How to check if the NVIDIA drivers/modules are installed?

[jarkky]

It looks like not working no matter what I try.

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[  298.074660] NVRM: This may be due to a known Linux kernel bug.  Please
               NVRM: see the README section on 64-bit BARs for additional
               NVRM: information.
[  298.074666] nvidia: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -1
[  298.074692] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
[  298.074694] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA devices were initialized.
[  298.078810] nvidia-nvlink: Unregistered the Nvlink Core, major device number 509
[  298.575804] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 509
[  298.575814] NVRM: This is a 64-bit BAR mapped above 4GB by the system
               NVRM: BIOS or the Linux kernel, but the PCI bridge
               NVRM: immediately upstream of this GPU does not define
               NVRM: a matching prefetchable memory window.
[  298.576376] NVRM: This may be due to a known Linux kernel bug.  Please
               NVRM: see the README section on 64-bit BARs for additional
               NVRM: information.
[  298.576380] nvidia: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -1
[  298.576397] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
[  298.576398] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA devices were initialized.
[  298.576552] nvidia-nvlink: Unregistered the Nvlink Core, major device number 509

[roblm]

In this topic in the Nvidia Developer Forum for Linux Graphics, generix says that error message may be from the the action of bbswitch, which is a kernel module used to power on and off the Nvidia card on Optimus based systems. It’s not needed for newer versions of Mint/Ubuntu. I’ve also read another topic where removing that module solved the same problem.
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/u ... r/166514/2

Use this command to check if bbswitch is installed: apt policy bbswitch-dkms

If it is, then remove it: apt remove bbswitch-dkms

[jarkky]

It looks not installed:

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$ apt policy bbswitch-dkms
bbswitch-dkms:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.8-8ubuntu0.20.04.1
  Version table:
     0.8-8ubuntu0.20.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
     0.8-8 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages

It looks there is no way to get the NVIDIA driver installed, loaded and activated in this system.

[SMG]

When did you switch to using MATE on this laptop? The Nvidia 470.63.01 driver was working when you were using Cinnamon in this post on this laptop.

Do you have any Timeshift snapshots of when the computer had the Nvidia driver working?

[roblm]

I was just looking at this topic in the Nvidia Developer Forums for Linux Graphics
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/n ... 0-3/199988

User leigh123linux states that MATE doesn’t work with the Nvidia-495 driver. However, user123849 reported problems with both the 495 and 470 drivers, but switching to Cinnamon did solve the problem.

[jarkky]

Thats causing it.. This is Mate.
I would not use Cinnamon as it is slower.

I found this is told by somoeone else also:
"it seems that some glitch in the code makes MATE, lightdm, and my hardware incompatible."

Maybe because this is older NVIDIA MX250 hardware.

[SMG]

Thats causing it.. This is Mate.
I would not use Cinnamon as it is slower.

You could try Cinnamon with all the Effects turned off. Tests done in the past indicated there was not really much difference between the two when run in that mode.

[jarkky]

I installed the Cinnamon and NVIDIA still not operating...

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$ nvidia-smi 
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

So far it looks impossible to get it working and no clear error message about it.
dmesg though has a lot of outputs:

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[  704.233688] nvidia: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -1
[  704.233712] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
[  704.233714] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA devices were initialized.
[  704.233919] nvidia-nvlink: Unregistered the Nvlink Core, major device number 509
[  704.857262] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 509
[  704.857271] NVRM: This is a 64-bit BAR mapped above 4GB by the system
               NVRM: BIOS or the Linux kernel, but the PCI bridge
               NVRM: immediately upstream of this GPU does not define
               NVRM: a matching prefetchable memory window.
[  704.861342] NVRM: This may be due to a known Linux kernel bug.  Please
               NVRM: see the README section on 64-bit BARs for additional
               NVRM: information.
[  704.861347] nvidia: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -1
[  704.861370] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
[  704.861371] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA devices were initialized.
[  704.862011] nvidia-nvlink: Unregistered the Nvlink Core, major device number 509

I can use also the "nouveau" driver:

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$ lsmod | grep vid
video                  53248  2 i915,nouveau

But NVIDIA original driver can not be installed&used no matter what.
It should be noted though that the NVIDIA -driver works well in the RockyLinux8.5 case.
Also the system didn't shutdown/restart normally any more and I have to shutdown it using power button.
The shutdown may operate normally if I logout x-session before I do shutdown.
Also the suspend in the login window causes permanent lock that can not be released except by power button shut down.

The NVIDIA driver problem could be related to the driver version, so I try following:

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sudo apt install nvidia-driver-390

and see if it works.

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$ neofetch 
             ...-:::::-...                 jari@cosmo 
          .-MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM-.              ---------- 
      .-MMMM`..-:::::::-..`MMMM-.          OS: Linux Mint 20.3 x86_64 
    .:MMMM.:MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM:.MMMM:.        Host: HP ENVY Laptop 17-ce0xxx 
   -MMM-M---MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.MMM-       Kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic 
 `:MMM:MM`  :MMMM:....::-...-MMMM:MMM:`    Uptime: 5 mins 
 :MMM:MMM`  :MM:`  ``    ``  `:MMM:MMM:    Packages: 2675 (dpkg), 3 (rpm), 6 (flatpak) 
.MMM.MMMM`  :MM.  -MM.  .MM-  `MMMM.MMM.   Shell: bash 5.0.17 
:MMM:MMMM`  :MM.  -MM-  .MM:  `MMMM-MMM:   Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1080 
:MMM:MMMM`  :MM.  -MM-  .MM:  `MMMM:MMM:   DE: Cinnamon 5.2.7 
:MMM:MMMM`  :MM.  -MM-  .MM:  `MMMM-MMM:   WM: Mutter (Muffin) 
.MMM.MMMM`  :MM:--:MM:--:MM:  `MMMM.MMM.   WM Theme: Mint-Y-Dark (Mint-Y) 
 :MMM:MMM-  `-MMMMMMMMMMMM-`  -MMM-MMM:    Theme: Mint-Y [GTK2/3] 
  :MMM:MMM:`                `:MMM:MMM:     Icons: Mint-Y [GTK2/3] 
   .MMM.MMMM:--------------:MMMM.MMM.      Terminal: mate-terminal 
     '-MMMM.-MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM-.MMMM-'       Terminal Font: Monospace 11 
       '.-MMMM``--:::::--``MMMM-.'         CPU: Intel i7-8565U (8) @ 4.600GHz 
            '-MMMMMMMMMMMMM-'              GPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX250 
               ``-:::::-``                 GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 
                                           Memory: 2615MiB / 15732MiB 

                                           

Nothing works out:

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$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

[SMG]

Also the system didn't shutdown/restart normally any more and I have to shutdown it using power button.
The shutdown may operate normally if I logout x-session before I do shutdown.
Also the suspend in the login window causes permanent lock that can not be released except by power button shut down.

You have not provided any data about your Cinnamon install. neofetch data is not useful with regards to graphics drivers.

Please provide the output of inxi -Fxxxrz and the output of dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia.

[jarkky]

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$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:    Kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 wm: muffin dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
           Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP ENVY Laptop 17-ce0xxx v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: HP model: 85E5 v: 30.31 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: F.11 date: 08/06/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 54.4 Wh condition: 54.4/54.4 Wh (100%) volts: 12.8/11.6 model: 333-54-2C-A LK03055XL 
           type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) 
           rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
           Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) 
           rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-8565U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake rev: C L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 31999 
           Speed: 2500 MHz min/max: 400/4600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2500 2: 2500 3: 2500 4: 2500 5: 2500 6: 2500 7: 2500 
           8: 2500 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3ea0 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX250] driver: N/A bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1d13 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (WHL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-cnl 
           bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9dc8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.13.0-28-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP CNVi [Wireless-AC] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 5000 bus ID: 00:14.3 
           chip ID: 8086:9df0 
           IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel 
           port: 3000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.59 TiB used: 654.58 GiB (40.1%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN520 SDAPNUW-256G-1006 size: 238.47 GiB speed: 15.8 Gb/s 
           lanes: 2 serial: <filter> rev: 20110006 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM049-2GH172 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: RXM3 scheme: GPT 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: HP model: x796w size: 462.32 GiB serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: MBR 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: 5060 bus ID: 00:17.0 
           chip ID: 8086.282a rev: 30 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 48.97 GiB used: 23.97 GiB (48.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
           ID-2: /boot size: 975.9 MiB used: 340.2 MiB (34.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
           ID-3: /home size: 479.62 GiB used: 293.98 GiB (61.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 71.0 C mobo: 58.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
Info:      Processes: 349 Uptime: 2d 3h 39m Memory: 15.36 GiB used: 4.97 GiB (32.4%) Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 
           Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

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$ dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia
ii  libnvidia-cfg1-390:amd64                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA binary OpenGL/GLX configuration library
ii  libnvidia-common-390                              390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              all          Shared files used by the NVIDIA libraries
ii  libnvidia-compute-390:amd64                       390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA libcompute package
ii  libnvidia-compute-390:i386                        390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVIDIA libcompute package
rc  libnvidia-compute-460:amd64                       460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1            amd64        NVIDIA libcompute package
rc  libnvidia-compute-470:amd64                       470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2               amd64        NVIDIA libcompute package
rc  libnvidia-compute-495:amd64                       495.46-0ubuntu0.20.04.1               amd64        NVIDIA libcompute package
ii  libnvidia-decode-390:amd64                        390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA Video Decoding runtime libraries
ii  libnvidia-decode-390:i386                         390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVIDIA Video Decoding runtime libraries
ii  libnvidia-encode-390:amd64                        390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVENC Video Encoding runtime library
ii  libnvidia-encode-390:i386                         390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVENC Video Encoding runtime library
ii  libnvidia-extra-470:amd64                         470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2               amd64        Extra libraries for the NVIDIA driver
ii  libnvidia-fbc1-390:amd64                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA OpenGL-based Framebuffer Capture runtime library
ii  libnvidia-fbc1-390:i386                           390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVIDIA OpenGL-based Framebuffer Capture runtime library
ii  libnvidia-gl-390:amd64                            390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA OpenGL/GLX/EGL/GLES GLVND libraries and Vulkan ICD
ii  libnvidia-gl-390:i386                             390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVIDIA OpenGL/GLX/EGL/GLES GLVND libraries and Vulkan ICD
ii  libnvidia-ifr1-390:amd64                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA OpenGL-based Inband Frame Readback runtime library
ii  libnvidia-ifr1-390:i386                           390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              i386         NVIDIA OpenGL-based Inband Frame Readback runtime library
ii  nvidia-compute-utils-390                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA compute utilities
rc  nvidia-compute-utils-460                          460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1            amd64        NVIDIA compute utilities
rc  nvidia-compute-utils-470                          470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2               amd64        NVIDIA compute utilities
rc  nvidia-compute-utils-495                          495.46-0ubuntu0.20.04.1               amd64        NVIDIA compute utilities
ii  nvidia-dkms-390                                   390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA DKMS package
rc  nvidia-dkms-460                                   460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1            amd64        NVIDIA DKMS package
rc  nvidia-dkms-470                                   470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2               amd64        NVIDIA DKMS package
rc  nvidia-dkms-495                                   495.46-0ubuntu0.20.04.1               amd64        NVIDIA DKMS package
ii  nvidia-driver-390                                 390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA driver metapackage
ii  nvidia-kernel-common-390                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        Shared files used with the kernel module
rc  nvidia-kernel-common-460                          460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1            amd64        Shared files used with the kernel module
rc  nvidia-kernel-common-470                          470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2               amd64        Shared files used with the kernel module
rc  nvidia-kernel-common-495                          495.46-0ubuntu0.20.04.1               amd64        Shared files used with the kernel module
ii  nvidia-kernel-source-390                          390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA kernel source package
ii  nvidia-prime                                      0.8.16~0.20.04.1                      all          Tools to enable NVIDIA's Prime
ii  nvidia-prime-applet                               1.3.1                                 all          An applet for NVIDIA Prime
ii  nvidia-settings                                   470.57.01-0ubuntu0.20.04.2            amd64        Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
ii  nvidia-utils-390                                  390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA driver support binaries
ii  screen-resolution-extra                           0.18build1                            all          Extension for the nvidia-settings control panel
ii  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-390                     390.144-0ubuntu0.20.04.1              amd64        NVIDIA binary Xorg driver

The data is provided above, but I think problem solution need different approach.

[SMG]

The data is provided above, but I think problem solution need different approach.

The data you just posted indicates you installed every Nvidia driver listed in Driver Manager. My best guess is the Nvidia-390 is currently the active one, but it's hard to tell with so many other driver files installed.

In January of last year you created this topic NVIDIA driver installation fails [SOLVED] where you ended up installing drivers both using Driver Manager and the Nvidia installer tool from their website.

February of last year you posted a topic The graphics could not fill the login window completely Then in March you posted about having problems booting your system because the home directory was not mounting.

Then in August you posted again in the login window topic indicating:

I found (after installed LinuxMint20.2) that this is caused by the 'updated kernel' (from update manager).
So that if I use something else than version 5.4.x (like 5.11.0-25-generic), this later kernel version is causing the login screen strange behavor.
Is it possible that the NVIDIA driver is not 100% compatible with the later kernel versions?
The intel driver even with newer kernel seem to work quite well in this regards.

At that time the nvidia v: 470.63.01 graphics driver was installed. In the May-July time-frame of last year there were a number of changes to files related to Intel-Nvidia switchable graphics which caused issues on some installs. Do you recall having issues then or doing any fixes you found online?

Did you re-install to get the Cinnamon desktop this time or did you just add the Cinnamon desktop to your existing MATE install? Your data looks like you might have just added Cinnamon.

I'm wondering if there are some files left over from some of the issues you've had and some of the things you've tried over the past year. Maybe a clean install with the Linux Mint 20.3 "Una" - Cinnamon (Edge, 64-bit) ISO which has the 5.13 kernel is something you want to consider.

[jarkky]

This seems not too easy...
Earlier case was with the llinux mint 20.1, now it is 20.3,
It is possible that the MATE-installation does not upgrade to CINNAMON as it should,
but I doubt that this is causing the problem.
The Cinnamon seemed to be slow, so I need additionally the MATE/XFCE.
But it seems one at the time in the given setup options.
So I made clean installation with the cinnamon desktop and NVIDIA driver seems to load now properly.
What was causing this?
Maybe the MATE-installation, or possibly 5.13 version kernel installation.

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$ nvidia-smi 
Sun Feb  6 18:55:55 2022       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.86       Driver Version: 470.86       CUDA Version: 11.4     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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 ...  Off  | 00000000:02:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   79C    P0    N/A /  N/A |    419MiB /  4042MiB |    100%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A       970      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                238MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1558      G   cinnamon                           34MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      3246      C   ...-linux-gnu__opencl_nvidia       53MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A     10287      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox           89MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

It might not be safe to install the mate now as a second desktop option, what do you think?

It looks problem is caused when kernel 5.13 is loaded:

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$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 5.13.0-28-generic (buildd@lgw01-amd64-035) (gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.34) #31~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 19 14:08:10 UTC 2022

NVIDIA driver works only with the 5.4.xx kernel...

And once kernel 5.13 is installed it can not be removed (only 5.4.xx can be removed completely).
So the NVIDIA is locked again.

Also I tried kernel version 5.14:

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$ cat /proc/version 
Linux version 5.14.9-051409-generic (kernel@kathleen) (gcc (Ubuntu 11.2.0-7ubuntu2) 11.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.37) #202109300934 SMP Thu Sep 30 09:39:33 UTC 2021
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

NVIDIA locked here as well with 5.14 -kernels...
Also 5.16 kernel fails to load NVIDIA:

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$ uname -r
5.16.3-051603-generic
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

So the 5.10-kernel (LTS) is possibly needed... (5.10.98 didn't work out)
If I just know how to remove the 5.13, 5.14 and 5.16 versions first.

Going back to kernel 5.4

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$ uname -r
5.4.0-97-generic

And NVIDIA driver is working now.

I wonder what is the latest kernel version that I could use with this NVIDIA drivers.

NVIDIA driver version has no effect, the latest driver seem to work well.

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$ nvidia-smi 
Sun Feb  6 22:48:25 2022       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 495.46       Driver Version: 495.46       CUDA Version: 11.5     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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 ...  Off  | 00000000:02:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   89C    P0    N/A /  N/A |    461MiB /  4042MiB |     99%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      1023      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                245MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1071      C   ...-linux-gnu__opencl_nvidia       53MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1614      G   cinnamon                           30MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1698      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox           86MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      2234      G   ...AAAAAAAAA= --shared-files       42MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Problem seem to be with the latest kernel versions only.

It looks working well now, I just have to know that 5.13 is not suitable for the NVIDIA...
I have some impression though that 5.4.x kernels are much slower than 5.13.y kernels.

I checked it and according to my results the latest kernel-version is 5.10.0 that works with the NVIDIA drivers.

[SMG]

This seems not too easy...
Earlier case was with the llinux mint 20.1, now it is 20.3,
It is possible that the MATE-installation does not upgrade to CINNAMON as it should,

While one can add additional desktop environments to their install, it is not really recommended to do that because there can be interference. That is one reason Linux Mint creates a separate ISO for each desktop version.

The Cinnamon seemed to be slow, so I need additionally the MATE/XFCE.

I suggest you open the Effects app and turn all of them off (sliders to the left). By doing that, Cinnamon is not much different than MATE or Xfce. Additionally, starting in LM20.2, Cinnamon has fixed memory leaks and made improvements to memory usage. Cinnamon will automatically restart itself (in the background so you should not notice it) if it starts consuming too much memory.

So I made clean installation with the cinnamon desktop and NVIDIA driver seems to load now properly.

Good to hear! Take a Timeshift snapshot of the working system.

It might not be safe to install the mate now as a second desktop option, what do you think?

I do not recommend installing multiple desktops, regardless of which desktop it is.

It looks problem is caused when kernel 5.13 is loaded:

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$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 5.13.0-28-generic (buildd@lgw01-amd64-035) (gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.34) #31~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 19 14:08:10 UTC 2022

NVIDIA driver works only with the 5.4.xx kernel...

And once kernel 5.13 is installed it can not be removed (only 5.4.xx can be removed completely).
So the NVIDIA is locked again.

I do not understand what any of this means. You have not shown what problem happened when 5.13 was loaded and I have no idea why you think the 5.13 kernel can not be removed completely.

If you take Timeshift snapshots before you do your experimenting, all the experimenting can be reversed by going back to the snapshot. There should be no problems whatsoever in completely removing a kernel.

Also I tried kernel version 5.14:

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$ cat /proc/version 
Linux version 5.14.9-051409-generic (kernel@kathleen) (gcc (Ubuntu 11.2.0-7ubuntu2) 11.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.37) #202109300934 SMP Thu Sep 30 09:39:33 UTC 2021
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

NVIDIA locked here as well with 5.14 -kernels...
Also 5.16 kernel fails to load NVIDIA:

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$ uname -r
5.16.3-051603-generic
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

Why are you installing mainline kernels? Both the 5.14 and 5.16 kernels you used are mainline kernels. We do not recommend using mainline kernels with Linux Mint.

It looks working well now, I just have to know that 5.13 is not suitable for the NVIDIA...

I have no idea what that means. You provided no information which indicates it is not working. Many people have had to use the fix mentioned in this post [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration") to make sure the Nvidia drivers load properly when they change kernels.

You had your system working and then you decided to experiment by adding unapproved kernels and changing drivers. Please start using Timeshift snapshots so you can cleanly remove all the experimenting you have been doing because it sounds like that experimenting is what is causing problems.

[jarkky]

Kernel 5.10.0 case the NVIDIA driver working and just today there was update 510 from linuxmint:

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$ uname -r
5.10.0-051000-generic
$ nvidia-smi
Mon Feb  7 12:50:44 2022       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 510.47.03    Driver Version: 510.47.03    CUDA Version: 11.6     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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 ...  Off  | 00000000:02:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   89C    P0    N/A /  N/A |    416MiB /  4096MiB |    100%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      1088      C   ...-linux-gnu__opencl_nvidia       53MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1100      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                214MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1689      G   cinnamon                           29MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1771      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox           86MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      2316      G   ...AAAAAAAAA= --shared-files       29MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I might test NVIDIA 510 driver now with kernel 5.13.0-28 also (but I'm afraid that might not work out):

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$ uname -r
5.13.0-28-generic
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

So the Linuxmint provided 5.13.x kernels can not use the NVIDIA driver.
It looks ilke some incompatibility with the kernel version and NVIDIA driver, so that the latest kernel versions can not use the NVIDIA drivers.

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$ uname -r
5.16.7-051607-generic
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

The NVIDIA drivers stopped compiling/loading after linux kernel version 5.10.0.
Removing the kernel version 5.13.0-28 requires installing the linux kernel 5.16.7.

[SMG]

Kernel 5.10.0 case the NVIDIA driver working and just today there was update 510 from linuxmint:

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$ uname -r
5.10.0-051000-generic

Why are you using mainline kernels? That 5.10.0-051000-generic kernel is not a Linux Mint kernel.

So the Linuxmint provided 5.13.x kernels can not use the NVIDIA driver.
It looks ilke some incompatibility with the kernel version and NVIDIA driver, so that the latest kernel versions can not use the NVIDIA drivers.

Yet other people are using Nvidia drivers with that same 5.13.x kernel provided by Linux Mint and not having problems.

This appears to be an issue with something you have installed on your computer. Perhaps it is because you are installing mainline kernels instead of using kernels maintained by Canonical/Ubuntu. That might be messing up the ability of the dkms to work properly to build the driver files.

Removing the kernel version 5.13.0-28 requires installing the linux kernel 5.16.7.

No, it does not. No one else is having the issue you are having, but, then again, no one else is installing mainline kernels either.

[jarkky]

The issue is caused by 5.13.xx kernels.
Linuxmint default 5.4.y kernels are working well with the NVIDIA drivers.
5.10.0 kernel was installed, so that I can test what is latest kernel version that works with the NVIDIA driver.

[SMG]

The issue is caused by 5.13.xx kernels.
Linuxmint default 5.4.y kernels are working well with the NVIDIA drivers.
5.10.0 kernel was installed, so that I can test what is latest kernel version that works with the NVIDIA driver.

Linux Mint currently offers 5.4, 5.11, 5.13, and 5.14-oem kernels. There are people successfully using Nvidia drivers will all those kernels.

Notice that the mainline 5.10 kernel you have tried is not in that list because we do not recommend using mainline kernels as problems can occur when using them. I do not know what software you used to install the mainline kernels, but that might be contributing to your current problem.

[jarkky]

That case it looks that the problem with kernel 5.13+NVIDIA is limited to this or few systems only.
Helpful, but not for me...
It should be possibly customized the cinnamon to reduce its CPU usage.

I made some testing with "GEEKBENCH" and below is the results:

It looks 5.15 is slower than 4.18 kernel (compared in RockyLinux8.5).
LinuxMint20.3 looks having worse performance than in RockyLinux case...
Kernel version definitely affect the system&CPU speed performance.

But its possibly that something is limiting the LinuxMint20.3 performance and CPU temperature
is much lower than in RockyLinux8.5 case.
Something is keeping LinuxMint20.3 temperature low and does not allow high CPU clock rates..?

I also installed the "mate" desktop but it is stopped during login attempt:

and I can login only using the "cinnamon" (that was the original installation type).

Mate login related messages in the syslog:

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/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:39 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Unable to find provider '' of required component 'dock'
/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:42 cosmo mate-notificati[7247]: mate-notification-daemon: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.
/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:42 cosmo mate-screensave[7253]: mate-screensaver: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.
/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:42 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Detected that screensaver has left the bus
/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:42 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'chromium-browser.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “/usr/bin/chromium-browser” (No such file or directory)
/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:42 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'indicator-multiload.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “indicator-multiload” (No such file or directory)
grep: /var/log/timeshift: Is a directory/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:43 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'light-locker.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “light-locker” (No such file or directory)

/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:43 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'indicator-cpufreq.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “indicator-cpufreq” (No such file or directory)
grep: /var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:43 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'dropbox.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “dropbox” (No such file or directory)
/var/log/ubuntu-advantage.log/var/log/syslog:Feb  8 22:02:43 cosmo mate-session[7130]: WARNING: Could not launch application 'sky.desktop': Unable to start application: Failed to execute child process “/usr/bin/sky” (No such file or directory)
: Permission denied

If I try to login to the mate desktop it will kick back to the login window after showing below message:

Additionally I installed the "XFCE" and it seems to work now well with NVIDIA drivers and kernel 5.10.0.
The MXLinux11 seem to have similar issues with the NVIDIA driver.
I'm not sure what is causing the LinuxMint speed reduction compared to the MXLinux11...