nvidia and kernel 5.5

[Simon Colston]

Fedora Workstation 31

I was doing a dnf upgrade (which I aborted), when I got the message:

Removing dependent packages:
  kmod-nvidia-5.4.18-200.fc31.x86_64  x86_64  3:440.59-1.fc31    @@commandline  30 M

I assume this package is dependent on kernel 5.4 and the dnf upgrade includes kernel 5.5.

So, I did

[simon@hedgehog ~]$ dnf list kmod-nvidia*
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:10 ago on Sat 22 Feb 2020 08:51:05 GMT.
Installed Packages
kmod-nvidia-5.4.18-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   @@commandline
kmod-nvidia-5.4.19-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   @@commandline
kmod-nvidia-5.4.20-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   @@commandline
Available Packages
kmod-nvidia.x86_64                           3:440.59-1.fc31   rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver

Now, the kmod-nvidia package says that it is a meta-package to ensure the nvidia module(s) for the newest kernel.

So, my questions are:

1.  Should I remove the installed nvidia packages and replace them with the meta-package?
2.  Does the 'dnf list' imply that the nvidia packages for kernel 5.5 are not ready yet?
3.  I don't want to upgrade the kernel until the nvidia package is available.  What's the best way to monitor that?

Thanks,

Simon

[Samuel Sieb]

On 2/22/20 1:33 AM, Simon Colston wrote:
> Fedora Workstation 31
>
> I was doing a dnf upgrade (which I aborted), when I got the message:
>
> Removing dependent packages:
>   kmod-nvidia-5.4.18-200.fc31.x86_64  x86_64  3:440.59-1.fc31    
> @@commandline  30 M
>
> I assume this package is dependent on kernel 5.4 and the dnf upgrade 
> includes kernel 5.5.
>
> So, I did
>
> [simon@hedgehog ~]$ dnf list kmod-nvidia*
> Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:10 ago on Sat 22 Feb 2020 08:51:05 
> GMT.
> Installed Packages
> kmod-nvidia-5.4.18-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   
> @@commandline
> kmod-nvidia-5.4.19-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   
> @@commandline
> kmod-nvidia-5.4.20-200.fc31.x86_64.x86_64    3:440.59-1.fc31   
> @@commandline
> Available Packages
> kmod-nvidia.x86_64                           3:440.59-1.fc31   
> rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
>
> Now, the kmod-nvidia package says that it is a meta-package to ensure 
> the nvidia module(s) for the newest kernel.
>
> So, my questions are:
>
> 1.  Should I remove the installed nvidia packages and replace them with 
> the meta-package?
> 2.  Does the 'dnf list' imply that the nvidia packages for kernel 5.5 
> are not ready yet?
> 3.  I don't want to upgrade the kernel until the nvidia package is 
> available.  What's the best way to monitor that?

You're missing the details of what's happening here, you need to look 
carefully at the versions.  I assume you have the akmod package for the 
nvidia drivers installed.  Whenever you install a new kernel package, 
the akmod system rebuilds the nvidia driver and creates a new 
kmod-nvidia package corresponding to that kernel.  Fedora by default 
only keeps 3 kernels installed.  When you install a new one, the oldest 
one gets removed.  This is causing the corresponding kmod package to 
also get removed which is a good thing.  When the incoming kernel is 
installed, a new kmod package will be built and installed as well.  It's 
all good, just let it happen.

[Richard Shaw]

Also, as this is a non-free package from RPM Fusion, this discussion would
be better to have there. :)

But to add to what Samuel said, sometimes there are changes to the kernel
that require updated packages from Nvidia or we maintainers at RPM Fusion
patch it. That can take a few days to a week. Until then just boot the
previous kernel.

Thanks,
Richard

[Simon Colston]

On 22/02/2020 09:53, Samuel Sieb wrote:
> You're missing the details of what's happening here, you need to look carefully at the versions.  I assume you have the 
> akmod package for the nvidia drivers installed.  Whenever you install a new kernel package, the akmod system rebuilds 
> the nvidia driver and creates a new kmod-nvidia package corresponding to that kernel.  Fedora by default only keeps 3 
> kernels installed.  When you install a new one, the oldest one gets removed.  This is causing the corresponding kmod 
> package to also get removed which is a good thing.  When the incoming kernel is installed, a new kmod package will be 
> built and installed as well.  It's all good, just let it happen.

Ah, I see.  Yes, I do have the akmod package for the nvidia drivers installed.

Thanks for the help.

[Ed Greshko]

On 2020-02-22 20:47, Richard Shaw wrote:
> Also, as this is a non-free package from RPM Fusion, this discussion would be better to have there. :)
>
> But to add to what Samuel said, sometimes there are changes to the kernel that require updated packages from Nvidia or we maintainers at RPM Fusion patch it. That can take a few days to a week. Until then just boot the previous kernel.

Well, if you have the akmod-nvidia installed the needed drivers will be compiled and installed locally.

No need to wait.

[Todd Zullinger]

Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 2020-02-22 20:47, Richard Shaw wrote:
> > Also, as this is a non-free package from RPM Fusion, this discussion would be better to have there. :)
> >
> > But to add to what Samuel said, sometimes there are changes to the kernel that require updated packages from Nvidia or we maintainers at RPM Fusion patch it. That can take a few days to a week. Until then just boot the previous kernel.
>
> Well, if you have the akmod-nvidia installed the needed drivers will be compiled and installed locally.
>
> No need to wait.

I believe the case Richard is talking about is when there
are kernel API changes which cause the existing Nvidia
drivers to fail to compile and/or load with the new kernel.

Those are, thankfully, not the norm, but they do happen.
And in those cases the Nvidia kerne module shim needs to be
adjusted for the new kernel API.  That's a risk for any
out-of-tree kernel module.

Of course, you often don't know that's happened until you
boot into a new kernel and notice that graphics don't load
-- unless you're in the habit of checking the logs for the
kmod-nvidia build.

So technically, it's correct that there's no need to wait.
As is Richard's statement that in those cases you just boot
to the previous kernel for a few days until things get
sorted. :)

Als, thanks to Richard, Leigh, and all the other folks who
keep those RPM Fusion packages working smoothly!

[Simon Colston]

On 22/02/2020 15:38, Todd Zullinger wrote:
> Ed Greshko wrote:
> > On 2020-02-22 20:47, Richard Shaw wrote:
> > > Also, as this is a non-free package from RPM Fusion, this discussion would be better to have there. :)
> > >
> > > But to add to what Samuel said, sometimes there are changes to the kernel that require updated packages from Nvidia or we maintainers at RPM Fusion patch it. That can take a few days to a week. Until then just boot the previous kernel.
> >
> > Well, if you have the akmod-nvidia installed the needed drivers will be compiled and installed locally.
> >
> > No need to wait.
>
> So technically, it's correct that there's no need to wait.
> As is Richard's statement that in those cases you just boot
> to the previous kernel for a few days until things get
> sorted. :)

Well, I went ahead and tried it.  Kernel is 5.5, the nvidia package was compiled and lspci -k says that the nvidia 
driver is being used.  And, so far, it all appears to be working...

Thanks for all the help and advice.