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NVIDIA Driver Setup on Fedora 43 Workstation

#beginners #linux #performance #tutorial

RTX 3050 Mobile (Hybrid AMD + NVIDIA Laptop)

Reference Guide: Comprehensive-Wall28/Nvidia-Fedora-Guide

System Profile

Property Value
OS Fedora 43 Workstation
GPU (dGPU) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile
GPU (iGPU) AMD Radeon Vega (Renoir)
LUKS Encryption ❌ None
Secure Boot ❌ Disabled
Driver Installed 580.142

Why the Freeze Happened

The freeze + screen dimming during use was caused by the default Nouveau open-source driver, which has poor power management on modern NVIDIA GPUs — especially on hybrid AMD+NVIDIA laptops.

The Fix: Install Proprietary NVIDIA Drivers

Step 1 — Update your system 

sudo dnf update
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Step 2 — Enable RPM Fusion (provides NVIDIA 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
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Step 3 — Identify your GPU 

lspci | grep -iE 'VGA|3D|nvidia'
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Step 4 — Install the driver (RTX 3050 = current driver) 

sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
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Step 5 — Watch the kernel module build in real time

⏳ This takes 5–10 minutes. Do NOT reboot until verified.

# Watch live build logs
journalctl --follow --grep=akmod
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Then in a separate terminal, keep checking every 2–3 minutes:

modinfo -F version nvidia
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✅ When you see a version number like 580.142 — the build is done. Safe to reboot.

❌ If it says Module nvidia not found — it's still building. Wait more.

Step 6 — Reboot 

systemctl reboot
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Step 7 — Verify after reboot 

nvidia-smi
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Expected output:

NVIDIA-SMI 580.142    Driver Version: 580.142    CUDA Version: 13.0
GeForce RTX 3050 ...
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⚠️ Hybrid GPU Note (AMD + NVIDIA Laptops)

Since this is a hybrid laptop (AMD iGPU + NVIDIA dGPU), extra power management steps are sometimes needed.

Do you need to do this?

In this case — NO. The nvidia-powerd service was automatically installed and enabled during the driver install. You can confirm with:

systemctl status nvidia-powerd
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It should show active (running).

When WOULD you need extra steps?

Only if you experience any of the following after the driver install:

  • Still freezing during use
  • NVIDIA GPU not being used for heavy tasks (games, ML workloads)
  • Battery draining abnormally fast ### If needed — PRIME GPU offload (optional)

To force a specific app to use the NVIDIA GPU:

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia <your-app>
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Or to check which GPU is rendering your desktop:

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
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Quick Diagnostic Commands 

# Check Fedora variant
cat /etc/os-release

# Check LUKS encryption
lsblk -o NAME,TYPE,FSTYPE,MOUNTPOINT

# Check Secure Boot status
mokutil --sb-state

# Check GPU(s)
lspci | grep -iE 'VGA|3D|nvidia'

# Check driver version (before reboot)
modinfo -F version nvidia

# Check driver after reboot
nvidia-smi

# Check nvidia-powerd status
systemctl status nvidia-powerd

# Watch akmod build live
journalctl --follow --grep=akmod
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Common Problems

Problem Cause Fix
Module nvidia not found Still building Wait 5–10 min, retry modinfo
Black screen after reboot Wrong driver version Boot to TTY (CTRL+ALT+F2), run sudo dnf remove "*nvidia*"
nvidia-smi: command not found CUDA not installed sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda
"Nvidia modules failed to load" Secure Boot issue Disable Secure Boot or redo MOK enrollment
Still freezing after install Hybrid GPU power issue Check nvidia-powerd status, consider PRIME config

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