F42 - Updating to Kernel 6.15.3-200 breaks nvidia open source drivers

Ask Fedora
1

Got update from 6.14.11-300 kernel to 6.15.3-200, and on start up it broke nvidia open source driver (nouveau).

Display was not initialised correctly, resolution was all wrong.

From dmesg:

[ 3.458193] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: probe with driver nouveau failed with error -2
[ 7.536682] NovaCore 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for nvidia/ad104/gsp/booter_load-535.113.01.bin failed with error -2
[ 7.536691] NovaCore 0000:01:00.0: probe with driver NovaCore failed with error -2

Fixed by rebooting into grub, and selecting the previous kernel 6.14.11-300

Anyone knows if this is known issue ?
Is the fix in the making?

2

Run this to blacklist nova-core

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args='rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau,nova_core modprobe.blacklist=nouveau,nova_core'

I fixed it a month ago in rpmfusion nvidia.

3

Thanks, but this command seem to be blacklisting both nouveau and nova_core.

I’m not really interested in running proprietary nvidia drivers, the open-source nouveau worked just fine for years before this update.

I guess I wonder:

  • Is it just me who is using open source driver (nouveau), and it got broken with latest kernel.
    – there seems to be no reports that I can find about this breakage.
  • If the addition of nova_core is breaking the default Fedora install (aka nouveau) with nvidia cards - why Fedora itself not blacklisting this new (nova_core) driver ?
  • Should I just manually blacklist new nova_core?
4

Yes..

5

I have an old imac with Nvidia that has been working well with 6.1.3 kernel:

% inxi -Gzxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 755M Mac Edition] vendor: Apple driver: N/A arch: Kepler-2
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0fea
  Device-2: Apple FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 05ac:8511
  Display: web server: X.org v: 1.21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8 compositor: gnome-shell
    v: 48.2 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nouveau,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: nv
    gpu: N/A tty: 169x36
  Monitor-1: Unknown-1 size-res: N/A in console
  API: OpenGL Message: GL data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.313 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: cpu driver: mesa llvmpipe
    device-ID: 10005:0000
  API: EGL Message: EGL data unavailable in console, eglinfo missing.
  Info: Tools: api: glxinfo,vulkaninfo wl: wlr-randr x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
% journalctl  --no-hostname -b -g nova
Jun 27 15:04:07 kernel: NovaCore 0000:01:00.1: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)

The system is in another building and was updated yesterday, so could have broken with a very recent update.

Edit: the system has been working fine, now on 6.15.5 kernel.

6

I don’t believe [GeForce GT 755M Mac Edition] is supported by nova-core (only Turing+ cards) as it’s pre GSP firmware.

7

So, I’ve tried to blacklist only nova_core but keeping nouveau

Command:

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args='rd.driver.blacklist=nova_core modprobe.blacklist=nova_core'

After reboot, display is still broken, nouveau still fails to init.

[ 3.458193] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: probe with driver nouveau failed with error -2

is nouveau broken in 6.15 kernel too ?

8

Not for everyone - it works fine for me on a 3060Ti. However I don’t know about other GPUs.

9

I ran into a similar issue where my system stopped booting after the update to kernel 6.15. Booting into the previous kernel worked and journalctl displayed a similar error to the original post.

I tried blacklisting just the nova_core driver using your command and it seems to be working fine so far on a very old Acer with a GeForce 8200 chipset/integrated graphics.

10

FYI -
I’ve got GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GPU.

But glad that for you it was as simple as added nova_core to blacklist

11

That error is often associated with failure to load firmware. Here:

% dnf list --installed nvidia\* 
Installed packages
nvidia-gpu-firmware.noarch 20250627-1.fc42 <unknown>
12

I have the same issue with 6.15 on a machine with RTX 4070. I guess its well known at this point to not rely on nouveau for much of anything, since its apparently a dead project.
For what its worth I did add comment on a bugzilla ticket about it.

1 Like
13

Turns out there’s fixes in new version of firmware packages coming out soon.
For the impatient they can also be found in the build system linux-firmware-20250708-1.fc42 | Build Info | koji, but bit of a hazzle to download all the right packages and install. Managed to make it work on my machine (I think it needed a kernel image rebuild as well)

Fingers crossed it will be in testing updates soon.

14

linux-firmware-20250708-1.fc42 | Build Info | koji I downloaded linux firmware and nvidia firmware packages from here and installed them .. that helped me ..