Red Hat based systems ship with a nvidia-compatible graphics kernel module (nouveau). However, in some situations the 3rd party proprietary graphics kernel module from nvidia is needed instead. This 3rd party kernel module is not supplied or supported by Red Hat. With each new kernel, a 3rd party kernel module (like the proprietary nvidia one) needs to be rebuilt. This process can be tedious and confusing (eg, why did my graphical login break after a reboot?). There is a facility named "DKMS" which stands for Dynamic Kernel Module System. This enables the automatic rebuild of 3rd party kernel modules at the time of the new kernel installation. This is done via hooks which are present in the kernel post-install RPM scriplet. This document describes how to install the nvidia kernel module with DKMS support, so a manual rebuild of the nvidia kernel module is no longer required for every new kernel.
1) find the nvidia graphics (video) model number:
# lspci | grep -i nvidia
an example output to look for:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107GL [Quadro P600] (rev a1)
2) google 'nvidia linux' to find the nvidia linux download page:
https://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
3) Under the "64 bit" section at the top, select "Latest Long Lived Branch Version".
it currently looks like this:
Linux x86_64/AMD64/EM64T
Latest Long Lived Branch Version: 410.78
4) after selecting the latest long lived branch above, then select the "Supported products" tab, and search for the model name/number from step 1 above. From the example in step 1, I found "Quadro P600" in the list of supported products. If you cannot find your model number, you may have to look in the legacy versions (go back to step 3 above).
5) click download. the current link (NON-legacy) from above is (as of 2018-Dec-7):
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/410.78/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.78.run
the current LEGACY driver as of 2018-Dec-10 is (for older graphics cards)
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/390.87/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.87.run
example command line download:
# curl -sLO 'http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/410.78/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.78.run'
[root@pc95621 ksa]# pwd
/scswork/ksa
6) install dkms:
# yum install dkms
(installing dkms should also install the required kernel-devel RPM,
which is needed to build the nvidia kernel module)
7) You can view the help info (optional) with this command (use -A to view "Advanced help options)
# sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-xxxxx.run --help
# sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-xxxxx.run -A
8) stop the currently running X server by changing to run level 3
(this will kick off anyone who is logged in at the video console)
# init 3
9) run the installer:
# sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-xxxxxx.run --dkms --run-nvidia-xconfig --no-questions
the installer builds any required kernel modules. this could take quite a while (minutes to many minutes)
10) reboot (optional -- for verification if possible)
11) this command will tell you which kernels have the nvidia module installed:
find /lib/modules | grep nvidia.ko
12) after the reboot, this is how to verify the nvidia module is being used and the install was successful:
# lsmod|grep nvidia
# ps axuwww|grep X