NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn’t communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running. My OS is kali linux and my video model is nvidia gt 940m ana ai install on this guide Install NVIDIA GPU Drivers | Kali Linux Documentation and last version of kernel is 4.19 version kali is 2018.4
dpkg -l | grep nvidia
ii glx-alternative-nvidia 0.9.0 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider
ii libegl-nvidia0:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary EGL library
ii libgl1-nvidia-glvnd-glx:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL/GLX library (GLVND variant)
ii libgles-nvidia1:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL|ES 1.x library
ii libgles-nvidia2:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL|ES 2.x library
ii libglx-nvidia0:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary GLX library
ii libnvidia-cfg1:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL/GLX configuration library
ii libnvidia-compiler:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA runtime compiler library
ii libnvidia-eglcore:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary EGL core libraries
ii libnvidia-fatbinaryloader:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA FAT binary loader
ii libnvidia-glcore:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL/GLX core libraries
ii libnvidia-ml1:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA Management Library (NVML) runtime library
ii libnvidia-ptxjitcompiler1:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA PTX JIT Compiler
ii nvidia-alternative 390.87-6 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider
ii nvidia-cuda-dev 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA development files
ii nvidia-cuda-doc 9.1.85-8 all NVIDIA CUDA and OpenCL documentation
ii nvidia-cuda-gdb 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Debugger (GDB)
ii nvidia-cuda-toolkit 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA development toolkit
ii nvidia-driver 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA metapackage
ii nvidia-driver-bin 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA driver support binaries
ii nvidia-driver-libs:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA metapackage (OpenGL/GLX/EGL/GLES libraries)
ii nvidia-egl-common 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary EGL driver - common files
ii nvidia-egl-icd:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA EGL installable client driver (ICD)
ii nvidia-installer-cleanup 20151021+8 amd64 cleanup after driver installation with the nvidia-installer
ii nvidia-kernel-common 20151021+8 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files
ii nvidia-kernel-dkms 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module DKMS source
ii nvidia-kernel-support 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files
ii nvidia-legacy-check 390.87-6 amd64 check for NVIDIA GPUs requiring a legacy driver
ii nvidia-modprobe 390.87-1 amd64 utility to load NVIDIA kernel modules and create device nodes
ii nvidia-opencl-common 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL driver - common files
ii nvidia-opencl-dev:amd64 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL development files
ii nvidia-opencl-icd:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL installable client driver (ICD)
ii nvidia-openjdk-8-jre 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA provided OpenJDK Java runtime, using Hotspot JIT
ii nvidia-persistenced 390.87-1 amd64 daemon to maintain persistent software state in the NVIDIA driver
ii nvidia-profiler 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA Profiler for CUDA and OpenCL
ii nvidia-settings 390.87-1 amd64 tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
ii nvidia-smi 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA System Management Interface
ii nvidia-support 20151021+8 amd64 NVIDIA binary graphics driver support files
ii nvidia-vdpau-driver:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix - NVIDIA driver
ii nvidia-visual-profiler 9.1.85-8 amd64 NVIDIA Visual Profiler for CUDA and OpenCL
ii nvidia-vulkan-common 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA Vulkan driver - common files
ii nvidia-vulkan-icd:amd64 390.87-6 amd64 NVIDIA Vulkan installable client driver (ICD)
ii xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
The GPU driver isn’t installed correctly. Sometimes this can be fixed with a reboot.
If you’re using a driver provided from a source other than NVIDIA, this could be a problem.
Remove all GPU drivers and reinstall the latest for your GPU from Official Drivers | NVIDIA