NVIDIA Kernel Module Missing – Falling Back to Nouveau on Fedora 41 GNOME

Ask Fedora
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1

After updating my system, I’m encountering an issue where the NVIDIA kernel module is missing, and my system is falling back to Nouveau. This message appears on the boot screen:

Nvidia kernel module missing, falling back to nouveau

I’m using Fedora 41 (Workstation Edition) with GNOME on Wayland. My system specs are:

  • Laptop: Victus by HP Laptop 16-d1xxx
  • Kernel: 6.12.15-200.fc41.x86_64
  • GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (Discrete)
  • GPU 2: Intel Iris Xe Graphics (Integrated)
  • DE: GNOME 47.4 (Wayland)
  • WM: Mutter
  • Driver Installed: akmod-nvidia
  • NVIDIA SMI Output: (It says the driver isn’t loaded)

my secure boot is disabled

After the update, my external monitor is not detected. It was working fine before the update.

2

It would seem that on the last kernel upgrade the nvidia drivers where not built.
You can force them to be built with the command sudo akmods --rebuild --force.
try that and then reboot. Does hthat fix it?

3

it seems like akmods is missing from my system

sudo: akmods: command not found

i installed akmods

sudo dnf install akmods --refresh

then i reboot it, after rebooting it still shows the same error message on boot
and my external monitor is still not detected

4

I have assumed you are using the rpmfusion nvidia drivers.
Is that not the case?

What does rpm -qa | grep nvidia report?

5

Yes, I am using the RPM Fusion NVIDIA drivers.

Here’s my installed NVIDIA packages (rpm -qa | grep nvidia output):

nvidia-modprobe-565.77-1.fc41.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-565.77-3.fc41.x86_64
nvidia-settings-565.77-1.fc41.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-565.77-3.fc41.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs-565.77-3.fc41.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power-565.77-3.fc41.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-6.12.13-200.fc41.x86_64-565.77-1.fc41.x86_64
libva-nvidia-driver-0.0.13^20241108git259b7b7-2.fc41.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-xorg-libs-565.77-3.fc41.x86_64

I noticed that kmod-nvidia is for kernel 6.12.13, but my system is running kernel 6.12.15.

Could this be the reason why the NVIDIA module is missing on boot?

6

Yes you have a missing the module.

Try this command sudo /usr/sbin/akmods --rebuild --force.

You should see it report that it is building nvidia-kmod.

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7

is this the complete list? It’s missing several important packages like akmod-nvidia and even the nvidia firmware.
How did you manage to get the system into this state?

Don’t reboot. Install nvidia-gpu-firmware and akmod-nvidia
this should also install some of the other missing rpms like xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc

now to learn something from this, please check the dnf transaction logs and find the transaction that removed akmod-nvidia, nvidia-gpu-firmware and other nvidia packages from your system.

dnf history list
dnf history info last prints the details to the last transaction replace last with a numner from history list or you can select the next transaction with
dnf history info last-1 then replace 1 with 2 etc.

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8

I checked my DNF history, and I found that on Feb 16 (Transaction ID 15), I ran:

dnf remove akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda nvidia-vaapi-driver

This removed 49 packages, including akmod-nvidia and possibly nvidia-gpu-firmware and other dependencies.

Later, in transaction 14, I reinstalled:

dnf install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda nvidia-vaapi-driver

However, it seems that some dependencies were not reinstalled. I am still missing nvidia-gpu-firmware, and nvidia-smi is not working.

So i tried

sudo dnf install nvidia-gpu-firmware akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc --refresh

and rebuild

sudo /usr/sbin/akmods --rebuild --force

suddenly my external monitor is showing

nvidia-smi was missing, so I installed:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda --refresh

Appreciate the help!

9

nvidia-gpu-firmware is pre-installed on every system. You should never remove it.

this is how you remove only the nvidia rpmfusion driver, it’s documented here

dnf remove xorg-x11-drv-nvidia\*

nvidia-vaapi-driver is also not directly tied to the nvidia driver.

If you try to remove something then don’t use option -y and review the proposed changes, before accepting such transaction.
49 packages to be removed should have made you probably rejecting such transaction…

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10

We can see the installed packages for nvidia with one command that also shows the repo used for installation.

dnf list --installed \*nvidia\*
Using rpm -qa does not show the source of the packages.

The nvidia-smi command is part of the xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda package installed from rpmfusion.

11

I hate it when people make up bullshit, the firmware is only used for nouveau!

Nvidia has it’s own firmware provided

$ rpm -ql xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-570.86.16-5.fc42.x86_64 |grep firmware
/usr/lib/firmware
/usr/lib/firmware/nvidia
/usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/570.86.16
/usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/570.86.16/gsp_ga10x.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/570.86.16/gsp_tu10x.bin
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12

I agree, but that firmware is still required should it be necessary to fall back to a boot using the nouveau driver when there are problems using the installed nvidia drivers.

It should really remain installed even if the reason is misstated.

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13

A post was split to a new topic: Nvidia driver not building on kernel 6.13.4