ELRepo NVidia drivers: Rocky Linux 8 vs. 9

[microlinux]

Hi,

I’m slowly making the transition from Rocky Linux 8 to 9, and I just noticed something weird. In a recent discussion about NVidia drivers, I got the information that NVidia drivers from ELRepo are generally better maintained than those from RPMFusion.

Here’s what NVidia drivers from ELRepo look like on a Rocky Linux 8 installation:

[root@rocky-el8:~] # dnf --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=elrepo search nvidia
===== Name & Summary Matched: nvidia =====
kmod-nvidia.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL kernel driver module
kmod-nvidia-390xx.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL kernel driver module
kmod-nvidia-470xx.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL kernel driver module
nvidia-detect.x86_64 : NVIDIA graphics card detection utility
nvidia-x11-drv.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL X11 display driver files
nvidia-x11-drv-390xx.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL X11 display driver files
nvidia-x11-drv-390xx-libs.i686 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-390xx-libs.x86_64 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-470xx.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL X11 display driver files
nvidia-x11-drv-470xx-libs.i686 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-470xx-libs.x86_64 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-libs.i686 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-libs.x86_64 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver

And here’s the same search on Rocky Linux 9:

[root@rocky-el9:~] # dnf --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=elrepo search nvidia
===== Name & Summary Matched: nvidia =====
kmod-nvidia.x86_64 : nvidia kernel module(s)
nvidia-detect.x86_64 : NVIDIA graphics card detection utility
nvidia-x11-drv.x86_64 : NVIDIA OpenGL X11 display driver files
nvidia-x11-drv-libs.i686 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver
nvidia-x11-drv-libs.x86_64 : Libraries for the Proprietary NVIDIA driver

Where are the legacy drivers like the 470xx and the 390xx series under Rocky Linux 9? I have quite a few clients here running Rocky Linux 8 with these legacy drivers.

Cheers,

Niki

[iwalker]

elrepo don’t build for Rocky 9, so rpmfusion is the one you should be using: Which repo to use for nvidia and cuda drivers - #2 by jlehtone

First, ELRepo is awesome, but they chose to not build proprietary NVidia packages for EL9. It is understandable, since there are other repos that do. One of those are the RPMFusion repos.

I believe rpmfusion is the better choice for Nvidia drivers, be it Fedora or Rocky.

This post, also suggests rpmfusion as the choice for Nvidia drivers: Hardware Drivers and Where to Go

[microlinux]

@iwalker

elrepo don’t build for Rocky 9, so rpmfusion is the one you should be using: Which repo to use for nvidia and cuda drivers - #2 by jlehtone

First, ELRepo is awesome, but they chose to not build proprietary NVidia packages for EL9. It is understandable, since there are other repos that do. One of those are the RPMFusion repos.

I believe rpmfusion is the better choice for Nvidia drivers, be it Fedora or Rocky.

This post, also suggests rpmfusion as the choice for Nvidia drivers: Hardware Drivers and Where to Go

Thanks !

Does that mean that RPMFusion is also a better choice for NVidia drivers for Rocky Linux 8?

[jlehtone]

@iwalker

elrepo don’t build for Rocky 9, so rpmfusion is the one you should be using

ELRepo did not build NVidia packages for el9, but now they do. They did start this Spring. Alas, they (at least so far) build only the latest, not legacy. (Could be that they don’t have el9 systems with old cards to test on.)

NVidia’s own repo does not build legacy drivers for el9 either, so RPM Fusion does remain the goto option.

[microlinux]

Curiously enough, the 390xx legacy drivers seem to be missing completely. So far RPMFusion has the 340xx and the 370xx, but 390xx is nowhere to be found. Meh.

[microlinux]

And for what it’s worth, I just installed the 470xx driver from RPMFusion and the whole machine froze after the first reboot.

In my brain the word “nvidia” is stored somewhere between “wisdom tooth extraction” and “waiting line at the tax office”.

[iwalker]

Strange, I have a laptop with an Nvidia card that uses the 470 driver without issues, although it is running Fedora.

I guess it does seem to get harder and harder to find the drivers for older cards. In which case, nouveau will be all that can be used on them I guess. I personally have always used what is available in a repo, but I did use the Nvidia .run files like 20 years ago. Although I do tend to see that as not being a recommended option these days for some reason. Maybe lack of success in getting them working, or due to the fact it won’t automatically build into a new kernel when updates are provided.

Years ago, I always had problems with the ATI drivers not working for the Radeon card I had, and Nvidia always used to work. I’ve yet to risk trying an ATI card since, but perhaps they could be better now than what they used to be. Perhaps the situation is now in reverse?

[microlinux]

My bad. What looked like a freeze was probably DKMS building the module on the first reboot.

Works perfectly now.

[tqhoang]

ELRepo does have NVIDIA drivers for EL9:

• EL9.3 is supported by the standard “elrepo” repository.
• EL9.4 is currently in the testing “elrepo-testing” repository.

Regarding the NVIDIA legacy drivers:

• NVIDIA 470xx is staying in the testing repo since it is going EOL in July 2024.
• NVIDIA 390xx has been EOL since Nov 2022 and we have chosen not to support it…recommend the Nouveau driver instead. Please file a bug report if you desperately need this though.
• NVIDIA 340xx has been EOL since Dec 2019 and is not even possible due to AGP dependencies.

[microlinux]

OK, thanks for the heads up !