Important

This blogpost explains how to install new G07 NVIDIA drivers. It is temporarily available as long as the content of the current blogpost for installation of G06 NVIDIA drivers is still needed.

The availability of G07 NVIDIA driver packages will happen soon.

Currently this blogpost can be used for the following openSUSE and SLE products:

  • (empty list)

For the following openSUSE and SLE products you still need to use the current blogpost for installation of G06 NVIDIA drivers:

  • openSUSE Tumbleweed
  • Leap 15.6 / SLE 15 SP6
  • SLE 15 SP7
  • Leap 16.0 / SLE 16

Both lists above are updated when G07 NVIDIA driver packages are becoming available for the appropriate products.

Let’s begin

This blogpost covers only installation of G07 drivers, i.e. drivers for GPUs >= Turing, i.e.

Check with inxi -aG on openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed if you have such a GPU. Use hwinfo --gfxcard on SLE. Use G04/G05/G06 legacy drivers (Proprietary drivers) for older NVIDIA GPUs.

There are two different ways to install NVIDIA drivers. Either use GFX Repository or use CUDA Repository.

GFX Repository

First add the repository if it has not been added yet. On openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed and SLE 15 Desktop and SLE 15 Workstation Extension it is being added by default. So check first, if it has already been added.

# openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed
zypper repos -u | grep https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/
# SLE
zypper repos -u | grep https://download.nvidia.com/suse

Verify that the repository is enabled. If the output was empty add the repository now:

# Leap 15.6
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/leap/15.6/  nvidia
# Leap 16.0
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/leap/16.0/  nvidia
# Leap 16.1 (Beta)
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/leap/16.1/  nvidia
# Tumbleweed
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/tumbleweed/  nvidia
# SLE15-SP6
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/suse/sle15sp6/  nvidia
# SLE15-SP7
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/suse/sle15sp7/  nvidia
# SLE16
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/suse/sle16/  nvidia
# SLE16.1 (Beta)
zypper addrepo https://download.nvidia.com/suse/sle16.1/  nvidia

With the following command the Open Kernel driver will be installed. In addition the CUDA and Desktop drivers are installed according to the software packages which are currently installed (Desktop driver trigger: libglvnd package). 

zypper in nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed-kmp-meta

Understanding package dependancies

The following graphics explains the installation and package dependancies. Zoom in for better reading.

gfx-repo

Once in-sync becomes latest driver version, i.e the nvidia-open-driver-G07-kmp-<flavor> of latest driver has been released for your product and nvidia-open-driver-G07-kmp-meta has been updated accordingly all remaining userspace driver packages (nvidia-video-G07, nvidia-compute-utils-G07 and dependancies) get updated to latest driver version.

CUDA Repository

Add the repository if it hasn’t been added yet. On SLE15 it might have already been added as aModule. So check first:

# openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed
zypper repos -u | grep https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/opensuse15
# SLE
zypper repos -u | grep https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/sles15

Verify that the repository is enabled. If the output is empty add the repository now:

# Leap 15.6/16.0/16.1(Beta)/Tumbleweed
zypper addrepo https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/opensuse15/x86_64/  cuda
# SLE15-SPx/SLE16/SLE16.1(Beta) (x86_64)
zypper addrepo https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/sles15/x86_64/  cuda
# SLE15-SPx/SLE16/SLE16.1(Beta) (aarch64)
zypper addrepo https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/sles15/sbsa/  cuda

Use Open prebuilt/secureboot-signed Kernel driver

It is strongly recommended to use our prebuilt and secureboot-signed Kernel driver. Unfortunately this is often not the latest driver, which is availabe, since this driver needs to go through our official QA and Maintenance process before it can be released through our product update channels, but things are much easier to handle for the user.

# Install open prebuilt/secureboot-signed Kernel driver
zypper in nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed-cuda-kmp-default

# Make sure userspace CUDA/Desktop drivers will be in sync with just installed open prebuilt/secureboot-signed Kernel driver
version=$(rpm -qa --queryformat '%{VERSION}\n' nvidia-open-driver-G07-signed-cuda-kmp-default | cut -d "_" -f1 | sort -u | tail -n 1)

# Install CUDA drivers
zypper in nvidia-compute-utils-G07 == ${version} nvidia-persistenced == ${version}
# Install Desktop drivers
zypper in nvidia-video-G07 == ${version}

Use Open DKMS Kernel driver (latest driver available)

If you really need the latest Open driver, use NVIDIA’s Open DKMS Kernel driver. This will build this driver on demand for the appropriate Kernel during the boot process.

# Install latest Open DKMS Kernel driver 
zypper in nvidia-open-driver-G07

# Install CUDA drivers
zypper in nvidia-compute-utils-G07

# Install Desktop drivers
zypper in nvidia-video-G07

On Secure Boot systems you still need to import the certificate, so you can later enroll it right after reboot in the MOK-Manager by using your root password.

mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub --root-pw

Otherwise your freshly built kernel modules can’t be loaded by your kernel later.

Installation of CUDA

In case you used GFX Repository for installing NVIDIA drivers before, first add the CUDA Repository as outlined above in CUDA Repository chapter.

The following commands will install CUDA packages themselves. It describes a regular and minimal installation. In addition it makes it easy to do first tests with CUDA. Depending on which Kernel driver is being used it may be needed to install different CUDA versions.

# Kernel driver being installed via GFX Repo
cuda_version=13-1
# Kernel driver being installed via CUDA Repo
cuda_version=13-1

# Regular installation
zypper in cuda-toolkit-${cuda_version}
# Minimal installation
zypper in cuda-libraries-${cuda_version}

# Unfortunately the following package is not available for aarch64,
# but there are CUDA samples available on GitHub, which can be
# compiled from source: https://github.com/nvidia/cuda-samples
zypper in cuda-demo-suite-12-9

Let’s have a first test for using libcuda (only available on x86_64).

/usr/local/cuda-12/extras/demo_suite/deviceQuery

Which one to choose for NVIDIA driver installation: GFX or CUDA Repository?

Good question! Not so easy to answer. If you rely on support from NVIDIA (especially when using SLE), for Compute usage we strongly recommend to use the CUDA Repository for NVIDIA driver installation. Even if you use NVIDIA Desktop drivers as well.

For others - usually running openSUSE Leap/Tumbleweed - it’s fine to use GFX Repository for NVIDIA driver installation and adding CUDA Repository for installing CUDA packages.

Migration from G06 to G07 Open drivers

Migration from G06 Open drivers to G07 is a manual step. Uninstall all NVIDIA driver packages first:

rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep -e ^nvidia -e ^libnvidia | grep -v container)

Then install G07 Open drivers as described in the sections above.

Known issues

CUDA Repository

Once you have added the CUDA Repository it may happen that some old or not recommended driver packages get mistakenly auto-selected for installation or even have already been mistakenly installed. These are:

  • nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default 535.x
  • nvidia-open-gfxG05-kmp-default 535.x
  • nvidia-open-driver-G06-kmp-default 570.x
  • nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default 570.x
  • nvidia-open-driver-G06

In order to avoid mistakenly installing them add package locks for them with zypper.

zypper addlock nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default
zypper addlock nvidia-open-gfxG05-kmp-default
zypper addlock nvidia-open-driver-G06-kmp-default
zypper addlock nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default
zypper addlock nvidia-open-driver-G06

In case you see any of these packages already installed on your system, better read the Troubleshooting section below how to get rid of these and all other nvidia driver packages related to them. Afterwards add locks to them as described right above.

Tumbleweed

On Tumbleweed it may happen that some legacy driver packages get mistakenly auto-selected for installation or even have already been mistakenly installed. These are:

  • nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-default
  • nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default

In order to avoid mistakenly installing them add package locks for them with zypper.

zypper addlock nvidia-gfxG04-kmp-default
zypper addlock nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default

In case you see any of these packages already installed on your system, better read the Troubleshooting section below how to get rid of these and all other nvidia driver packages related to them. Afterwards add locks to them as described right above.

Leap 15.6

On Leap 15.6 when doing a zypper dup this may result in a proposal to dowgrade the driver packages to some older 570 version and switching to -azure kernel flavor at the same time. The culprit for this issue is currently unknown, but you can prevent it from happening by adding a package lock with zypper.

zypper addlock nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-azure

Troubleshooting

In case you got lost in a mess of nvidia driver packages for different driver versions the best way to figure out what the current state the system is in is to run:

rpm -qa | grep -e ^nvidia -e ^libnvidia | grep -v container | sort

Often then the best approach is to begin from scratch, i.e remove all the nvidia driver packages by running:

rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep -e ^nvidia -e ^libnvidia | grep -v container)

Then follow (again) the instructions above for installing the driver using the GFX or CUDA Repository.