By Manuel, 2022-Mar-31
Latest update: 2026-Jan-12
Important for older Nvidia GPUs!
Up from (2023-Feb) nvidia-inst does not support installing (older) legacy drivers. This means certain older Nvidia GPUs should use either the nouveau kernel driver or install the appropriate legacy driver from the AUR (with yay).
IMPORTANT NOTE: if you have added repository [kernel-lts] into file /etc/pacman.conf, please remove it from the file because this repository may include outdated packages.
Tip: you can still use command nvidia-inst -t to find the needed commands, just be sure to change the package names according to the version (for example, change nvidia-dkms to nvidia-580xx-dkms etc.).
Overview
nvidia-inst helps to install and uninstall driver (and related) packages for Nvidia GPUs.
Here’s the output of the nvidia-inst command with the help option:
$ nvidia-inst --help
nvidia-inst - help installing drivers for Nvidia GPU
Usage: nvidia-inst [options]
Options:
-h, --help This help.
-b, --bumblebee Install bumblebee and Nvidia drivers for optimus cards (only very old cards).
-f, --force Force driver installation even if a nvidia card is not detected.
-n, --nouveau Install (open source) nouveau driver instead of nvidia-dkms.
-o, --open Install package nvidia-open-dkms instead of nvidia-dkms.
-p, --prime Install also prime render offload.
-q, --quiet Suppress log messages.
-t, --test Test mode. Nothing in your system will be modified.
-v, --version Show version of this software.
--32 Install also support for 32-bit apps.
--switcheroo Install switcheroo-control and enable its service. Use this option separately.
--conf Create also file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf (might be needed on some older systems).
--no-dkms Install only non-dkms packages (e.g. 'nvidia-open' instead of 'nvidia-open-dkms').
--show-gpu-info Show information about your GPU. Use this option separately.
--listseries List Nvidia driver versions supported by nvidia-inst.
--ignore Ignore all errors (useful for testing only).
--series=X (Advanced) Use the given Nvidia driver version X (for testing).
--remove-nothing (Advanced) Do not remove any existing package (for testing).
--listopts List options supported by nvidia-inst.
Notes:
* By default, nvidia-inst detects the Nvidia GPU family and selects automatically between
Nvidia's open source driver, or the nouveau kernel driver.
* NVIDIA no longer actively supports older than Turing family GPUs. Thus using
the nouveau driver (or a driver from the AUR) with them may provide a solution.
See also: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA#Installation
* By default, dkms packages are preferred and will be selected for install if none of options
--no-dkms
--nouveau
--bumblebee
is used.
* If you have more than one GPU in the system, then you may need a tool to choose the GPUs to use.
There are several popular tools in the AUR, e.g.
- envycontrol
- optimus-manager
- supergfxctl
to mention a few.
See also:
- https://discovery.endeavouros.com/?s=nvidia
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA_Optimus
Options
With nvidia-inst you can install drivers for your Nvidia GPU. nvidia-inst detects which driver packages are needed. Additional features will be installed based on given options.
Likely the most important new options in nvidia-inst are
--test
Use this to see the suggested commands. Nothing will be changed in your system.
Note: without this option nvidia-inst will start running the commands it suggests.
--prime
This option will install the package nvidia-prime in addition to the Nvidia drivers.
--32
Also includes support for 32-bit apps. Typically, gamers need this.
--nouveau
This is needed for Nvidia GPUs older than the Turing family.
--no-dkms
Use this option if you don’t want to install the dkms version of the driver package. The dkms version is slower to install and upgrade, but is compatible with additional kernels (like e.g. linux-zen and linux-hardened).
Other new options should be rather self-explanatory. Some options are mainly meant for internal testing of nvidia-inst.
Removing conflicting packages
If nvidia-inst is executed e.g. with option --nouveau, it will remove conflicting packages like the default nvidia driver, and then install the nouveau driver. A similar idea is used with all options that need to take care of conflicting packages and/or certain settings: conflicting stuff will be removed first, and then the new packages/settings will be installed.
This also means that if you have Nvidia related packages or settings that you want to save, you need to do that manually before using nvidia-inst.
References
Examples
Enable legacy drivers (older Nvidia cards)
Older Nvidia cards like GT 700 or GT 10xx series are not supported by the latest Nvidia driver available from the official Arch repositories. For those cards, there are alternatives:
- the
nouveauopen source kernel driver - a legacy Nvidia driver from the
AUR(for example,nvidia-580xx-dkmsfor Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta family GPUs)
For the older, Nvidia GPUs nvidia-inst supports the nouveau driver (option -n).
If legacy Nvidia drivers from the AUR are needed, the user can install them from the AUR, using e.g. yay. Then install them manually.
Example:
yay -S nvidia-580xx-dkms
After rebooting, the drivers should be active. You will get driver updates as expected using pacman or yay.
Bumblebee (for very old machines)
If you need to set up Bumblebee as detailed here: EndeavourOS Bumblebee wiki the nvidia-inst script can do that automatically too:
nvidia-inst -b