Bug Report - NVIDIA NVKMS Memory Allocation Error

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

General information

Component: nvidia_drm (NVIDIA DRM driver)
Type: Memory allocation error
Severity: High (causes graphics freezes as soon as an application is in full screen)

I tried a fresh install but it’s the same.
Same problem with 570 driver

Error Description

[drm:nv_drm_gem_alloc_nvkms_memory_ioctl [nvidia_drm]] *ERROR* [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Failed to allocate NVKMS memory for GEM object

Observed Symptoms

dmesg | grep -i nvidia


[    6.693192] nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel. 
[    6.693204] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel. 
[    6.693209] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel 
[    6.693210] nvidia: module license taints kernel. 
[    7.545636] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 239 
[    7.555097] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: VGA decodes changed: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem 
[    7.673523] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  575.64.05  Fri Jul 18 16:01:21 UTC 2025 
[    7.777764] nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms  575.64.05  Fri Jul 18 15:45:08 UTC 2025 
[    7.788824] [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Loading driver 
[    7.826968] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card2/input5 
[    7.827048] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card2/input6 
[    7.827143] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card2/input7 
[    7.827237] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card2/input8 
[    8.336267] [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1 
[    8.401258] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console 
[    8.409790] fbcon: nvidia-drmdrmfb (fb0) is primary device 
[    8.409801] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: [drm] fb0: nvidia-drmdrmfb frame buffer device 
[    8.467639] nvidia_uvm: module uses symbols nvUvmInterfaceDisableAccessCntr from proprietary module nvidia, inheriting taint. 
[24107.940905] [drm:nv_drm_gem_alloc_nvkms_memory_ioctl [nvidia_drm]] *ERROR* [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Failed to allocate NVKMS memory for GEM object 
[24107.940969] [drm:nv_drm_gem_alloc_nvkms_memory_ioctl [nvidia_drm]] *ERROR* [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Failed to allocate NVKMS memory for GEM object

Observed Symptoms

    • Rendering issues : black screen

System Context

6.12.64-1-MANJARO

lspci | grep -i vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] (rev a1)

Sat Jan 24 20:01:13 2026
±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 575.64.05              Driver Version: 575.64.05      CUDA Version: 12.9     |
|-----------------------------------------±-----------------------±---------------------+
| 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 GTX 1050 Ti     Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 20%   41C    P5            N/A  /   75W |    1191MiB /   4096MiB |      3%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
±----------------------------------------±-----------------------±---------------------+

±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A             670      G   /usr/lib/Xorg                            20MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             807      G   /usr/bin/ksecretd                         1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             844      G   /usr/bin/kwin_wayland                   208MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             931      G   /usr/bin/Xwayland                       117MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             962      G   /usr/bin/ksmserver                        1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             965      G   /usr/bin/kded6                            1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A             983    C+G   /usr/bin/plasmashell                    278MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1053      G   /usr/bin/kaccess                          1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1054      G   …it-kde-authentication-agent-1          1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1152      G   /usr/bin/kdeconnectd                      1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1228      G   /usr/bin/pamac-tray-plasma                1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1235      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox                324MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1273      G   /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-kde           1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2526      G   /usr/bin/krunner                          9MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2612      G   /usr/lib/baloorunner                      1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2855      G   …share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam          2MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            3038      G   ./steamwebhelper                         27MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            3077    C+G   …am/ubuntu12_64/steamwebhelper          4MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A           36630      G   /usr/bin/dolphin                          1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A           66902      G   /usr/bin/konsole                          1MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A           68756    C+G   /usr/bin/amarok                         103MiB |
±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I tried a fresh install but it’s the same.
Same problem with 570 driver

1 Like
2

I’m experiencing the same (or at least very similar) on Arch, EndeavourOS.

The only difference is that this appears to only happen when the PC tries to sleep whilst being locked.

I get a black screen with the line OP mentioned and preceding that line are the following two:

Freezing user space processes failed after 20.003 seconds (1 tasks refusing to freeze, wq_busy=0)
Freesing user space processes failed after 20.006 seconds (1 tasks refusing to freeze, wq_busy=0)

By calling for a TTY (Ctrl + Shift + F3) and then the UI I’m able to recover back to the login screen, however this isn’t ideal for my monitors displaying this text the entire time.

I’m on 590.48.01.

3

another round today :

black screen when apps want display in full screen, wait 5 seconds, display is ok, wait one minute, and …. black screen and another turn !

the same thing when i want to capture the screen.

I launch a game and …. black screen persist !

dmesg :

[   11.604558] r8169 0000:04:00.0 enp4s0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[  709.796761] perf: interrupt took too long (2508 > 2500), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 79000
[ 1233.299366] perf: interrupt took too long (3145 > 3135), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 63000
[ 2919.009905] perf: interrupt took too long (3940 > 3931), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 50000
[ 6221.275195] perf: interrupt took too long (5046 > 4925), lowering kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to 39000
[ 8657.649162] r8169 0000:04:00.0 enp4s0: Link is Down
[ 8658.637122] [drm:__nv_drm_semsurf_wait_fence_work_cb [nvidia_drm]] *ERROR* [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Failed to register auto-value-update on pre-wait value for sync FD semaphore surface
[ 8658.643401] PM: suspend entry (deep)
[ 8659.506849] [drm:__nv_drm_semsurf_wait_fence_work_cb [nvidia_drm]] *ERROR* [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Failed to register auto-value-update on pre-wait value for sync FD semaphore surface
[ 8660.741806] Filesystems sync: 2.098 seconds
[ 8660.742272] Freezing user space processes
[ 8662.802419] Freezing user space processes completed (elapsed 2.060 seconds)
[ 8662.802429] OOM killer disabled.
[ 8662.802432] Freezing remaining freezable tasks
[ 8662.804055] Freezing remaining freezable tasks completed (elapsed 0.001 seconds)
[ 8662.804086] printk: Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
[ 8662.813609] serial 00:05: disabled
[ 8662.813939] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
4

Just an update on this.

I’m still on driver version 590.48.01, but I’ve not seen this issue pop up in a good few weeks now, especially in the situation that I previously described it; when the PC tries to sleep.

I wonder if there was a bug in another utility/process that manifested as NVIDIA being unable to cope, but fingers crossed it’s solved.