[Resolved] Ubuntu - Updating Nvidia Drivers - RTX 3070 TI

Hi out there!

I just reinstalled my main machine with a clean Ubuntu 24.04, and changed it back to vanilla Gnome.

Now that the machine is fresh & clean I want to update the stock Nvidia drivers to a higher version than 535.

But how can I lookup what driver to update to, and so on.
Windows just pulls the newest but how do I do on a Linux?

All this driver thing started when some of my games prompting me to update.

Thanks!

Have you updated your repo’s package list? If not, do an apt update and see if the newer version shows up.

I have done that. I looks like a curated list that never updates.
That might be because it is an LTS release.

To anwser my own original question.

I found from Nvidias site that version 550 of driver was the latest and stable driver they offer.

I installed it last night and tested my games and general apps and it seems to work fine.
With the added bonus that my GPU seems to run much cooler now. :blush:

Maybe I should make an Gnome app that shows updates for the driver, in my summer vacation. :joy:

NVIDIA offers an apt repository for many distributions, including Ubuntu. You can find instructions for setting it up here.

I run Debian, and the driver version in their repos is something archaic like 525, so I was in a similar situation. But the NVIDIA apt repository has the latest 555 driver along with all their CUDA tools, NVAPI and OptiX libraries for games, etc.

I prefer the apt repository to a runfile because I get served updates automatically with an apt upgrade, like with any other software on my system.

I used the package manager as well. I find it too frustrating to keep updating the DKMS with kernel updates. :slight_smile:

So on ubuntu I just run apt install nvidia-driver-550 and then it just keeps everything synced and it also installs DKMS stuff and everything. :smiley:

$ nvidia-smi
Thu Jul 25 22:32:59 2024       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.90.07              Driver Version: 550.90.07      CUDA Version: 12.4     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti     Off |   00000000:0A:00.0  On |                  N/A |
|  0%   44C    P5             27W /  290W |     978MiB /   8192MiB |     36%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

Now I am just wondering how to keep my drivers updated, with the latest stable release.
Without manually checking Nvidias website. I hope I can find some API or feed that can tell me that out here on the internet.

…or just install cuda-drivers without specifying a version in order to be kept up to date like any other apt package?

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That is some hidden knowledge that does not get shared around or written about…