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.
Table of Contents
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.