Nvidia-smi failing despite driver being installed.

[Marui-9]

Hello,
Thank you very much for this guide, it is very helpful. Unfortunately after updating to fedora 43 I haven't been able to get my graphics card working.
nvidia-smi fails with: "couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver" on Fedora 43 on a 5060 laptop (with an AMD cpu), despite akmod-nvidia and CUDA driver packages being installed. I have followed the guide and as you can see in the following, the drivers are installed, but nvidia-smi (and fastfetch) seem to not recognize the presence of the discrete graphics card. I have also tried to re-enroll MOK keys to no avail.

Environment

• OS: Fedora 43
• NVIDIA driver (module version): 580.105.08
• RPM Fusion repos: rpmfusion-free-release-43-1, rpmfusion-nonfree-release-43-1

Useful outputs:

$ nvidia-smi

NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

$ modinfo -F version nvidia

580.105.08

The various dnf install and update present on the page all return "nothing to do".
What am I missing?

[Comprehensive-Wall28]

Hello!

Are you running Fedora Workstation or Fedora Atomic?

[Marui-9]

Fedora workstation
OS: Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition) x86_64
Host: ProArt P16 H7606WM_H7606WM (1.0)
Kernel: Linux 6.17.10-300.fc43.x86_64

[Comprehensive-Wall28]

Check the installed Nvidia packages:

dnf list installed '*nvidia*'

Check if module is loaded

lsmod | grep nvidia

Try rebuilding

sudo dnf reinstall akmod-nvidia
sudo akmods --force
sudo dracut --force

And confirm by running

modinfo nvidia

Output should appear after a few minutes from rebuilding so it's normal for it to fail for a moment.

Please try these steps and let me know how it went!

[Marui-9]

I have executed the commands as you specified, but nvidia-smi is still failing (I have waited 15 minutes). Maybe the issue is related to me not seeing anything with lsmod | grep nvidia?

dnf list installed 'nvidia'

Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Installed packages
akmod-nvidia.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
kmod-nvidia-6.17.10-300.fc43.x86_64.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 @commandline
kmod-nvidia-6.17.11-300.fc43.x86_64.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 @commandline
nvidia-gpu-firmware.noarch 20251125-1.fc43 updates
nvidia-modprobe.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
nvidia-persistenced.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
nvidia-settings.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power.x86_64 3:580.105.08-1.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver

Available packages [...]

lsmod | grep nvidia

returns nothing

modinfo nvidia

filename: /lib/modules/6.17.10-300.fc43.x86_64/extra/nvidia/nvidia.ko
import_ns: DMA_BUF
alias: char-major-195-*
version: 580.105.08
[...]

[Comprehensive-Wall28]

Lsmod shows nothing if you didn't reboot, try rebooting

If that also fails try disabling secureboot

[Marui-9]

I have just tried rebooting, secure boot is disabled, but I still get no output from lsmod | grep nvidia and nvidia-smi still fails

[Marui-9]

Is there something else I could try?

[Comprehensive-Wall28]

Is there something else I could try?

This could be an issue with the latest kernel but i'm unsure. I will reply when I find anything concrete but in your case I suggest you switch to Bazzite with NVIDIA (Built on Silverblue)

I personally use it and it works without issues. Much better to avoid the headache with NVIDIA

[Marui-9]

Alright, maybe one future driver or fedora update will fix it. I don't want to switch so I will wait, I can live with the cpu's integrated graphics for a bit. In case you find anything, let me know.
I appreciate your help, thank you.