F41 Change Proposal: Nvidia Driver Installation with Secure Boot Support (self-contained)

[Aoife Moloney]

Wiki - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/NvidiaInstallationWithSecureboot
Discussion Thread -
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f41-change-proposal-nvidia-driver-ins...

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes
process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive
community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved
by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

== Summary ==

Nvidia Drivers have been removed from GNOME Software because it didn't
support Secure Boot which is increasingly often enabled. This change
brings the option back with Secure Boot supported.

== Owner ==

* Name: [[User:eischmann|Jiří Eischmann]]
* Name: Milan Crha

* Email: [e-mail]
* Email: [e-mail]

== Detailed Description ==

The goal is this change is to provide an easy way to install Nvidia
drivers in Fedora Workstation. It was removed from GNOME Software
because the original mechanism didn't support Secure Boot. When users
installed the drivers with Secure Boot enabled, they could not boot
the OS.
What we're doing this time is using mokutil to create a key for the
user to self-sign the drivers. When installing the drivers, the user
is asked to provide a password for the key. On the next reboot the
user is presented with the mokutil interface to enroll the key.

See the [https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/merge_requests/2034
upstream merge request] for more details and screenshots.

== Feedback ==

== Benefit to Fedora ==
The Nvidia drivers are necessary not only for gaming, but especially
for CUDA and AI/LLM workloads. The Nvidia drivers can't be part of
Fedora because of their license, but Fedora should offer an easy
installation of them to stay relevant in the respective fields.

== Scope ==

* Proposal Owners: The feature will be implemented in GNOME Software
47 and will be shipped in the gnome-software package in Fedora Linux
41.

* Other Developers: No work required from other Fedora developers. The
only requirement outside of the scope of the proposal owners is to
reintroduce AppStream metadata into the Nvidia driver repo on
RPMFusion.org.

* Release Engineering:

* Policies and Guidelines:

* Trademark approval:

* Alignment with Community Initiatives:

== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==

No impact is expected.

== How To Test ==

1. Open GNOME Software.<br>
2. Search for "nvidia".<br>
3. Choose the Nvidia driver, click Install and follow the prompts.<br>
4. Reboot and enroll the self-signing key in the mokutil tool
following <<the documentation will be added>><br>
5. The OS should boot up with the Nvidia driver enabled.<br>

== User Experience ==

This change aims to improve user experience of installing the
proprietary Nvidia driver.

== Contingency Plan ==
If the feature is not implemented on time for Fedora Linux 41, we can
simply remove AppStream metadata from the Nvidia driver repo and the
driver will not show up in GNOME Software like in Fedora Linux 40.

== Documentation ==
The GNOME Software part is intuitive and doesn't require
documentation. The mokutil part is less intuitive and will be
documented in the Fedora Workstation section on
docs.fedoraproject.org. The docs will be published when the feature
lands in Fedora Linux 41.

== Release Notes ==