RTX 2060 GPU not recognized by Linux

Gaming and Visualization Technologies General Topics and Other SDKs Drivers - Linux, Windows, MacOS
1

I have a Dell G5 5590 laptop, with an Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU.
The GPU seems to be working fine under Windows, but when i boot into Linux, it is not recognized.

Keep in mind that it used to work, then suddenly it stopped months ago.

I have downloaded and tried all the drivers from the “Additional Drivers” menu.
Right now i have the “Using NVidia driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-470 (proprietary-tested)”.
It also says that “This device is using the recommended driver”.

However, the GPU is not detected by and program that can access it. The programs only detect the Intel embedded GPU.

The “nvidia Settings” program has severely limited options to what it used to have when it was working correctly.
I cannot even connect an external display to the laptop right now.

When i open a terminal session and type: nvidia-smi, i get this:
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

Any clues what is going on, because for many months, my experience is severely limited and i have to recover from this bug.

2

Hello @stolniko and welcome to the NVIDIA developer forums.

First of all, please share which Linux distribution you are using.

Very likely your issues come from automatic Linux updates that broke the NVIDIA specific driver setup. Plus you might have introduced more incompatibilities by trying out different drivers manually without proper reboot.

The easiest approach here is to remove all traces of the NVIDIA drivers and do a fresh reinstall. Ideally do this using the command line and booting into terminal only to make sure everything will be correctly updated.

For example if you are using a Ubuntu or similar distribution, do the following:

First look for all the installed nvidia driver packages using dpkg -l | grep nvidia and look for all packages that look like nvidia-driver-<NNN> where <NNN> is a version number (like 470 or similar). Then go ahead and remove all you find by first purging the driver(s) itself using

sudo apt purge nvidia-driver-<NNN>

for all driver packages you found and then removing all unneeded dependencies as well

sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

Since you said you have used nvidia-smiyou should do the same process with the utilities, nvidia-utils-<NNN>

Now you can reinstall the actual driver you want using

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-<NNN>

You must reboot at this point. After that reinstall the matching utilities and you should have all the NVIDIA settings available again.

I hope this will help!

3

Thank you!
dpkg -l | grep nvidia returned a bunch of things, but when it comes to drivers, only nvidia-driver-470 and nvidia-utils-470.

I did everything described here:

sudo apt purge nvidia-driver-470
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt purge nvidia-utils-470
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
REBOOT
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470
REBOOT

However the problem remains. Nothing has changed in all the programs (unable to find the RTX 2060), in the Nvidia settings and the nvidia-smi command…

4

I forgot to mention that i run Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS.

5

Did you disable the GPU driver selection in the “Additional drivers” section of Ubuntu? That needs to be un-checked if you go the apt install route.
Secondly, last time I checked with Ubuntu 20.04 the latest drive version was 495. You can check that with
nvidia-detector
in a shell. I would expect an output like
nvidia-driver-495
You should repeat the above process for the most current driver.
Another recommended thing to do is to disable and blacklist the nouveau driver for the NVIDIA GPU before re-installing the NVIDIA driver:

$ sudo bash -c "echo blacklist nouveau >
	/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf"
$ sudo bash -c "echo options nouveau modeset=0 >>
	/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf"
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
$ sudo reboot

If there are still issues the RTX is not working, please share the output of

lshw -c video

I hope this will help.

6

Thanks!
I cannot disable the drivers in the Additional Drivers section. A radio button has to always be pressed. What i can do, is select the only non-NVidia option, which is Using X.org X server - Nouveau display from xserver-xorg-video-nouveau (open-source).

The command nvidia-detector gives me this result: nvidia-driver-510.

At this point, i am confused as to what to do…

By the way, command lshw -c video gives me this - at this point (maybe it is useful):

  *-display UNCLAIMED       
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: TU106M [GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:ec000000-ecffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memory:ed000000-ed07ffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile)
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:171 memory:eb000000-ebffffff memory:80000000-8fffffff ioport:5000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff
7

I can understand your confusion (and frustration), I will do my best to get you up and running again.

Do you still have an NVIDIA driver installed? If so, one quick option to try would be to disable secure boot in your BIOS. It is easy to overlook the necessary steps to get a driver loaded in secure boot, so this is a valid workaround.

If that is not an option or does not help, please read on.

To replicate your situation I just did a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 install on an RTX laptop myself. During installation I did NOT choose the NVIDIA proprietary driver but instead ignored the part about additional driver installation.
After the first boot I waited until the automatic Ubuntu SW update was done and had asked for reboot.
After the reboot I ran lshw -c video as well and the main signs of life of any driver is that the display is not UNCLAIMED and that the configuration lists the nouveau driver.

*-display
     description: VGA compatible controller
     product: NVIDIA Corporation
[...]
     configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0

(For you the display is UNCLAIMED and the configuration does not list a driver. There is no nouveau because I told you to blacklist the nouveau driver, which is ok. But there is also no (correctly) loaded NVIDIA driver.)

At this point I blacklisted the nouveau driver as well using the same commands I gave you earlier.

The steps I did then and which you should do now are:

  • Run Ubuntu SW update until it does not find any new updates
  • Reboot
  • Check if the 510 driver is listed in “Additional drivers”
  • If it is, select it and follow instructions. If it is not, install it manually from the command line (sudo apt install nvidia-driver-510). The below still holds!
    • If you are using secure boot, you WILL BE asked for a password during installation. Remember that or write it down.
    • Reboot
      • If you are using secure boot then during reboot you WILL BE asked to “Enroll MOK”, which is the validation of authenticated drivers. Here you will need the password you used before. For me there was no feedback on screen that I was typing anything, but it still accepted the password. This only needs to be done once. After that you need to reboot once more.
      • If you are using secure boot and there is no such check during boot, the driver WILL NOT load. In this case you MUST disable secure boot in your BIOS to load the driver and likely need to go through the installation process once more.

After this everything worked for me. Double check again with lshw -c video, it should now list the NVIDIA driver similar to this:

configuration: depth=32 driver=nvidia latency=0 mode=1920x550 visual=truecolor xres=1920 yres=550

The nvidia-utils are also already installed at this point and nvidia-smi as well as nvidia-settings will work.

Should you still have issues, please share your output of dpkg -l | grep nvidia and attach an nvidia-bug-report.log.gz file, which can be generated with the nvidia-bug-report.sh script that comes with the driver installation.

I hope this helps!

8

First of all, i want to express my gratitude and thank you for taking the trouble to install an OS just to help me…
Thank you very much…

Do you still have an NVIDIA driver installed?

I checked with dpkg -l | grep nvidia and yes, i have the 470 driver and utils, that i installed from the Additional Drivers menu.

I did not understand the secure boot part… Is it easier to install drivers while not in secure boot? I didn’t get it and honestly, i do not know how to disable it, and since this is a Dual Boot system with Windows, i am worried i might do something stupid…

There is no nouveau because I told you to blacklist the nouveau driver, which is ok.

That is not the reason that there is no nouveau driver… I did not execute these commands as i got confused and asked for further clarification… Should i execute these commands that blacklist the nouveau driver now?

  • Check if the 510 driver is listed in “Additional drivers”

The 510 driver is in the Additional Drivers menu. However, the 470 is selected… I had tried in the past to install the 510, but the problems still remained… Perhaps collision with other installed drivers? As i had not uninstalled other drivers, just like you specified in your first answer.

I have to note that many times i am asked to provide a password for secure boot. I always do but i had never been asked for the password during boot time. Whenever i set a new password (after an update for example), then at reboot, i am presented with a blue screen and i select the first option (it is the “Continue Boot”).

Then the bootloader proceeds with the OS selection menu, however, the font is much larger at this time!!
If i boot into Windows, i will be asked for the Bitlocker password… I just restart and i do not get asked again.
If i boot into Ubuntu (20.04.4 LTS), then everything is normal… Upon reboot, the font is OK - at the right size - at the OS selection menu…

I still am confused on how i should proceed… Should i blacklist the nouveau driver now? Should i re-uninstall the 470 driver? What is this thing with password never being asked at secure boot? Could this explain some things?

Thank you very much!

EDIT: Right now, i just updated the Ubuntu system, and i was asked for a password again. When i rebooted, i just selected “Continue Boot” (the “Enroll MOK” was the second option that i have never pressed - i don’t even know what it does). The behaviour described above was what occured.

9

Hello… Could you please help me by providing me with some commands, given you know more about my situation?

I am still facing problems that find it unable to work properly.

Thank you very much!

10

Hi again,

There are a couple of things to distinguish here:

  • Secure Boot is associated with UEFI boot options and is enabled/disabled in the System BIOS. Since you saw the “Enroll MOK” message you have it enabled.
  • Bitlocker is a windows disk encryption system. When installing Ubuntu for a dual boot system it is necessary to decrypt the disk, I suppose you did that, because I don’t know how else you would have Ubuntu on your system now
  • Enroll MOK: This is the part where you authenticate the kernel level drivers, like the GPU driver, on a UEFI secure boot system. This MUST be the same password you have used during the actual installation process of the driver

I cannot give you any additional advice than what was already written at this point. Let me re-iterate. Since you still seem to have the 470 driver installed, please try again, this time combining things for simplcity:

sudo apt purge nvidia-driver-470
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt purge nvidia-utils-470
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
REBOOT

And then re-read my previous instructions carefully and follow them exactly, especially the parts about using the password for the driver authentication:

  • Make sure Ubuntu has installed all updates
  • Find the 510 driver listed in “Additional drivers”
  • If it is, select it and follow instructions . If it is not, install it manually from the command line ( sudo apt install nvidia-driver-510 ). The below still holds!
    • If you are using secure boot, you WILL BE asked for a password during installation. Remember that or write it down.
    • Reboot
      • If you are using secure boot then during reboot you WILL BE asked to “Enroll MOK”, which is the validation of authenticated drivers. Here you will need the password you used before. For me there was no feedback on screen that I was typing anything, but it still accepted the password. This only needs to be done once. After that you need to reboot once more.
      • If you are using secure boot and there is no such check during boot, the driver WILL NOT load. In this case you MUST disable secure boot in your BIOS to load the driver and likely need to go through the installation process once more.

Remember! You MUST use a password to authorize the graphics driver if you cannot disable UEFI secure boot!

I am afraid there is not much more I can do at this point.

Best of luck!