How to Install NVIDIA Drivers on Fedora 36 Linux

Most modern Linux Desktop systems such as Fedora come with an NVIDIA driver pre-installed in the Nouveau open-source graphics device driver for Nvidia video cards. For the most part, this is acceptable; however, if you are using your Linux system for graphical design or gaming, you may get better drivers.

Historically, the Nouveau proprietary drivers are slower than Nvidia’s, which lacks the latest graphics card hardware features, software technology, and support. In most situations, upgrading your Nvidia Drivers with proper NVIDIA drivers is more beneficial than not. In some cases, you may see some substantial improvements overall.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install the Nvidia Graphic Drivers from the Nvidia Proprietary Repository RPM Fusion, giving you the latest software available on Fedora 36 Workstation, the command line terminal.

Update Fedora

Before you begin, update your system to ensure all existing packages are up to date to avoid any conflicts, this is essential when installing drivers such as graphic card drivers and kernels, etc.

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh -y

Import RPM Fusion Repository

By default, like most Linux distributions, Fedora does not come with NVIDIA proprietary drivers. The best method to install these on Fedora 36 is to use the RPM fusion repository.

First, open your terminal and add the following repositories

Import RPM Fusion Free

sudo dnf install \
  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Import RPM Fusion Nonfree

sudo dnf install \
  https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Once done, refresh your repository list.

sudo dnf update --refresh

Install NVIDIA Drivers on Fedora

Now that you have imported the RPM Fusion repository, execute the following command to install the latest Nvidia drivers on your Fedora system.

sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia -y

Next, install the CUDA drivers support. Ideally, you may not need this, but sometimes if issues persist, installing the CUDA support can solve problems.

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

Once everything has been installed, you must restart your Fedora system. By default, this will also disable Nouveau drivers automatically.

reboot

Verify NVIDIA Drivers Installation

Once you have returned, view the NVIDIA X Server Settings by using the following path.

Activities > Show Applications > NVIDIA X Server

Alternatively, if you opened a terminal, use the following command.

nvidia-settings

Example if installation successful:

Optional Method – Enable RPM Fusion TESTING Branch

RPM Fusion has a testing branch that contains mostly incoming new release NVIDIA driver series packages or beta packages. This can be useful for those who want to install bleeding-edge NVIDIA drivers.

First, enable the RPM Fusion Testing repository using the following command.

Enable the Free Repository

sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled rpmfusion-free-updates-testing

Enable the Non-Free Repository

sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing

Once enabled, proceed to install the drivers or run an update. If new bleeding-edge drivers in a test or, more likely, beta drivers will appear here, and you can begin to update to these, remember they may be buggy, so do not be surprised.

Sometimes you may want to disable the RPM Fusion testing repository. This can be quickly done by using the following command, to re-enable, use the following commands above and rinse and repeat.

Disable the Free Repository

sudo dnf config-manager --set-disabled rpmfusion-free-updates-testing

Disable the Non-Free Repository

sudo dnf config-manager --set-disabled rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing

Optional Method – Install NVIDIA Legacy Drivers

For those that have upgraded Fedora and require older drivers, their graphics card is not supported any more in the newest release driver packages by Nvidia. Below are some option installation drivers, do note these are often not updated as much, and security flaws could exist.

Install GeForce 600/700 NVIDIA series drivers:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-470xx akmod-nvidia-470xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-470xx-cuda

Install GeForce 400/500 NVIDIA series drivers:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-390xx akmod-nvidia-390xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-390xx-cuda

Install GeForce 8/9/200/300 NVIDIA series drivers:

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-340xx akmod-nvidia-340xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-340xx-cuda

How to Update Nvidia Drivers

All future updates will be in the standard dnf refresh command procedure, and this will check the RPM Fusion repository for updates and the rest of your Fedora packages.

To check for updates:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

How to Remove Nvidia Drivers and RollBack

If you do not want to continue to use the Nvidia official drivers, use the following command:

sudo dnf autoremove akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda -y

This will remove all dependencies installed, and once removed, and you must reboot.

reboot

During the reboot, the process will re-enable the Nouveau drivers. You will see a message stating Nvidia drivers not found re-enabling Nouveau drivers, making it easier to switch back and forth if needed.

Comments and Conclusion

In the tutorial, you have learned how to install the latest Nvidia drivers on your Fedora 36 Workstation using the RPM Fusion repository.

Ideally, these beta drivers should only be used if you have an equivalent graphics card that would benefit from the new driver packages on a gaming system. The average desktop user should wait as these drivers could bring instability.

Fedora 36 may see native support for proprietary drivers straight out of their default repository sooner or later; this is still subject to discussion and implementation. Still, for now, the RPM Fusion is the best bet, or soon enough, using NVIDIA’s default repository itself once they release the 36 branches, which the tutorial will be updated when this has occurred.

An example of installing NVIDIA’s DNF repository for the latest drivers can be found in How to Install NVIDIA 510.xx Drivers on Fedora 35 Linux. Remember, this most likely will not work for 36 at the current time.