fedora compatibility loop, cannot use RTX, kernel / glibc requirements [or workarounds]

we just put in an RTX 2080 Ti into this box, but I’m having a really difficult time getting a compatible distribution. I use Fedora because of the supported distributions, it’s the most up to date. However, with the insertion of the RTX card I can no longer boot the fedora 29 installation media. They’ve fixed the problems, but it’s already end of life / no fixes for 29 will be put in.

The only thing I’m able to do is use the “everything” installer, it fails to load, then I can do the VNC installation from another computer to setup lvm etc. The results have been:

  1. Allow installer to upgrade on fly: results in kernel 5.3 (unsupported for cuda), but I can boot the OS.
    • Attempted to downgrade kernel, that didn’t work out. (but I almost certainly did that wrong…)
  2. Prohibit installer from upgrades: results in kernel 4.18.16, but cannot boot OS. Like I can’t even boot run-level 3 which is really odd.

Unfortunately, the motherboard doesn’t have any graphical output, only dedicated GPU. I’m trying other desktop environments besides KDE next, but

  • What should I do if I want to keep running fedora and a different desktop environment doesn’t work with the RTX card? Is it just “no dice”?

  • Can I use a newer version of fedora altogether? In other words, what exactly are the kernel / glibc requirements about and can I circumvent them? I can compile the supported GCC / Clang for nvcc, but as far as I know the kernel / glibc thing are a deal breaker.

  • Any chance I can alpha or beta test release candidates or something with newer fedora? The release of 10.2 was basically in sync with when Fedora 29 was moved to end of life :'(

  • Any other fedora people struggling to use an RTX card? (or have you gotten it working?! :D)

Thanks for any suggestions / thoughts, I’m particularly interested in understanding what the kernel / glibc requirements come from / how it ties into the OS. For example, is it really just “as long as you have kernel x and glibc y from the same row, regardless of actual distribution, you are good?”

P.S. Yes, I know the chart ( Installation Guide Linux :: CUDA Toolkit Documentation ) for fedora lists a different kernel, but it shipped with 4.18, I think that was a clerical mistake? The 4.18 kernel // fedora 29 worked fine until I installed the new graphics card, since 10.0. I think that table was created when fedora 29 was still in beta?