ELRepo vs. legacy NVidia drivers

Hi,

I’m a bit puzzled by the absence of all even slightly older NVidia drivers in ELRepo for Rocky Linux 9. Here’s what a driver search returns under Rocky Linux 9:

# dnf --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=elrepo search 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

Here’s the same search under Rocky Linux 8:

# dnf --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=elrepo search 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

Here in our local school we still have desktop clients needing the 470xx driver, and even one with a 390xx driver.

On a side note: I know how to install this stuff manually. Just curious why this stuff is missing in the repos, since I figure there’s many folks with legacy NVidia cards out there.

Cheers,

Niki

First, ELRepo did not build any NVidia for el9 for a long time. Rationale: other repos had those drivers. It is nice that they did change their mind.

NVidia has set EOL for the 470 series to this Summer, so these are the last moments to have it.
The older legacy series have been long gone.

Despite that, ELRepo does have 470xx – in elrepo-testing

I did try to install that 470xx in June to a AlmaLinux 9 system. It was ok up to kernel 5.14.0-427.18.1.el9_4.x86_64, but with next there was a “missing symbols” error. I had no time to report the bug to ELRepo.

3 Likes

Thanks for your detailed answer.

I’ve been 100 % Linux since 2001. I’m a tech writer for the Linux Professional Institute. I published five books about Linux system administration. And even for someone like me, setting up NVidia cards on desktop clients still is a major PITA.

Thinking about Linus’ famous gesture at the camera here.

@jlehtone

Could you please file a bug report and share the details on the error(s) you saw?

I tried to reproduce the error on another system and did fail.

The error in June was on AlmaLinux with kernel-0:5.14.0-427.20.1.el9_4.x86_64
and kmod-nvidia-470xx-470.256.02-1.el9_4.elrepo
At that time the 427.20.1.el9_4 was the latest kernel.

Now, with kernel-5.14.0-427.24.1.el9_4.x86_64 (and same kmod-nvidia-470xx) there was no issue.

Just to be sure, I did reach the first system and installed the 427.24.1.el9_4 there. The kmod-nvidia-470xx no loads with no issue (although I can’t “see” via ssh to verify).

So whatever there was, it was on AlmaLinux kernel 427.20.1.el9_4.


This second system has actually RTX 3070 and the “kmod-nvidia” would be more appropriate. Alas, on NVidia’s own RPM packages driver – starting with version 530 – has been unable to send synch signal via NVidia 3D Vision USB IR emitter to shutter glasses. The 525 is not built for el9_4, so the 470xx is the last available driver where that technology is usable. I have reported this to NVidia (and have not received any response).

Thank you for sharing the details. Not sure what happened with the Alma kernel but looks like the nvidia-470xx driver is working fine.

1 Like

Recent kernel updates broke nvidia 470.

Nvidia recently released new versions of the 470 driver that fixed the incompatibility problem (470.256), but RPMFusion never updated and are still stuck at 470.223.

ELRepo picked up the slack and has a compatible 470.256 driver in their testing repo.

See this thread for more info:

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.