How to install the NVIDIA drivers on RHEL 8 Workstation

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The NVIDIA Driver is a program needed for your NVIDIA Graphics GPU to function with better performance. It communicates between your Linux operating system, in this case Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and your hardware, the NVIDIA Graphics GPU. The NVIDIA drivers can be installed by using the bash command after stopping the GUI and disabling the nouveau driver by modifying the GRUB boot menu.

To install Nvidia driver on other Linux distributions, follow our Nvidia Linux Driver guide.

In this NVIDIA Drivers installation guide you will learn:

  • How to identify your NVIDIA graphic card model on your operating system.
  • Where to download the NVIDIA driver package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
  • How to install prerequisites for a successful Nvidia Driver compilation and installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
  • How to disable the nouveau driver.
  • How to successfully install NVIDIA Drivers on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Linux operating system.
Installed Nvidia drivers on RHEL 8 Linux GNOME Workstation

Installed Nvidia drivers on RHEL 8 Linux GNOME Workstation running graphic card benchmark.

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Criteria Requirements
Operating System Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Software Existing Desktop installation such as GNOME.
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to install the NVIDIA drivers on RHEL 8 Workstation step by step instructions

  1. Open up the terminal and identify your Nvidia graphic card model by executing: 
    $ lspci -vnn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] [10de:1c03] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
  2. Download the Nvidia driver package from nvidia.com using search criteria based on your Nvidia card model and the Linux operating system.

    Alternatively, if you know what you are doing you can download the driver directly from the Nvidia Linux driver list. Once ready you should end up with a file similar to the one shown below:

    $ ls NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-*
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.73.run
  3. Install all prerequisites for a successful Nvidia driver compilation and installation. 
    # dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
# dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel libglvnd-devel
  4. Permanently disable the nouveau driver by modifying the GRUB boot menu: 
    # grub2-editenv - set "$(grub2-editenv - list | grep kernelopts) nouveau.modeset=0"
    Disabling nouveau driver on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Workstation.

    Disabling nouveau driver on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Workstation.

  5. Reboot your Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Workstation. 
    # reboot
  6. The Nvidia drivers must be installed while the Xorg server is stopped. Switch to the text mode by: 
    #  systemctl isolate multi-user.target
  7. Install the Nvidia driver by executing the following command:
    NOTE
    ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel
    In case you receive the above error message during the execution of the below command, follow the kernel source instructions on how to install kernel source on CentOS / RHEL Linux system.
    # bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-*

    When prompted answer YES to installation of NVIDIA’s 32-bit compatibility libraries, overwrite existing libglvnd files and automatic update of your X configuration file.

  8. Reboot your system once more time. 
    # reboot

    All done. The Nvidia driver should now be installed on your RHEL 8 Workstation. Reboot your system now, login and run nvidia-settings to further configure your Nvidia graphic card settings.

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