How to make the Nvidia drivers to work on a laptop using Fedora with Secure Boot?

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Marco D. Mosna

Nvidia can be quirky when it comes to Linux systems, but fortunately, with the power of the internet and a cup of coffee, hours’ worth of headaches can lead to significant learning experiences.

Now, how do you make the Nvidia drivers work if you have a laptop with an integrated GPU + dedicated GPU setup?

A little caveat: this worked for me and might not work for you. This is just a guide to hopefully improve your search for a solution.

Steps:

1. Set up Fedora to work with Secure Boot.
2. Get and use the Nvidia driver installer from the official Nvidia website.
3. Using the location defined during the Nvidia installation, find the .der file and import it using mokutil. (You should be familiar with this step after following the Secure Boot setup in step 2.)
4. After importing the key with mokutil, reboot and follow the prompts (see step 2 for details).
5. Enjoy your Nvidia drivers!

Resources:

• Official Unix Nvidia Driver installer
• Fedora Secure Boot Instructions
• Same Problem / My inspiration

My current Fedora kernel version:

Linux fedora 6.11.3-200.fc40.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Oct 10 22:31:19 UTC 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Marco D. Mosna