NVIDIA Driver Install Issues on Fedora 42

Ask Fedora
1

I’m sure this is the nth time that this same thread has been brought up, but I’ve searched through every solution I could find for the past week (originally trying to install on F41, now F42) and have not had any luck with the latest versions of NVIDIA Drivers from RPMFusion (570.xx, currently 570.133.07).

The only success I’ve experienced in my week of attempts was installing the 550 version using the .run files provided by NVIDIA, but that introduced a host of other issues due to the age of the drivers.

I installed the drivers I’m using currently by following the guide on RPMFusion, including the Secure Boot options since I have that enabled for my other installation of Windows.

I’m on a fresh install of Fedora 42, with the NVIDIA Drivers installed from RPMFusion, and the issue I’m experiencing is that only one of my monitors lights up. Both are detected by Fedora, and I can even drag windows onto the other monitor, but there is no display on the monitor. I’ve checked cables, connections, etc, all of it is fine, and I can verify that by booting up Windows and both monitors light up no problem.

Here’s the output of nvidia-smi:

Fri Apr 18 16:34:36 2025       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.133.07             Driver Version: 570.133.07     CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080        Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
|  0%   46C    P8             20W /  340W |     523MiB /  16376MiB |      2%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
                                                                                         
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A            2642      G   /usr/bin/gnome-shell                    256MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2849    C+G   /usr/bin/gnome-software                  32MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            3082      G   /usr/bin/Xwayland                         4MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            6753      G   ...ler --variations-seed-version        140MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            8456    C+G   /usr/bin/ptyxis                          24MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If anyone could assist me here, that would be great, because I really want to use Fedora, but I’m struggling to get these graphics drivers to play nicely.

2

Output of xrandr as well. For context, I use an ultrawide that I split into two using PBP on the monitor firmware:

Screen 0: minimum 16 x 16, current 5120 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
DP-1 connected primary 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1190mm x 340mm
   2560x1440     99.93*+
   1920x1440     99.92  
   1600x1200     99.88  
   1440x1080     99.87  
   1400x1050     99.79  
   1280x1024     99.83  
   1280x960      99.78  
   1152x864      99.87  
   1024x768      99.75  
   800x600       99.66  
   640x480       99.77  
   320x240       99.32  
   1920x1200     99.90  
   1680x1050     99.85  
   1440x900      99.79  
   1280x800      99.91  
   1152x720      99.68  
   960x600       99.64  
   928x580       99.65  
   800x500       99.49  
   768x480       99.30  
   720x480       99.31  
   640x400       99.73  
   320x200       98.84  
   2048x1152     99.81  
   1920x1080     99.90  
   1600x900      99.87  
   1368x768      99.80  
   1280x720      99.72  
   1024x576      99.86  
   864x486       99.41  
   720x400       99.68  
   640x350       99.12  
HDMI-1 connected 2560x1440+2560+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1190mm x 340mm
   2560x1440     99.93*+
   1920x1440     99.92  
   1600x1200     99.88  
   1440x1080     99.87  
   1400x1050     99.79  
   1280x1024     99.83  
   1280x960      99.78  
   1152x864      99.87  
   1024x768      99.75  
   800x600       99.66  
   640x480       99.77  
   320x240       99.32  
   1920x1200     99.90  
   1680x1050     99.85  
   1440x900      99.79  
   1280x800      99.91  
   1152x720      99.68  
   960x600       99.64  
   928x580       99.65  
   800x500       99.49  
   768x480       99.30  
   720x480       99.31  
   640x400       99.73  
   320x200       98.84  
   2048x1152     99.81  
   1920x1080     99.90  
   1600x900      99.87  
   1368x768      99.80  
   1280x720      99.72  
   1024x576      99.86  
   864x486       99.41  
   720x400       99.68  
   640x350       99.12
3

I feel like there’s definitely something going on with monitor handling on F42. I have a USB-C dock that won’t show any output at all once connected, my laptop’s internal display is stuck at 60hz (not 120hz like it should) on 6.14, and I’ve seen a handful of similar posts to yours…

I know this doesn’t contribute much, but just throwing it out there.

4

Yeah, I have an older PC with i7-6700K, using intel iGPU running Fedora KDE that used to have a 100Hz refresh rate option under 41, now in 42 (clean install) I only get 50Hz option.

5

Oddly enough, it should be noted that my issues didn’t begin with F42, I was having the same monitor issue on F41

6

Other than breaking once a month after kernel updates, the NVIDIA drivers worked for me under 41 and 42 KDE :rofl: And I have an RTX4080 too.

Here are the notes I follow exactly to install the NVIDIA drivers (I’m a noob, so I need cheat sheets and lots of notes :joy:). Maybe it’ll help, if not then I have no idea what’s going on.

This worked with 560 and now works with 570.

I HAVE SECURE BOOT DISABLED! It’s just not worth the pain to have it enabled for Linux.

The .run files provided by NVIDIA never worked for me on any Linux distro. I’ve been told a number of times not to bother.

Please note that it might seem like it gets stuck with a black screen on both reboots after the install, just give it few minutes.

INSTALL NVIDIA DRIVERS

Add the NVIDIA repositories. In the KDE distro you simply add them to Discovery, I don’t know how this is done in the GNOME and other distros.

Then:

sudo dnf update

sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia -y

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda -y # (this is optional CUDA stuff)

sudo reboot now

INSTALL NVDIA OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS

sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

sudo dnf install rpmfusion-nonfree-release-tainted

sudo dnf swap akmod-nvidia akmod-nvidia-open

sudo reboot now

This is it. Enjoy your NVIDIA GPU until the next kernel update :roll_eyes:

7

I tried testing out Fedora 42 last weekend and found that my screen resolution was stuck at 1024x768 60 Hz. I figured since I have a 5090, it might be too new for the OS.

I tried installing the drivers using the RPM Fusion article, but that didn’t work, and then I tried this guide: https://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2015/fedora-nvidia-guide/?utm_source=pocket_saves.

It didn’t seem to work at first, and I was going to restore my Windows 11 image, when I remembered that my TV was connected to the HDMI port on the card as well. I unplugged the HDMI cable and rebooted, and the display suddenly started working.

I thought maybe it was the TV being plugged in that caused the problem, and not a driver issue, so I tried doing a clean install of Fedora, but it still didn’t work.

Maybe that guide works, but I didn’t want to spend the next week trying to get something basic working on my computer that should work out of the box, so I went back to Windows.

8

I used their .run for the Open module years ago with a RTX 3060 seemingly fine, no RPM Fusion (notes)

At quick glance it looks like that’d work as-is today with a newer .run (I used 520.56.06).

9

the 5090 card is not supported by the old kernel modules. You have to switch to the kernel open drivers when installing from rpmfusion.

sudo sh -c ‘echo “%_with_kmod_nvidia_open 1” > /etc/rpm/macros.nvidia-kmod’
sudo akmods --kernels $(uname -r) --rebuild --force

the .run intaller would select the kernel open drivers by default. rpmfusion packages do not.

10

It would be useful for RPMFusion to clarify this on the instruction page (Howto/NVIDIA - RPM Fusion).

It does have a section on how to install the kernel open drivers. But if you have a 50-series card, you probably wouldn’t realise it was mandatory to do that, because the instructions for a “vanilla” install of the latest proprietary driver say:

This driver is suitable for any GPU found in 2014 and later.

11

Thanks. I’ll try that next time.

12

Update: I figured it out! It was because Fedora with the NVIDIA drivers (RPMFusion 570.133.07) didn’t like pushing 1440p @ 100hz through my HDMI cable, but it had no problem with it without them. Windows also didn’t have the issue, oddly enough.

The solution was just switching to a DisplayPort cable for my “second monitor,” and now Fedora is working perfectly.