Nvidia kernel drivers missing after kernel-default update

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I have installed the most recent kernel-default from
https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/standard/.
The version 6.14.0-1.gc12fe2e-default to be more specific.

I wanted to test couple of recent patches relevant for my laptop.
Good news - they are there they work well! My laptop suspend finally works again, it was broken in 6.13.x.
Bad news - I’m missing Nvidia kernel drivers.

Nvidia previously worked well.

Now it cannot find the kernel drivers:

espinosa@espinosa-asus:~> sudo modprobe nvidia
[sudo] password for root: 
modprobe: FATAL: Module nvidia not found in directory /usr/lib/modules/6.14.0-1.gc12fe2e-default

I recently switched to nvidia-open drivers, from proprietary nvidia-G06.
The transition seemed successful.

I have installed only nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-default on my box.
This package seem to contain only pre-compiled modules for kernel, files like /usr/lib/modules/6.13.6-1.0.2.sr20250302-default/updates/nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-570.133.07/nvidia.ko.zst, that was my previous kernel.

I always assumed KMP packages are compiled for the current kernel.

During the transition to the open drivers I uninstalled what I could.
I don’t have installed nvidia-video-G06 and nvidia-gl-G06any more.
I removed nvidia repo with proprietary drivers, the https://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/tumbleweed.

This is hybrid GPU laptop, I’m currently running Wayland on AMDGPU.

2

You are using a developement kernel where the Nvidia packages are not built for. kmp only work as long the kernel kABI doesn’t change. But between kernel 6.13 and 6.114 is a kABI change. So you need to wait until kernel 6.14 is released for openSUSE and the relevant kmp package is built.

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No. Only NVIDIA closed source drivers due to license restrictions.

4

So if I would install back the closed source Nvidia KPM packages, due to their source code based nature, the are likely to work, don’t hey?
That would be rather paradoxical :wink:

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What makes you think they will compile under 6.14?

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Providing that API hasn’t changed…

Out of curiosity, I’m going to try it.

Also I found experimental repo offering nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-default-570.133.07_k6.14.0_1.gc12fe2e-213.5.x86_64.rpm:
https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/Drivers:/Video:/Redesign/Kernel_HEAD/x86_64/

Is that repo (semi)official? Is it safe to use?

7

This is the development repository for the NVIDIA drivers.

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FYI:
I switched back to proprietary drivers, installed nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default, forcefully reinstalled. No errors, successfull installation, but it always compiled the the kernel driver for the latest official 6.13.x-default kernel, not my current 6.14.0. So, there is some enforcement on the package level.

Also I found that I’m confusing KPM (Kernel Module Packages) with DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support).
https://en.opensuse.org/Kernel_Module_Packages

KPM is clearly not DKMS. DKMS is currently not widely used by openSUSE.

FYI: seems to work well. Module loads. Power management works. I don’t have anything to truly test Nvidia drivers ATM, I’m running Wayland on AMD GPU.

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The SUSE package compiles the driver for the kernel to which /usr/src/linux-obj/x86_64/default points (or longterm for the corresponding driver). This link is set by the most recently installed kernel-default-devel package (not the kernel-default-devel package with the latest version).

KMP adds weak updates support for kABI compatible kernels. It is relevant for Leap where kABI remains (upward) compatible on kernel updates but mostly irrelevant for Tumbleweed where kABI may change at any time. Tumbleweed packages simply reuse the existing framework to avoid need to maintain yet another implementation.

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