Also, I booted my full Cinnamon install that uses the RPM Fusion driver and captured this so you could see the firmware on the card. I think it’s this line?
VBIOS Version : 80.04.09.00.80
Here is the full nvidia-smi -q:
==============NVSMI LOG==============
Timestamp : Tue May 5 07:23:34 2026
Driver Version : 470.256.02
CUDA Version : 11.4
Attached GPUs : 1
GPU 00000000:01:00.0
Product Name : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
Product Brand : GeForce
Display Mode : N/A
Display Active : N/A
Persistence Mode : Disabled
MIG Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
Accounting Mode : N/A
Accounting Mode Buffer Size : N/A
Driver Model
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
Serial Number : N/A
GPU UUID : GPU-0c4a098a-e285-a2b6-8c62-4a4b6f3a645a
Minor Number : 0
VBIOS Version : 80.04.09.00.80
MultiGPU Board : N/A
Board ID : N/A
GPU Part Number : N/A
Module ID : 0
Inforom Version
Image Version : N/A
OEM Object : N/A
ECC Object : N/A
Power Management Object : N/A
GPU Operation Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
GSP Firmware Version : N/A
GPU Virtualization Mode
Virtualization Mode : N/A
Host VGPU Mode : N/A
IBMNPU
Relaxed Ordering Mode : N/A
PCI
Bus : 0x01
Device : 0x00
Domain : 0x0000
Device Id : 0x118010DE
Bus Id : 00000000:01:00.0
Sub System Id : 0x26803842
GPU Link Info
PCIe Generation
Max : N/A
Current : N/A
Link Width
Max : N/A
Current : N/A
Bridge Chip
Type : N/A
Firmware : N/A
Replays Since Reset : 0
Replay Number Rollovers : 0
Tx Throughput : N/A
Rx Throughput : N/A
Fan Speed : 32 %
Performance State : P5
Clocks Throttle Reasons : N/A
FB Memory Usage
Total : 1996 MiB
Used : 247 MiB
Free : 1749 MiB
BAR1 Memory Usage
Total : N/A
Used : N/A
Free : N/A
Compute Mode : Default
Utilization
Gpu : N/A
Memory : N/A
Encoder : N/A
Decoder : N/A
Encoder Stats
Active Sessions : N/A
Average FPS : N/A
Average Latency : N/A
FBC Stats
Active Sessions : N/A
Average FPS : N/A
Average Latency : N/A
Ecc Mode
Current : N/A
Pending : N/A
ECC Errors
Volatile
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Aggregate
Single Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Double Bit
Device Memory : N/A
Register File : N/A
L1 Cache : N/A
L2 Cache : N/A
Texture Memory : N/A
Texture Shared : N/A
CBU : N/A
Total : N/A
Retired Pages
Single Bit ECC : N/A
Double Bit ECC : N/A
Pending Page Blacklist : N/A
Remapped Rows : N/A
Temperature
GPU Current Temp : 46 C
GPU Shutdown Temp : N/A
GPU Slowdown Temp : N/A
GPU Max Operating Temp : N/A
GPU Target Temperature : N/A
Memory Current Temp : N/A
Memory Max Operating Temp : N/A
Power Readings
Power Management : N/A
Power Draw : N/A
Power Limit : N/A
Default Power Limit : N/A
Enforced Power Limit : N/A
Min Power Limit : N/A
Max Power Limit : N/A
Clocks
Graphics : N/A
SM : N/A
Memory : N/A
Video : N/A
Applications Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Memory : N/A
Default Applications Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Memory : N/A
Max Clocks
Graphics : N/A
SM : N/A
Memory : N/A
Video : N/A
Max Customer Boost Clocks
Graphics : N/A
Clock Policy
Auto Boost : N/A
Auto Boost Default : N/A
Voltage
Graphics : N/A
Processes : None
I did a search on this and it appears to be an EVGA GTX 680.
This page is listing it as incompatible with UEFI so if that got enabled, your card is probably not going to work.
OK, that’s interesting. When I boot the live media, this system BIOS allows me to select whether I boot it in UEFI mode or not and I’ve always been selecting UEFI. So that could explain the behavior I’m seeing. When I get home, I’ll try booting the live media in legacy BIOS mode and see if that makes any difference.
However, when I boot my full Cinnamon install with this card and the RPM Fusion drivers, I’m almost 100% sure I’m booting in UEFI mode. Do these drivers require the GPU firmware/BIOS to work?
It’s often the case that BIOS just gets you booted and then the OS drivers take over. However, it’s not clear to me if this VBIOS is just a BIOS that allows display to work before OS drivers are installed, or if it’s firmware on the card that is required all the time.
When I boot the live media and do not select basic graphics mode, I don’t know of any way to get any logs. The GUI (if it even makes it that far) is a black screen and I am unable to get any alternate ttys to come up. Is there a way I’m not aware of? Wonder if I could ssh in from another machine when it’s in this state?
Sure, I can try F43 when I get home.
I’ll also try booting the live media in legacy BIOS mode instead of UEFI as mentioned above.
It has been a decade since I have used BIOS, but IIRC there is -sometimes- an option to select a card as the default video card. In which case, you want to switch the default to your Nvidia card. You may have to save the change from uefi to bios first then poweroff and on before it will see it and change it. I don’t believe it was an option in all bios, and I may be confusing it with UEFI systems as I dealt a lot more with those. UEFI to me in some respects is behind open firmware or even uboot as far as functionality.
Yes, sorry, there is no easy way. SSH is not possible as it’s disabled by default. netconsole may work but I’m not sure if it will kick in before the GPU part of the boot process and it’s a bit of a pain to set up - you’d need another computer to run a syslog server. One sure way would be to install F44 Workstation with the help of basic graphics mode. Then you boot your new install, and disable the basic graphics mode, by removing it from the grub command line - you should get the black screen. Then reboot again, back with basic graphics mode, and you’ll be able to check the previous boot’s logs, e.g. with journalctl -b -1.
That GPU (GeForce GTX 680) was last supported by the linux 470xx driver, which is legacy and does not properly support wayland. I am guessing that you should be trying one of the fedora spins that supports x11 since the 470xx driver supports x11 and does not support wayland.
It appears however to be supported by uefi, and is supported by the nouveau driver (which does support wayland) The fact that it is shown as usable on win 11 with the nvidia 475 driver for windows clearly shows that it is supported with uefi since win11 will only boot on uefi systems (see the GK104 GPU Notes on this page)
There probably is some kernel option necessary to properly configure it and I don’t know what that is.
The main question here is why nouveau is not running - it should run out of the box with no user configuration.
My guess is that it’s broken in Kernel 6.19.x, which ships with F44. And if so, would it be broken for all Kepler GPUs? Would be an unfortunate experience for anyone trying F44 on those GPUs…
Hence I’m curious if the older Kernel that ships in a previous Fedora release has this issue too, or not.
% inxi -MSGxxz
System:
Kernel: 6.19.14-300.fc44.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.0.1
Console: pty pts/0 DM: GDM Distro: Fedora Linux 44 (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Apple product: iMac14,2 v: 1.0
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 13 v: Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Apple model: Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61 v: iMac14,2
serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: Apple v: 433.140.2.0.0
date: 04/18/2022
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 755M Mac Edition] vendor: Apple
driver: nouveau v: kernel arch: Kepler-2 pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
active: DP-1 empty: DP-2,DP-3 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0fea temp: 29.0 C
Device-2: Apple FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-7:5 chip-ID: 05ac:8511
Display: unspecified server: Xwayland v: 24.1.11 compositor: gnome-shell
driver: gpu: nouveau note: X driver n/a, try sudo/root tty: 84x19
Monitor-1: DP-1 model: Apple iMac res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 diag: 685mm (27")
API: OpenGL Message: GL data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
API: EGL Message: EGL data unavailable in console, eglinfo missing.
Info: Tools: api: glxinfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
I also successfully installed F44 pre-release on a different drive, but some graphics apps had problems until I installed missing firmware files. I also tried Apple boots with graphics enabled. Mine has the last available UEFI firmware as I only got it after Apple dropped support and my wife moved to Apple silicon.
I did try Fedora-LXQt-Live-44-1.7.x86_64.iso. The live environment was working, but the installer gave a blank white screen. I plan to try a fresh server install. At one time there was a text install option. It might be possible to install on an external drive with another system and boot using the recovery kernel. If this fails due to missing nouveau/* firmware then it should be possible to add the firmware. In the past, I just copied those files from the Apple system, but Debian has instructions for installing the files if you no longer have macOS.
So this BIOS does have an option to select the PCIe video card, the internal GPU or Auto. It was previously set to Auto, but I changed it to PCIe and it didn’t make any difference.
The BIOS has a one time boot menu that allows you to pick what you boot and it’s that menu that lists each drive twice, one with UEFI and one without. So I can boot the live media in either legacy BIOS or UEFI mode on this system. I haven’t seen this option on newer systems that are UEFI only.
Unfortunately booting to legacy BIOS or UEFI mode doesn’t make a difference.
I installed Fedora Gnome years ago on this system and I have no recollections of having to use basic graphics mode at the time. I then installed Cinnamon DE when Gnome dropped X11. It works fine with the RPM Fusion 470 driver. I don’t see anything about basic graphics mode in the grub command line on that install. So I know this works, it’s just the live media that is having issues. Here is the grub command line from the installed system:
Yes, these concerns where the entire point of this post. I already have an install that works on that system and now know I can use basic graphics if I need to use live media again. The point of the post was to try to understand why this didn’t work since this gives new users a very negative experience trying Fedora.
I do have the nvidia-gpu-firmware package, but the journal entry is for a file name that isn’t in that package. I recall having to “rename” (symbolic link) Nvidia firmware files on a Dell system in 2007. A document that links firmware file names to the Nvidia dGPU model would be useful.
Another thing I’m not at all clear on is how to tell if I have the correct firmware. The card works on my full install with the RPM Fusion driver so I assume it has the firmware it needs for that. There isn’t different firmware required for nouveau is there?
Other that that VBIOS version I posted above, is there a was to confirm this card has the correct firmware?
Go to that link I posted. It maintains (or tries to) the latest firmwares. The question I have is since some had efi support and other didn’t, The EVGA doesn’t probably to skip the UEFI licensing fee, but it used the reference design. It begs to question whether you can flash say the nvidia uefi firmware to the card.
It is worth googling around for as I do recall some people doing something like that for some cards, but I don’t know if it was the 470 or not.
You can try to add in the grub menu to the ‘linux’ line VNC Mode: If a server lacks a direct monitor, you can use inst.vnc to install via remote connection. Text Mode: You can use inst.txt to install via text menus.
I would also delete rhgb and quiet from the line, so you get an all text boot messages. I do that on my machines because I like watching the boot. although arguably it was better when each service took a whole second because you could actually read it as it scrolled by..
maybe just nomodeset would work along with the quiet and rhgb
nomodeset prevents the graphics driver from being initialized until after boot is complete.
As an experiment, I changed the system BIOS to use the iGPU for video rather than PCIe (the Nvidia card) and moved the monitor cable from the Nvidia card to the motherboard connector for the iGPU. In this case I was able to boot the F44 Cinnamon live media just fine. So I think that confirms the issue is indeed something to do with Nvidia.
I captured an inix for that boot, and interestingly it sees the Nvidia card and looks like it properly loaded the nouveau driver this time.
Try the nomodeset and remove rhgb and quiet from the grub linux line.
If there is a firmware type of file, it may not have the filesystem mounted to read that file prior to trying to set the mode.
