cant load nvidia

Alain De Vos

Alain De Vos

After an upgrade/update nvidia does not load anymore when i use startx.
So in essence freebsd is not working for me anymore.
Any advice ?
There are many nvidia packages, maybe i installed something wrong ? or a wrong combination
 
I've found that when that happens, I often have to rebuild the nvidia-drm-kmod from ports. So far, that's always fixed it for me, it will pull in any other needed ports. T-Aoki's link suggests deinstalling the nvidia-driver, but, so far at least, I've not found that necessary. It's a fairly quick rebuild.
 
scottro said:
I've found that when that happens, I often have to rebuild the nvidia-drm-kmod from ports. So far, that's always fixed it for me, it will pull in any other needed ports. T-Aoki's link suggests deinstalling the nvidia-driver, but, so far at least, I've not found that necessary. It's a fairly quick rebuild.
Click to expand...
I think the advice by T-Aoki covers upgrading across driver packaging changing.

In the far past, the package "nividia-driver" was at version 470.something which worked on my hardware, then an update created package nvidia-driver-470.something and nvidia-driver package was at version 5xx something.
So when I did an update my package named nvidia-driver became 5xx.something which did not work on my hardware. So the solution was pkg delete nvidia-driver and pkg install nvidia-driver-470.something.

The changes in how the nvidia driver is packaged is a similar situation.
 
mer said:
I think the advice by T-Aoki covers upgrading across driver packaging changing.
Click to expand...
Yes.
As of commit f4e907a49258, kmod parts of x11/nvidia-driver[-304|-340|-390|-470|-devel] ports are splitted into corresponding x11/nvidia-kmod* ports, thus, x11/nvidia-kmod* ports conflicts with corresponding x11/nvidia-driver* ports that is previously installed.

If the error is ignored and left unfixed, possibly the installations are broken.

I've noted this because I don't know in which commit OP was at before updating.

And for at least 15.0 (including ALPHA*, BETA* and stable/15), only x11/nvidia-kmod is available on FreeBSD-ports-kmods repo (for anything before 15.0, FreeBSD-kmods repo) but all others related with nvidia are not.
So, as currently only single minor versions are supported for all supported major versions, main repo (FreeBSD-ports or FreeBSD) has everything (possibly some more time would be needed for latest 580.105.08 to finish builds, though).

And just at the time I'm writing this post, FreeBSD-ports-kmods repo has 580.105.08 while main repo still has previous 580.95.05 as below for 15.0, thus, using both repo would result in mangled situation.
So restricting repo to be used like pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD-ports ( pkg upgrade -r FreeBSDfor pre-15.0) is advised for now.

Code: 
# pkg search -r FreeBSD-ports-kmods nvidia
nvidia-kmod-580.105.08.1500501 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
# pkg search -r FreeBSD-ports nvidia
libva-nvidia-driver-0.0.14_2   NVDEC-based backend for VAAPI
linux-nvidia-libs-580.95.05    NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
linux-nvidia-libs-304-304.137  NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
linux-nvidia-libs-340-340.108  NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
linux-nvidia-libs-390-390.157  NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
linux-nvidia-libs-470-470.256.02 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
linux-nvidia-libs-devel-580.95.05 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version)
nvidia-driver-580.95.05        NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-304-304.137_11   NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-340-340.108_5    NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-390-390.157_1    NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-470-470.256.02_2 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-devel-580.95.05  NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-drm-61-kmod-580.95.05.1500068_1 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-61-kmod-devel-580.95.05.1500068_1 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-66-kmod-580.95.05.1500068_1 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-66-kmod-devel-580.95.05.1500068_1 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-kmod-580.95.05_1    NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-kmod-devel-580.95.05_1 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-latest-kmod-580.95.05.1500068 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-drm-latest-kmod-devel-580.95.05.1500068 NVIDIA DRM Kernel Module
nvidia-kmod-580.95.05.1500068  kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-kmod-304-304.137.1500068 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-kmod-340-340.108.1500068 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-kmod-390-390.157.1500068 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-kmod-470-470.256.02.1500068 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-kmod-devel-580.95.05.1500068 kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-settings-580.95.05      Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
nvidia-texture-tools-2.1.2     Texture Tools with support for DirectX 10 texture formats
nvidia-xconfig-580.95.05       Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia driver
nvidia_gpu_prometheus_exporter-g20181028_32 NVIDIA GPU Prometheus exporter
#
 
I'm wondering about having an old 9600GT board where I've only used nvidia-driver. When 15.0-RELEASE becomes available, and I should want to reinstall the nvidia driver, what issues am I going to have and how would I do that?
 
drhowarddrfine said:
I'm wondering about having an old 9600GT board where I've only used nvidia-driver. When 15.0-RELEASE becomes available, and I should want to reinstall the nvidia driver, what issues am I going to have and how would I do that?
Click to expand...
Would be old days that x11/nvidia-driver supported 9600GT.
According to upstream info, it woud be supported by 340 series of drivers.

So x11/nvidia-driver-340 in conjunction with x11/nvidia-kmod-340 would work.

If you're going to upgrade old installation that x11/nvidia-driver was at any of 340 series, you'll need to deinstall x11/nvidia-driver first, then, install x11/nvidia-driver-340. It would automatically pull in x11/nvidia-kmod-340 as its dependency.

Note that pre-470 series of drivers are already EoL'ed upstream at the end of 2022. Why pre-470 versions of drivers are still in ports tree is just because the upsream tarball is still fetchable and buildable. Once upstream tarballs become unfetchable, 3xx series of legacy drivers would dissappear from ports tree shortly.

And current 580 series of drivers would be the last driver that support GPUs without GSP (older than Turing microarchitecture), thus, once 581 or later series of drivers are released as production branch of drivers, legacy variant for 580 series would be created.
 
T-Aoki said:
And just at the time I'm writing this post, FreeBSD-ports-kmods repo has 580.105.08 while main repo still has previous 580.95.05 as below for 15.0, thus, using both repo would result in mangled situation.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, as a test on my 14.3-RELEASE, I used pkg install nvidia-driver from a clean sheet, that is no Nvidia stuff installed.
I have:
Rich (BB code): 
[1-0] # pkg query -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(510-|515-|61-|66-)?kmod|(^nvidia-)' | column -t
[FreeBSD-kmods]  graphics/drm-61-kmod  drm-61-kmod    6.1.128.1403000_7
[FreeBSD]        graphics/drm-kmod     drm-kmod       20250428
[FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver     nvidia-driver  580.95.05
[FreeBSD-kmods]  x11/nvidia-kmod       nvidia-kmod    580.105.08.1403000
[2-0] #
this is the "mangled situation" you are referring to.

I imagine the builds of the 'kmods' remote repositories and the remote non-'kmods' will not be synced/aligned. My hunch is that, in part because of its limited number of constituents, the remote 'kmods' builds are on a faster and/or more frequent build cycle.

In all likelyhood, this means that this Nvidia related issue, where the "mangled situation" has to be avoided, will become a recurring one.
 
Erichans said:
this is the "mangled situation" you are referring to.
Click to expand...
Exactly. This shouldn't work properly.

Erichans said:
I imagine the builds of the 'kmods' remote repositories and the remote non-'kmods' will not be synced/aligned.
Click to expand...
Should be. Both are built by independent builders.

Erichans said:
My hunch is that, in part because of its limited number of constituents, the remote 'kmods' builds are on a faster and/or more frequent build cycle.
Click to expand...
As far as I know, kmod builders are far poorer in performance.
But to-be-built pkgs are quite limited, kmod ports only, thus, would be shorter in build cycle.

Erichans said:
In all likelyhood, this means that this Nvidia related issue, where the "mangled situation" has to be avoided, will become a recurring one.
Click to expand...
It is on admins of builders. But fortunately, currently all supported major versions of base has single supported minor version only, thus, stop using kmod repo by restricting to main repo should work as workaround.
 
I can't seem to install `nvidia-kmod-580.95.05`, so currently Nvidia is completely broken due to version mismatch. How soon should the updated build be released? If not soon, then how can this be fixed? I would really like to use a graphical environment.
 
I've tried to use "nvidia-drm-kmod-devel" driver since all "*-devel" packages have matching versions, however, the issue persists. For now I've resorted to using vesa drivers until the packages are fixed.
 
Qtwosix what version of freebsd? What are you running for packages, quarterly or latest? Have you followed the infomation in Updating as suggested in post #2?
A little more information makes it easier for others to help
 
Qtwosix said:
I can't seem to install `nvidia-kmod-580.95.05`, so currently Nvidia is completely broken due to version mismatch.
Click to expand...
If you're building locally with ports, it shouldn't happen, so assuming you're using pkg upgrade.

Try pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD -f x11/nvidia-kmod x11/nvidia-driver instead.
If you're on any of 15.0[-ALPHA*|-BETA*] or stable/15, upgrade -r FreeBSD-ports -f x11/nvidia-kmod x11/nvidia-driver instead.

This does NOT work when multiple minor versions are supported (say, 14.2 and 14.3) and you're using newer one (here, 14.3), but fortunately, currently only one minor versions are supported for all supported major versions, so it should work.

Qtwosix said:
How soon should the updated build be released?
Click to expand...
It's completely out of my control.
But as far as I can see, there are no fallout report on freebsd-pkg-fallout ML for nvidia related ports after 580.105.08 is committed (note that it would not appear on 2025Q4, as quarterly only gets upgrades for security and/or build issues).
This means builds for 580.105.08 are somehow not started. If any build failure happens, freebsd-pkg-fallout ML should receive mail automatically from pkg build cluster for main repo.
 
Qtwosix said:
I've tried to use "nvidia-drm-kmod-devel" driver since all "*-devel" packages have matching versions, however, the issue persists
Click to expand...
To view the version issue here from a slightly different angle, on my 14.3-RELEASE using latest, I can see the following packages available on the remote FreeBSD package servers:
Rich (BB code): 
[0-0] # date -u
Tue Nov 11 11:49:14 UTC 2025
[1-0] # pkg rquery -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(510-|515-|61-|66-)?kmod|(^nvidia-)' | column -t | nl
     1  [FreeBSD]        graphics/drm-515-kmod               drm-515-kmod               5.15.160.1403000_7
     2  [FreeBSD]        graphics/drm-61-kmod                drm-61-kmod                6.1.128.1403000_7
     3  [FreeBSD]        graphics/drm-kmod                   drm-kmod                   20250428
     4  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver                   nvidia-driver              580.95.05
     5  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver-304               nvidia-driver-304          304.137_11
     6  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver-340               nvidia-driver-340          340.108_5
     7  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver-390               nvidia-driver-390          390.157_1
     8  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver-470               nvidia-driver-470          470.256.02_2
     9  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver-devel             nvidia-driver-devel        580.95.05
    10  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-515-kmod        nvidia-drm-515-kmod        580.95.05.1403000_1
    11  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-515-kmod-devel  nvidia-drm-515-kmod-devel  580.95.05.1403000_1
    12  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-61-kmod         nvidia-drm-61-kmod         580.95.05.1403000_1
    13  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-61-kmod-devel   nvidia-drm-61-kmod-devel   580.95.05.1403000_1
    14  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod            nvidia-drm-kmod            580.95.05_1
    15  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod-devel      nvidia-drm-kmod-devel      580.95.05_1
    16  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod                     nvidia-kmod                580.95.05.1403000
    17  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod-304                 nvidia-kmod-304            304.137.1403000
    18  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod-340                 nvidia-kmod-340            340.108.1403000
    19  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod-390                 nvidia-kmod-390            390.157.1403000
    20  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod-470                 nvidia-kmod-470            470.256.02.1403000
    21  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod-devel               nvidia-kmod-devel          580.95.05.1403000
    22  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-settings                 nvidia-settings            580.95.05
    23  [FreeBSD]        graphics/nvidia-texture-tools       nvidia-texture-tools       2.1.2
    24  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-xconfig                  nvidia-xconfig             580.95.05
    25  [FreeBSD-kmods]  graphics/drm-515-kmod               drm-515-kmod               5.15.160.1403000_7
    26  [FreeBSD-kmods]  graphics/drm-61-kmod                drm-61-kmod                6.1.128.1403000_7
    27  [FreeBSD-kmods]  x11/nvidia-kmod                     nvidia-kmod                580.105.08.1403000
#4 and #16 align, they are a match because they are based on the same driver version 580.95.05:
Rich (BB code): 
 4  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-driver                   nvidia-driver              580.95.05
16  [FreeBSD]        x11/nvidia-kmod                     nvidia-kmod                580.95.05.1403000
This is a good combination, you should get this by either one out of the possibilities:
  • pkg install -r FreeBSD nvidia-driver from scratch where nothing Nvidia is installed
  • pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD -f x11/nvidia-kmod x11/nvidia-driver, forcing a re-install in your current situation

In the FreeBSD-kmods repository, there is, at the moment, a lone nvidia-kmod version 580.105.08:
Rich (BB code): 
27  [FreeBSD-kmods]  x11/nvidia-kmod                     nvidia-kmod                580.105.08.1403000
This cannot be used until this version appears in the FreeBSD repository. T-Aoki has no way to influence or change this. You must wait until version 580.105.08 replaces version 580.95.05 in the FreeBSD repository, or build x11/nvidia-driver from source: a local build should get you version 580.105.08 for both:
  • nvidia-driver
  • nvidia-kmod
 
Erichans said:
pkg install -r FreeBSD nvidia-driver from scratch where nothing Nvidia is installed
Click to expand...
This does work, however, I'm now running into a different issue. Following the manual, I also installed nvidia-drm-kmod, but the driver seems to not function.
The kernel modules can't be loaded for a strange reason. Checking dmesg using dmesg | grep nvidia:
Code: 
KLD nvidia-drm.ko: depends on drmn - not available or version mismatch
There exists no package named "drmn", so I'm unsure of how this could be fixed.

In case this matters, my kld_load in /etc/rc.conf only contains "nvidia-drm" and I'm using an RTX 3070 GPU.

Update:
I got the drivers to work by installing only "nvidia-driver" without "nvidia-drm-kmod", and having "nvidia nvidia-modeset" in my kld_list.
The manual article on this is quite unuseful.
 
Qtwosix said:
This does work, however, I'm now running into a different issue. Following the manual, I also installed nvidia-drm-kmod, but the driver seems to not function.
The kernel modules can't be loaded for a strange reason. Checking dmesg using dmesg | grep nvidia:
Code: 
KLD nvidia-drm.ko: depends on drmn - not available or version mismatch
There exists no package named "drmn", so I'm unsure of how this could be fixed.

In case this matters, my kld_load in /etc/rc.conf only contains "nvidia-drm" and I'm using an RTX 3070 GPU.

Update:
I got the drivers to work by installing only "nvidia-driver" without "nvidia-drm-kmod", and having "nvidia nvidia-modeset" in my kld_list.
The manual article on this is quite unuseful.
Click to expand...
Device drmn seems to be in drm.ko built by graphics/drm-*-kmod, which is the dependency of corresponding graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod[-devel].
Are you sure you've installed graphics/drm-61-kmod (default for 14.3)?

And another possibility would be you've not added hw.nvidiadrm.modeset=1 line in your /boot/loader.conf (maybe unlikely here with drmn error, though, needed for nvidia-drm.ko to work).

Anyway, if you don't need DRM (Direct Rendering Manager), using x11/nvidia-kmod and x11/nvidia-driver without graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod[-devel] is fine.
 
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