[CentOS] video driver for NVIDIA Quadro

Fri Apr 9 16:43:55 UTC 2021
Phil Perry <pperry at elrepo.org>

On 09/04/2021 16:40, R C wrote:
> 
> On 4/9/21 9:24 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>> On 4/7/21 6:44 PM, R C wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>>
>>> I am running Centos/RHEL 8 on a Dell precision M6800/6700 with a: NVIDIA
>>> Corporation GK104GLM [Quadro K3100M]
>>>
>>>
>>> Is there a driver for that one?  or am I stuck with nouveaux ?
>>>
>> The kernel included in CentOS-8 (the last time I tested it), did not
>> properly build and run the proprietary NVIDIA drivers .. neither did the
>> same kernel in RHEL.
> 
> I found out, trying to install the driver, the NVIDIA installer was 
> complaining.  (I was pointed to where the latest driver for it was, by 
> Nvidia (which surprised me a bit that they were still maintaining it 
> actually, at least it's the impression I have)
> 

The GK104GLM [Quadro K3100M] _should_ be supported by the latest NVIDIA 
driver (currently v460.67) on el8. I say _should_ as I'm not 100% sure. 
I'm assuming your device is as below (check the device IDs with 'pci -nn'):

[10de:11b6] NVIDIA Corporation GK104GLM [Quadro K3100M]

That device was previously listed as supported:

https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/410.66/README/supportedchips.html

but I can't find it listed on the currently supported chipset's page, 
hence my doubt:

https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/460.67/README/supportedchips.html

I'd be interested to know which driver version NVIDIA pointed you towards?

>>
>> What I did was shift my workstation install to the elrepo kernel-ml
>> kernels (you might want kernel-lt .. it is latest long term kernel).  I
>> can then build the latest NVIDIA drivers for my graphics card and use 
>> them.
>>
>> http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml
>> http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-lt
>>
>> I have no issues using the elrepo kernels .. those guys and gals are
>> outstanding.  All the stuff they do is great.
>>
>> My card is a 1080ti .. so I have not tried building for Quadro 3100M ..
>> but if NVIDIA has a linux driver for that, then it should build using
>> the elrepo kernels.
>>
>> Phil Perry can tell us if the NVIDIA drivers they carry actually now
>> work for EL8 .. i stopped trying it after I switched kernels as they
>> don't carry drivers on elrepo for the kernel-ml or kernel-lt and I just
>> rebuild the official NVIDIA drivers manually after every kernel update.
> 
> That was sort of my plan, to see and wait if things would work with 
> later kernels. Fr now my desktop seems to be working ok-ish. When my 
> desktop is up for over 10-12 hrs, there seem to be some flickering, 
> windows that 'switch' focus etc, and at times the gnome desktop flat out 
> crashes (the machine keeps running, but no gnome.
> 

Assuming it is supported by the latest v460.67 driver, and the above 
omission is a mistake, ELRepo have a driver (kmod-nvidia) which should 
work with the el8 distro kernel.

As Johnny says above, if you use a different kernel, such as those from 
elrepo, you will need to install the driver directly from NVIDIA.

Regards,
Phil