I've run into the problem of my Linux system failing to boot after installing Nvidia drivers, and it seems like many others have too. This issue has happened to me on different distros like Fedora, Arch, and Ubuntu/Debian. Even when I managed to fix it, I often ended up with poor performance, like low FPS and screen tearing. How can I completely avoid this frustrating issue?
5 Answers
Have you checked if it’s actually failing to boot or just showing a black screen? It's important to know which distribution you're using and how you installed the drivers. Also, what are your hardware specs?
If you're looking for a hassle-free experience, Manjaro does a great job of automatically installing the right Nvidia drivers. Other options like MX Linux have specialized apps that can help with driver installation too.
I had a similar experience after enabling secure boot without importing the key for akmod drivers. There was an unsigned driver error I found out about in BIOS. You might want to check out this guide for secure boot setups: [RPM Fusion Secure Boot](https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Secure%20Boot).
From my experience, some distros make it easy. For instance, Nobara and Bazzite come pre-packed with Nvidia drivers. They could save you a lot of trouble.
You shouldn't have persistent boot issues unless you've got the wrong drivers or something else is going on with your setup. It could be worth investigating that further.
CachyOS also has a live USB with an Nvidia version that installs correct drivers. I've switched out my GPU and had no performance issues at all.