched version (Download inttf NVIDIA patcher and patch NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108 for Kernel 5.10+ / 5.9+).

Note 418.113 and 435.21 users: These are not official NVIDIA LEGACY drivers, but there is example GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile card which is not supported by older or newer drivers. (Download inttf NVIDIA patcher and patch NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.113 and NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-435.21 for Kernel 5.10+ / 5.9+)

Note Older Fedora users: If you have any problems with GDM (black screen). You can easily switch Display Manager example to LXDM, LightDM, SDDM or KDM.

2.2 Make NVIDIA installer executable

chmod +x /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-*.run

2.3 Change root user

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

2.4 Make sure that you system is up-to-date and you are running latest kernel

## Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 ##
dnf update

After update reboot your system and boot using latest kernel:

reboot

2.5 Install needed dependencies

## Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 ##
dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers gcc make dkms acpid libglvnd-glx libglvnd-opengl libglvnd-devel pkgconfig

2.6 Disable nouveau

2.6.1 Create or edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Append ‘blacklist nouveau’

echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

2.6.2 Edit /etc/sysconfig/grub

Append ‘rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau’ to end of ‘GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”…”‘.

## Example row with Fedora 33 BTRFS ##
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rhgb quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau"

## OR with LVM ##
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=fedora/swap rd.lvm.lv=fedora/root rhgb quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau"

2.6.3 Update grub2 conf

## BIOS ##
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

## UEFI ##
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

2.6.4 Remove xorg-x11-drv-nouveau

## Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 ##
dnf remove xorg-x11-drv-nouveau

2.6.5 Generate initramfs

## Backup old initramfs nouveau image ##
mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img
 
## Create new initramfs image ##
dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

2.7 Reboot to runlevel 3

Note: You don’t have Desktop/GUI on runlevel 3. Make sure that you have some access to end of guide. (Open it on mobile browser, Print it, use lynx/links/w3m, save it to text file).

systemctl set-default multi-user.target

reboot

OR alternatively you can change the runlevel on GRUB2 adding one additional parameter. Quick guide howto change runlevel on GRUB2. If you use this method, then don’t set multi-user.target and don’t set graphical.target on step 2.9 (just reboot).

2.8 Install NVIDIA proprietary drivers for GeForce 6/7 & GeForce 8/9/200/300 & GeForce 400/500/600/700/800/900/10/20 series cards

2.8.1 Log in as root user

Or alternatively change root user (you shouldn’t have nouveau and xorg loaded)

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

2.8.2 Run NVIDIA Binary

Following command executes driver install routine. Use full file name command if you have multiple binaries on same directory.

./NVIDIA-Linux-*.run

## OR full path / full file name ##

Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-460.32.03.run

Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-450.102.04.run

./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-435.21-patched-kernel-5.10.run

./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.118-patched-kernel-5.10.run

./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.141.run

/path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108-patched-kernel-5.10.run

2.8.3 NVIDIA Installer Register the Kernel Source Modules with DKMS

2.8.4 NVIDIA Installer 32-bit Compatibility Libraries

2.8.5 NVIDIA Installer Installing Drivers and Building kernel module

Note: If you get libglvnd error, then abort installation and try this. Also “Install and overwrite existing files” works, but fixing this error is more clean way to install NVIDIA Drivers.

2.8.6 NVIDIA Installer Automatic Xorg Config and Backup

2.8.7 NVIDIA Drivers Installation Complete

2.9 All Is Done and Then Reboot Back to Runlevel 5

systemctl set-default graphical.target

reboot

2.10 VDPAU/VAAPI support

To enable video acceleration support for your player (Note: you need Geforce 8 or later).

## Fedora 33/32/31/30/29 ##
dnf install vdpauinfo libva-vdpau-driver libva-utils

3. Some Screenshots Using Different Cards and Drivers

3.1 NVIDIA 460.32.03 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

3.2 NVIDIA 450.102.04 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

3.3 NVIDIA 390.141 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

3.4 NVIDIA 340.108 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

3.5 NVIDIA 435.21 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

3.6 NVIDIA 418.113 drivers on Fedora 33 KDE with Kernel 5.10.7

Let me know, if you have problems?

Or if you succeed, you could post output of following commands:

nvidia-installer -v |grep version

uname -a

lspci |grep -E "VGA|3D"