NVIDIA Driver Installation Failure on Ubuntu22.04 VM with GTX 1080 Ti

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

I’m experiencing an issue with installing NVIDIA drivers for my GTX 1080 Ti GPU in a virtualized environment (VM) on Ubuntu. Despite multiple attempts and configurations, the driver fails to initialize the GPU,

  • GPU Model: NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti
  • Driver Versions Attempted: 550.127.05 (also attempted with -m=kernel-open)
  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04
  • Kernel Version: 6.8.0-47-generic
  • Virtualization: KVM/QEMU (Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009) pc-q35-3.1)

The driver installation completes, but the GPU does not initialize. nvidia-smi reports “No devices were found,”
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (430.9 KB)

sudo lshw -C display
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: QXL paravirtual graphic card
vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
logical name: /dev/fb0
version: 04
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller rom fb
configuration: depth=32 driver=qxl latency=0 resolution=1024,768
resources: irq:21 memory:f4000000-f7ffffff memory:f8000000-fbffffff memory:fe810000-fe811fff ioport:d040(size=32) memory:c0000-dffff
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GP102 [GeForce GTX 1080 Ti]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
resources: irq:22 memory:fc000000-fcffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:e0000000-e1ffffff ioport:c000(size=128) memory:fd000000-fd07ffff

sudo dmesg | grep nvidia
[ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.8.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu–svs–vg-root ro nvidia.NVreg_OpenRmEnableUnsupportedGpus=1 pci=realloc=off
[ 0.108982] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-6.8.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu–svs–vg-root ro nvidia.NVreg_OpenRmEnableUnsupportedGpus=1 pci=realloc=off
[ 13.505526] nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 13.505540] nvidia: module license ‘NVIDIA’ taints kernel.
[ 13.505546] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 13.505547] nvidia: module license taints kernel.
[ 13.722316] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 237
[ 13.725624] nvidia 0000:04:00.0: vgaarb: VGA decodes changed: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
[ 13.947335] nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms 550.127.05 Tue Oct 8 02:56:05 UTC 2024
[ 13.954185] [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000400] Loading driver
[ 13.954189] [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 20160202 for 0000:04:00.0 on minor 0
[ 14.335613] audit: type=1400 audit(1730257869.980:2): apparmor=“STATUS” operation=“profile_load” profile=“unconfined” name=“nvidia_modprobe” pid=652 comm=“apparmor_parser”
[ 14.335621] audit: type=1400 audit(1730257869.980:3): apparmor=“STATUS” operation=“profile_load” profile=“unconfined” name=“nvidia_modprobe//kmod” pid=652 comm=“apparmor_parser”
[ 15.632065] nvidia_uvm: module uses symbols nvUvmInterfaceDisableAccessCntr from proprietary module nvidia, inheriting taint.
[ 15.702836] nvidia-uvm: Loaded the UVM driver, major device number 235.

sudo journalctl | grep GPU
Oct 29 23:14:44 ubuntu-svs-02 kernel: NVRM: GPU 0000:04:00.0: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x23:0xffff:1552)
Oct 29 23:14:44 ubuntu-svs-02 kernel: NVRM: GPU 0000:04:00.0: rm_init_adapter failed, device minor number 0

Troubleshooting Steps Taken

Acoording https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/nvidia-smi-no-devices-were-found-vmware-esxi-ubuntu-server-20-04-03-with-rtx3070/202904/36

  1. Driver Installation Variants:
  • Tried installing with sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.127.05.run -m=kernel-open.
  • Tried installing without -m=kernel-open to use proprietary modules, but the installation failed.
    nvidia-installer.log (58.0 KB)

tail -n 20 /var/log/nvidia-installer.log
[ 20.142591] process ‘docker/tmp/qemu-check405251208/check’ started with executable stack
[ 394.248151] VFIO - User Level meta-driver version: 0.3
[ 394.342593] nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 394.342610] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 394.438166] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 235
[ 394.441027] nvidia 0000:04:00.0: vgaarb: VGA decodes changed: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
[ 394.441062] NVRM: The NVIDIA GPU 0000:04:00.0 (PCI ID: 10de:1b06)
NVRM: installed in this system is not supported by open
NVRM: nvidia.ko because it does not include the required GPU
NVRM: System Processor (GSP).
NVRM: Please see the ‘Open Linux Kernel Modules’ and ‘GSP
NVRM: Firmware’ sections in the driver README, available on
NVRM: the Linux graphics driver download page at
NVRM: www.nvidia.com.
[ 394.441764] nvidia: probe of 0000:04:00.0 failed with error -1
[ 394.441804] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
[ 394.441806] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA devices were initialized.
[ 394.442324] nvidia-nvlink: Unregistered Nvlink Core, major device number 235
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file ‘/var/log/nvidia-installer.log’ for details. You may find suggestions on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

  1. Kernel Parameters:
  • Added nvidia.NVreg_OpenRmEnableUnsupportedGpus=1 to /etc/default/grub.
  • Also added pci=realloc=off as recommended for certain VM setups.
  • blacklist nouveau
  • options nouveau modeset=0
  1. Disabling Conflicting Drivers:
  • Blacklisted nouveau and qxl drivers to avoid conflicts.
  • Rebuilt initramfs and rebooted after each change.
  1. Examined Logs for Further Clues:
  • dmesg consistently shows RmInitAdapter failed errors for the NVIDIA GPU.
  • /var/log/nvidia-installer.log notes that the GPU requires GSP, which the open module does not support.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

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