Upgrade NVIDIA from G05 470 to G06 580

DJViking · February 2, 2026, 8:14pm

I am contemplating upgrade of my NVIDIA Drivers from G05 470 to G06 580
There are two things I am concerned about

Could I get any trouble running Leap 15.6 on these new drivers?
Could I get trouble running games on Steam?
There are so many more drivers available on G06 that I do not know which to choose

What are the advantages and disadvantages for me to upgrade?
My setup is a Gaming PC, but also used for Development/Coding, Media, Browsing - You could say all purpose PC, but Gaming support is important to me using Steam.

My setup is running a NVIDIA GTX 1080 Graphic Card.
I have read some say that the newer driver quality may be worse than what I have today.

These are my installed packages:
kernel-firmware-nvidia 20250205-150600.3.15.1
nvidia-computeG05 470.256.02-lp156.87.1
nvidia-computeG05-32bit 470.256.02-lp156.87.1
nvidia-gfxG05-kmp-default 470.256.02_k6.4.0_150600.21-lp156.87.1
nvidia-glG05 470.256.02-lp156.87.1
nvidia-glG05-32bit 470.256.02-lp156.87.1
nvidia-texture-tools 2.1.2-bp156.3.5
x11-video-nvidiaG05 470.256.02-lp156.87.1
x11-video-nvidiaG05-32bit 470.256.02-lp156.87.1

These are the packages I found I can install for G06

kernel-firmware-nvidia-gsp-G06
kernel-firmware-nvidia-gspx-G06
kernel-firmware-nvidia-gspx-G06-cuda
libnvidia-egl-gbm1
libnvidia-egl-wayland1
libnvidia-gpucomp
nvidia-common-G06
nvidia-compute-G06
nvidia-compute-utils-G06
nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default
nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-meta
nvidia-drivers-G06
nvidia-drivers-insync-latest
nvidia-drivers-minimal-G06
nvidia-gl-G06
nvidia-libXNVCtrl
nvidia-modprobe
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-cuda
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-cuda-kmp-default
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-default
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-azure
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-default
nvidia-open-driver-G06-signed-kmp-meta
nvidia-persistenced
nvidia-settings
nvidia-userspace-meta-G06
nvidia-video-G06

It seems like the Open Driver is only for newer graphic cards (20xx, 30xx, 40xx).

It would seem what I need are these

Required core
nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default
nvidia-gl-G06
nvidia-compute-G06
nvidia-video-G06

Recommended extras
nvidia-settings
nvidia-persistenced
nvidia-modprobe

32-bit support (Steam, Wine, Proton)
nvidia-gl-G06-32bit
nvidia-compute-G06-32bit

For Wayland support:
libnvidia-egl-wayland1
libnvidia-egl-gbm1

Should I remove the G05 drivers myself before, or after the upgrade?
sudo zypper rm ‘G05’
sudo zypper rm x11-video-nvidiaG05*

hui · February 2, 2026, 9:29pm

It should be done by a simple
sudo zypper in nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-meta nvidia-userspace-meta-G06

The zypper solver will automatically ask you to remove the G05 packages.

DJViking · February 2, 2026, 9:32pm

Why the meta packages, and not the kmp-default?

hui · February 2, 2026, 9:33pm

Because the meta package takes care of installing all the necessary packages in the correct matching version.

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 7:58am

Somehow OpenSUSE added the NVIDIA repository on my Laptop OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Currently I am running the laptop without NVIDIA drivers.
But when I check the updates, I see that zypper wants to install these:
nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default nvidia-gl-G06 nvidia-gl-G06-32bit

Should I choose the meta packages also for my laptop? My Laptop is running dual hybrid graphics (Intel + NVIDIA).

OrsoBruno · February 9, 2026, 9:29am

What does zypper inr show? The meta packages do no harm anyway and ensure that all needed packages have matching versions. They might not be strictly needed if your GPU is a bit old and does not support the open driver.

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 10:05am

Removed the NVIDIA repository. It was a openSUSE-repos-MicroOS-NVIDIA, not Tumbleweed, so not sure why that was installed.

Then running zypper inr it will try to add openSUSE-repos-Tumbleweed-NVIDIA.

Although now it does not suggest installing the nvidia driver anymore when running zypper up like before.

I will try the NVIDIA kmp-meta G06 driver on my laptop.
My laptop GPU
NVIDIA Corporation GA107GLM [RTX A2000 Mobile] (rev a1)

OrsoBruno · February 9, 2026, 10:13am

Your GPU uses the Ampere arch (GA107GLM) so it is supported by the open driver and you should install the meta packages to avoid quite frequent mismatches.

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 1:45pm

When I try this on my Laptop, I see that it will try to install both kmp-default and kmp-meta.

Could this be a problem with having both installed?

zypper in nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-meta nvidia-userspace-meta-G06
Refreshing service 'NVIDIA'.
Refreshing service 'openSUSE'.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...

The following 4 recommended packages were automatically selected:
  nvidia-common-G06 nvidia-gl-G06 nvidia-video-G06 pesign-systemd

The following 29 NEW packages are going to be installed:
  clinfo dwarves fipscheck kernel-default-devel kernel-devel kernel-macros libdwarves1 libelf-devel libfipscheck1 libnvidia-egl-gbm1 libnvidia-egl-wayland1 libnvidia-egl-x111 libnvidia-gpucomp libOpenCL1 libzstd-devel
  mozilla-nss-tools nvidia-common-G06 nvidia-compute-G06 nvidia-compute-utils-G06 nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-meta nvidia-gl-G06 nvidia-modprobe nvidia-persistenced nvidia-userspace-meta-G06
  nvidia-video-G06 pesign pesign-obs-integration pesign-systemd

It seems the Meta package does not contain the driver, but just determine which driver to install

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 2:00pm

I decided to just jump into it and install the drivers on my laptop.

Install went “fine”, but though it had a few Errors

  (24/31) Installing: nvidia-gl-G06-580.126.09-44.1.x86_64 .......................................................................................................................................................................[done]
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-uvm.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-drm.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-modeset.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-uvm.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-drm.ko): No such file or directory
depmod: ERROR: fstatat(5, nvidia-modeset.ko): No such file or directory

After Reboot My system works fine.
Although during boot there was 1 ERROR

[FAILED] Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 2:16pm

Seems I got some problems with Secure Boot and the NVIDIA driver was not loaded
Before Grub I got a Blue Screen with something (I could not read it because the text was very small on UHD laptop monitor). After a while it exited and went to Grub.

malcolmlewis · February 9, 2026, 2:20pm

That’s the Nvidia signing key for secure boot, you need to enroll that key…

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 2:27pm

I tried to enroll it

sudo mokutil --import /usr/share/nvidia-pubkeys/MOK-nvidia-driver-G06-580.126.09-44.2-default.der

It asked for a input password. I provided my root passwod.
After reboot I managed to get into enrollment, but it did not accept my password.

malcolmlewis · February 9, 2026, 2:32pm

It’s the root password for the MOK enrollment as well.

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 2:35pm

The root password contains a special character. And I suspect it is using US Keyboard layout.

I think I broke my Secure boot now. Tried mkutil --reset
After enrollment now after password I got “Failed to load variable: Not Found”

Trying to import again does not work

nvidia-common-G06 nvidia-compute-G06 nvidia-compute-utils-G06 nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-default nvidia-driver-G06-kmp-meta nvidia-gl-G06 nvidia-libXNVCtrl nvidia-modprobe nvidia-persistenced
  nvidia-settings nvidia-userspace-meta-G06 nvidia-video-G06

malcolmlewis · February 9, 2026, 2:43pm

Sounds like a good time to move to Leap 16.0 and sort things out…

DJViking · February 9, 2026, 2:56pm

I managed to get it working — Somehow

Got into Secure Boot Enrollment. The resolution was to huge it made it difficult to read.

After choosing Load from disk, I was unsure what to choose next.

Select Key
EFI/
System Volume Information/
opensuse-tumbleweed/
loader/

Under EFI
Microsoft/
Boot/
HP/
opensuse/

I tried a few options there. Not sure what.

My first boot went almost fine. The login manager was just black. I performed a hard boot, this time I got the login manager displayed.

Now checked and could see that the NVIDIA driver is loaded.

mokutil --list-enrolled | grep -i nvidia
        Issuer: CN=Local build for nvidia-driver-G06 580.126.09 on 2026-02-09
        Subject: CN=Local build for nvidia-driver-G06 580.126.09 on 2026-02-09

lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia_drm            147456  6
nvidia_modeset       1937408  3 nvidia_drm
nvidia_uvm           3842048  0
nvidia              111603712  50 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_drm,nvidia_modeset
drm_ttm_helper         16384  2 nvidia_drm,xe
video                  81920  3 xe,i915,nvidia_modeset

Seeing from this Documentation I did not need to Select .... from disk. Just select reboot.
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

I really dislike the Secure Boot, but from a security standpoint I understand why using it.

DJViking · February 10, 2026, 7:14am

Yesterday I got a problem after installing the NVIDIA drivers.
After boot the SDDM Login Manager did not show. All I got was black screen.
After another reboot it was fine, I got into the SDDM Login Manager.
So I did not think much of it.

This morning I had to reboot 3 times before getting into the SDDM Login Manager.

According to ChatGpt it is
A Kernel ↔ NVIDIA driver race / mismatch

Running
journalctl -b | grep -Ei "nvidia|drm|sddm"
ChatGPT says the following is the problem:
> **nvidia 0000:01:00.0: [drm] Cannot find any crtc or sizes**

The NVIDIA DRM driver loaded, but it could not see any active display controllers (CRTCs).
NVIDIA DRM initializes before Intel DRM, so NVIDIA sees no outputs and reports “no crtc or sizes”.
On “good” boots, timing is reversed → Intel DRM is ready first → NVIDIA is happy.
That’s the race condition.

I tried a fix ChatGPT suggested two things to me

echo “options nvidia-drm modeset=1” | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
sudo dracut --force

echo “options i915 modeset=1” | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
sudo dracut --force

I will try both of these, and see if it fixes boot into SDDM.

malcolmlewis · February 10, 2026, 12:47pm

@DJViking I guess you don’t need the Forum users help any more?

Oh, those options are already set for the Nvidia GPU… did AI ask you to check your boot options first? Did AI just get you to boot to multi-user target and look through the logs etc?

DJViking · February 10, 2026, 1:08pm

No I did not change any boot options, nor did AI suggest such.

ChatGPT is helpful sometimes, but it is not always right. I am sceptical to run commands it suggests in fear of I might brick my system.

This was a work PC, so I was in a hurry to get it working this morning- Otherwise I could not do my job.
I do not think AI will take over from Forum discussions, but it might keep away some basic forum questions I think.