Is there any way to find out the minimum and maximum kernel version the nvidia driver supports?

[rado84]

My question is related to the nvidia driver, that's why I'm posting it here. If a mod thinks there's a better place for this question, move it there.

So, here's the deal - I've noticed that sometimes when updating the kernel while having a certain version of nvidia driver, dkms returns an error (while rebuilding the initramfs images) which always reads something like this "dkms: --nodepmod install exited with error 10" or something similar. This makes me think that each nvidia driver version has a certain range of kernel versions it can work with beyond which you have to update the nvidia driver. So, the question is: is there a way I can see what that kernel range is? It has to be written somewhere - either in a file in the system or online. But IDK where to look for that.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Doesn't seem like it after going through this topic.

Linux kernel vs nvidia driver version

Since the Nvidia search tool can identify your current driver by your current kernel and configuration, there must be a table or database that shows the association between kernel revisions and driver revisions. I am try to find out what Linux kernel(s) supports the Nvidia driver version...

forums.developer.nvidia.com

 

[rado84]

So, in short, there's no way to find out what I asked for? And I don't suppose mkinitcpio has a debug mode which simulates rebuilding initramfs images but without actually rebuilding them (so that I can test and see which kernel will work with a specific nvidia driver without returning errors)?

 

[dos2unix]

I don't think it's directly tied to the kernel. I would say the drivers have a lot more to do with it than the kernel.
I can run my GeForce 2080 with nvidia drivers on 4.x, 5.x and 6.x kernels. But the driver versions do make a different.

 

[JasKinasis]

I think it’s more that nvidia eventually stop updating some of the older drivers when newer kernels are released.

My old work desktop (which I was given when my employer permanently closed our office, now that we all work purely from home on laptops!) has an old nvidia GFX card and and equally old onboard Intel GFX card.

The desktop itself is still a pretty decent machine. First generation i7 processors, 16Gb RAM etc.

I installed Ubuntu Studio 24.04 on it, just so I had a quick and easy setup for connecting to my home studio.

The driver for the nVidia graphics card is no longer available because it will not build against the kernel used in 24.04.
It doesn’t even work with the Nouveau drivers. I just get a glitched out black screen. So that card’s only good for the bin ATM.

The onboard Intel graphics card works flawlessly, but certain applications like Blender will not run, because the Intel card supports an earlier version of OpenGL. As I discovered recently when editing a video for my band.

I wanted to create some animated titles with effects in Openshot. Openshot was already set up with the path to Blender. But when I tried to generate some titles, I got errors about Blender not running.

After running Blender in the terminal, I got some error messages. Looking them up online, I discovered that they’d dropped support for older graphics cards!

So I had to make do with using static titles in the vid. Not a huge problem. But now it seems I need to invest in a better GFX card for my desktop. And when I do that, I’ll probably have to upgrade the power supply too, because the supply on it is only 300 Watts.

And IDK offhand if the expansion slots on the mobo will be compatible with a newer GFX card. I honestly haven’t kept up to date with any changes to pci/pcie etc.
I imagine it should be alright, but I’ll look up the specs for the mobo to ensure the next GFX card will be compatible JIC.

Hopefully I’m not looking at a complete rebuild….. Ugh!