NVIDIA driver fails to boot on kernel update in Fedora 42 (hybrid graphics, MX350)

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1

Hi everyone,

I recently decided to upgrade from Fedora 41 to Fedora 42 by doing a full clean install. One of my goals was to switch from the ext4 filesystem to Btrfs, so I opted for a fresh setup on my Acer Aspire A315 laptop (Intel i5-1135G7 + NVIDIA MX350 hybrid graphics).

Here’s my system info from inxi -Fxxxz:

System:
  Kernel: 6.14.6-300.fc42.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.1.1
    clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: GNOME v: 48.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.49 wm: gnome-shell
    tools: gsd-screensaver-proxy dm: GDM v: 48.0 Distro: Fedora Linux 42
    (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A315-58G v: V1.29
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: TGL model: Camellia_TL v: V1.29 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 0000000000000000 uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.29
    date: 07/01/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 30.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 30.6/37.0 Wh (82.8%)
    volts: 8.2 min: 7.6 model: Murata AP16M4J type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: full cycles: 90
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    smt: enabled arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 320 KiB L2: 5 MiB L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/4200 cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 400 4: 400
    5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 bogomips: 38707
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]
    vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Xe ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce MX350] vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
    driver: nvidia v: 570.144 arch: Pascal bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1c94 class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Chicony HD User Facing driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-8:2 chip-ID: 04f2:b72b class-ID: fe01
    serial: <filter>
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.6 compositor: gnome-shell
    driver: gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: LG Display 0x0563 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.0.4 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:9a49 display-ID: :0.0
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
  Info: Tools: api: glxinfo gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio
    vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
    bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a0c8 class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.6-300.fc42.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a0f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000
    bus-ID: 0000:02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-10:3
    chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter> bt-v: 5.1 lmp-v: 10
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd
    v: 0.6 port: N/A bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a0b rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 10.95 GiB (2.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKNU512GZ size: 476.94 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 002C
    temp: 22.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 475.35 GiB used: 10.55 GiB (2.2%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 386.4 MiB (39.7%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 19.3 MiB (3.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 475.35 GiB used: 10.55 GiB (2.2%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.39 GiB used: 4.57 GiB (29.7%)
  Processes: 349 Power: uptime: 42m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle
    wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform Init: systemd v: 257 target: graphical (5)
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 11
    Compilers: gcc: 15.1.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: ptyxis-agent
    inxi: 3.3.38

After installation, I installed the NVIDIA proprietary driver from RPM Fusion (using akmod-nvidia), and everything worked perfectly on updated kernel to 6.14.2.

Later, after updating to kernels 6.14.3 and 6.14.4, I encountered a black screen during boot. I booted back into 6.14.2, switched graphics mode from “integrated” to “hybrid” using the EnvyControl extension, and then rebooted into 6.14.4 — it worked fine. There was no need to reinstall the NVIDIA driver; just switching to hybrid graphics before rebooting resolved the issue.

After updating to kernel 6.14.5, the same black screen issue came back — but this time the previous workaround no longer helped.

I tried:

sudo akmods --kernels 6.14.5-300.fc42.x86_64 --force
sudo dracut --force /boot/initramfs-6.14.5-300.fc42.x86_64.img 6.14.5-300.fc42.x86_64

I also disabled Secure Boot, but the result was still the same — black screen at boot.

Than I found a workaround again: I reinstalled the system from scratch (since I had broken it trying to manually remove the NVIDIA driver), disabled Secure Boot before doing anything, and then installed the NVIDIA driver while running kernel 6.14.5. Everything worked fine again.

When I used Fedora 41, I never had this kind of problem after a kernel update. There was only one time when the issue was caused by the NVIDIA driver itself, not the kernel. Now, with Fedora 42, it seems that the NVIDIA driver only works with the kernel version that was active at the time of installation (and with previous ones). For example, last week I reinstalled the system and installed the driver while running kernel 6.14.5 — everything worked fine. But after the system updated to 6.14.6, the NVIDIA driver no longer worked, and the system failed to boot completely. Yesterday I reinstalled Fedora again, installed the NVIDIA driver on kernel 6.14.6, and now it works again.

I’m expecting another kernel update soon, and I honestly don’t know whether the driver will survive it or not.

Let me know if anyone else is seeing the same issue with Fedora 42 and akmod-nvidia, or if there’s a more reliable way to make NVIDIA work across kernel updates.

Thanks!

2

No one has reported any problems updating kernels to rpmfusion nvidia.
Maybe try using dnf to update, the fedora package managers don’t wait for the modules to build before they reboot the system.

3

I came across this information about updating using dnf. I will try to do exactly that next week. Before that, I always updated through the gnome software center.

4

akmod rebuild can take up to 5 minutes.
If you don’t wait for the rebuild before reboot, it does it on next boot up, many peoples confuse that as system freeze/breakage (if nouveau loads nvidia wont work until next reboot).

F43 akmods should address the lack of info on boot up.

1 Like
5

I started noticing this behavior after either the kernel or the NVIDIA graphics driver was updated. At first, I didn’t look into the details — I just knew it happened every time one of those components was updated.

I’ve been using Fedora since version 38 and always performed updates through the GNOME Software Center, as recommended. However, in Fedora 42, for some reason, this no longer works as expected.

For the next update, I plan to use the terminal so I can clearly see the output and confirm whether the process completes successfully. I’ll also delay restarting the system immediately, just to be safe.

The good news that this functionality is expected to improve in Fedora 43.

6

The solution found with the GPT chat (I have not very deep knowledge of Linux):

sudo dnf upgrade -y
sudo akmods --rebuild --force
sudo dracut --regenerate-all --force -v
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /etc/grub2-efi.cfg

And than reboot.

The kernel has been updated and works fine.

Does anyone know what could be causing the kernel and NVIDIA driver to require this kind of upgrade? Earlier (in Fedora versions 38–41), regular upgrades through the GNOME Software Center—just as recommended by the Fedora developers—worked fine. But now it turns out that only the manual method described above actually works.