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101: Older NVIDIA driver installation with RPMs
This note introduces the way to install older NVIDIA drivers using RPM packages. The official archive of CUDA Toolkit download page introduces users step-by-step command lines to download and install the older CUDA Toolkit (userspace), but the driver installation command intends to install the latest version regardless of the CUDA Toolkit version. It often makes troubles to use GPU devices by the wrong combination of CUDA Toolkit and NVIDIA driver.
The CUDA Compatibility Guide introduces which combinations of CUDA Toolkit and NVIDIA driver are valid. Basically, CUDA Toolkit requires the latest driver when it is released, or older series. For example, CUDA 12.4 is workable on R550, R535, or R470 driver series, but not workable on R560 or newer driver release, according to the CUDA Application Compatibility Support Matrix. On the other hands, this is often happen when we installed the older CUDA Toolkit and used newer NVIDIA driver than its expectation, because official installation guide suggests to use the latest driver at that time regardless of the CUDA Toolkit.
The Driver Installation Guide introduces the way to switch package stream of nvidia-driver from open-dkms to the specific driver release like R560.
sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:open-dkms
sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:560-open
As an example, we assume user want to switch R550 driver from the latest (default installation)
--- uninstall the latest driver stuff
# dnf module remove nvidia-driver:open-dkms
# dnf erase nvidia-gds
--- switch to the R550 driver series
# dnf module switch-to nvidia-driver:550-open
--- installation of the R550 driver stuff
# dnf module install nvidia-driver:550-open
# dnf install nvidia-gds
--- unload the drivers if still loaded to the kernel space
# rmmod nvidia-fs nvidia-uvm nvidia