openSUSE 15.5 / 15.4 / Tumbleweed NVIDIA Drivers Install Guide [535.43.02 / 530.41.03 / 525.125.06 / 515.105.01 / 470.199.02 / 390.157 / 340.108]

This is guide, howto install NVIDIA proprietary drivers (manually using .run files) on openSUSE Leap 15.5/15.4/15.3/Tumbleweed 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 40 series cards works with 535.xx, 530.xx, 525.xx, 520.xx NVIDIA drivers, (RTX 4090)
• GeForce RTX 30 series cards works with 535.xx, 530.xx, 525.xx, 520.xx, 515.xx, 510.xx and 470.xx NVIDIA drivers, (RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070, RTX 3060, RTX 3060 Ti)
• GeForce RTX 20 series cards works with 535.xx, 530.xx, 525.xx, 520.xx, 515.xx, 510.xx and 470.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 535.xx, 530.xx, 525.xx, 520.xx, 515.xx, 510.xx, 470.xx, and 390.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 versions of guide, howto install NVIDIA Drivers on openSUSE 15.5/15.4/15.3/Tumbleweed:

Using manual installation you can control NVIDIA drivers versions as you wish. You can easily install / change / test / run:

• NVIDIA New Feature Branch (NFB) drivers
• 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 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), 470.xx, 510.xx, 515.xx, 525.xx, 530.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"

First, backup 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 carefully 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 NVIDIA PRIME Render Offload, 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 openSUSE 15.5/15.4/15.3/Tumbleweed 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 6.3+, 6.2+, 6.1+, 6.0+, 5.19+, 5.18+, 5.17+, 5.16+, 5.15+, 5.14+, 5.3+ kernels:⌗

Note 340.108 users: 340.108 on openSUSE with Kernel 6.3+ / 5.14+ needs a patched version (Download inttf NVIDIA patcher and patch NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108 for Kernel 6.3+ / 5.14+).

Note 390.157 users: 390.157 on openSUSE with Kernel 6.3+ needs a patched version (Download inttf NVIDIA patcher and patch NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.157 for Kernel 6.3+).

Note 418.113 and 435.21 users: 418.113 and 435.21 on openSUSE 15.4 / Tumbleweed with Kernel 5.15 / 5.14 needs a patched version 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 5.15 / 5.14)

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⌗

## openSUSE 15.5 / 15.4 / 15.3 / Tumbleweed ##
zypper update

After kernel update reboot your system and boot using latest kernel:

reboot

2.5 Install needed dependencies⌗

## openSUSE 15.5 / 15.4 / 15.3 / Tumbleweed ##
zypper install kernel-devel kernel-source gcc make dkms acpid libglvnd libglvnd-devel

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/default/grub⌗

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

## Example row(s) on openSUSE Linux ##
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash=silent mitigations=auto quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau"
## OR ##
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash=silent systemd.show_status=yes mitigations=auto quiet lsm=apparmor rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau"

2.6.3 Update openSUSE grub2 conf⌗

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

2.6.4 Generate initramfs⌗

## Backup old initramfs nouveau image ##
mv /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) /boot/initrd-$(uname -r)-nouveau
 
## Create new initramfs image openSUSE Leap 15.5 / 15.4 / 15.3 ##
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) $(uname -r)

## Create new initramfs image openSUSE Tumbleweed ##
dracut /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) $(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 log in as normal user and 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_64-535.43.02.run
Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-530.41.03.run
Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-525.125.06.run
Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-515.65.01.run
Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-510.85.02.run
Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-470.199.02.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-435.21-patched-kernel-5.16.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.118-patched-kernel-5.16.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.154.run
/path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108-patched-kernel-5.18.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⌗

2.8.6 NVIDIA Installer Automatic Xorg Config and Backup⌗

2.8.7 NVIDIA Drivers Installation Complete⌗

2.8.8 Additional Xorg.conf for openSUSE 15.5 Leap / Tumbleweed + NVIDIA 340.xx users⌗

Add following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. This will use NVIDIA Drivers when ABI version mismatch.

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option "IgnoreABI" "1"
EndSection

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).

## openSUSE 15.5 / 15.4 / 15.3 / Tumbleweed ##
zypper install libvdpau1 libva-vdpau-driver libva-utils

3. Some Screenshots Using Different Cards and Drivers⌗

3.1 NVIDIA 510.39.01 drivers on openSUSE 15.4 with Kernel 5.14⌗

3.2 NVIDIA 390.147 drivers on openSUSE 15.4 Leap with Kernel 5.14⌗

3.3 NVIDIA 390.147 drivers on openSUSE 15.3 Leap with Kernel 5.3⌗

3.4 NVIDIA 340.108 drivers on openSUSE 15.4 Leap with Kernel 5.14⌗

3.5 NVIDIA 340.108 drivers on openSUSE Tumbleweed with Kernel 5.16⌗

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"