I’m on Fedora 43 Workstation with Gnome, fully up to date, using the rpmfusion repos for the nvidia proprietary drivers. The current nvidia drivers in the repo is 580.105.08 and currently for my hardware, I have an Acer Aspire E5-576G with a hybrid intel integrated graphics + nvidia mx150 graphics card.
My card is currently supported by the 580.105.08 drivers. However, nvidia’s latest drivers 590.48.01 under their ‘supported products’ my mx100 family for my mx150 is no longer there, but it is shown supported for the 580.105.08 driver currently.
I’m just wondering what should I be doing here if anything? Just roll with it and let my nvidia driver update to 590 and just see it “works” ? Or do I need to transition to some legacy drivers now before that update happens?
Just wondering what the most practical advice is going forward, never thought I’d see support for my laptop go, but I have had it since like 2017, I just thought I had a little more time lol.
Rpmfusion is aware that the 590 driver is dropping support for many of the older cards. I have a desktop with GTX 1050 GPUs and those are also losing support at the same time.
What I would suggest is that you consider one of 2 options.
Replace that gpu for which support is ending with a newer one. Doing so is not terribly difficult, but repair shops are experienced in this type of change. You probably could get an RTX 3050 gpu for a fair price.
consider replacing the laptop with a newer one, most of which come with the RTX 40 or RTX 50 series gpus.
Both options 1 & 2 would come at a cost. A third (low to no cost) option, and as rpmfusion has previously done with major nvidia driver changes like this, is that they probably will switch the 580 drivers to a legacy naming as they did with the 390xx and 470xx drivers when nvidia dropped support for those older gpus that relied on the older drivers. If that happens then you would need to remove the existing drivers and install the (580xx)?? [guessing on the possible name here] legacy driver for your older gpu which is no longer supported by the latest driver. Once the legacy driver with the different name is installed a default upgrade of software will not replace it with a newer driver.
Keeping that laptop happy with a driver having a different name would be the cheapest (cost wise) choice, as long as rpmfusion does as I anticipate.
In my case, I bit the bullet and upgraded from the 1050 gpu to a 3050 gpu in advance of the driver change.
Rpmfusion will probably keep the package as @computersavvy pointed out, though with a different name. Negativo17, for example, is providing a separate repository for the 580 drivers.
I’m in the same spot with an old Thinkpad P50, but I think I’ll just keep it while it works. In theory the 580 drivers will be supported until 2028.
Best case, they’ll keep working until then. Worst case, I’ll have to switch to some sort of Ubuntu LTS or something with an older kernel and working nvidia drivers.
Both of my computers are using a 1050 Ti. Perfectly suitable for my needs. Last night I started looking at the 3050 because of this post. Will my graphics just stop working one day after an update? That would suck…
It doesn’t seem like there should be an update that breaks a computer based on a known issue. If I need to I can update the card in both computers but why have to do that with a working system?
As @computersavvy said, based on how RPMFusion has dealt with previous such cases, you should be able to switch to “akmod-nvidia580xx” or similar and have a system which basically never tries to update the drivers beyond the version that supports your card.
This sounds like a bit of a hassle frankly. Wait until an update comes through that crashes the graphics system and then remove the old driver and switch to a different driver. Frankly it seems like maybe swapping the hardware out is easier. However, that will cost money and generate waste. I would think that any update that might crash the graphics system should first check for hardware, if that is possible…
You participate frequently here, so I think you’d hear about this before it happened.
Not a bad idea. The RPMfusion packages have tried to do more “auto-detect” recently - for example, they install the open-source version of the kernel module for those cards that support it, but the closed-source for the older cards that need it.
Nvidia’s priority is new AI hardware, so it should not be surprising to see shortened support periods for older hardware. For legacy GPU use cases, it may make sense to move to AMD or Intel GPU’s. “Reconditioned” enterprise grade systems that don’t officially support Windows 11 are available at attractive prices from original makers and other reputable suppliers.
I had been running a 1650 card for several years with no issue’s but I did not know how much longer it would be supported.I also purchased a 3050 as @computersavvy posted.I have another desktop which is running with Manjaro and a 1050 card.yesterday it updated with the 590 drivers and on reboot booted to a black screen.I put the 1650 card in and it booted up just fine.Replacing the 1650 with the 3050 was as simple as replacing the card and rebooting.
The new 590 driver supports the 16 series cards and newer, but has dropped support for the 10 series cards and older. Luckily my laptop has a 1660 card so I will still be able to use it with the newer driver for some time.
The link in the OP above shows the cards that are supported with the 590 driver.
do nothing for now and let the update happen naturally. Driver management on Fedora via RPM Fusion should handle this transition without your immediate intervention.
Here’s why and what to expect:
What to do now
Wait for the update: RPM Fusion is a trusted repository that manages the complexity of driver updates for Fedora users. If NVIDIA has moved your GPU to a “legacy” driver, it is highly likely that RPM Fusion will create a new legacy driver package (kmod-nvidia-580xx or similar) and manage the transition automatically when the main driver version (the kmod-nvidia without a suffix) changes to the 590 series.
Follow RPM Fusion news: Keep an eye on Fedora/RPM Fusion forums or mailing lists. Official communications usually inform users about major driver transitions and any necessary manual steps.
Why not to worry (yet)
RPM Fusion management: History shows that RPM Fusion has dealt with similar situations in the past (e.g., transitions to 390xx and 470xx drivers). They tend to package older drivers as legacy versions to ensure continued compatibility.
The MX150 GPU is Pascal: Your MX150 is based on the Pascal architecture, which is still relatively recent and widely used. It is unlikely that NVIDIA would abruptly cut support without a long-term legacy driver solution.
Test and see: If the automatic update to the 590 series on Fedora occurs and you experience no problems (like the GPU not being detected or graphical errors), it means the GPU is still supported in some capacity, perhaps through a compatibility mechanism within the main driver itself. The driver might simply not receive specific optimizations for future games, but basic functionality support should remain.
Future scenario (if problems arise)
If the update to the the 590 series on Fedora fails or causes operational problems, you will need to manually intervene to install the specific legacy driver package provided by RPM Fusion. However, the design of the Fedora packaging system usually minimizes this need.
I ust did an nvidia-smi command and it gave me this information… Driver Version: 580.119.02
So at least I know that I am still on the 580 driver. Should I just skip installing any driver that says “590” for now. And when will a legacy driver become available? I could just swap out both cards in both machines for something newer but that just seems silly when they both work and do what I need. I don’t like the idea of generating E-waste, especially when there is nothing wrong with the hardware…