RHEL8 PACKAGING GUIDE

This guide covers building packages of the NVIDIA driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and related derivatives.

Multiple driver branches are installable from a single package repository using "modularity streams". The user can choose a specific driver branch or a virtual branch. Only updates on the selected branch will be considered, where the latest and latest-dkms streams always update to the highest versioned driver release. While the XXX and XXX-dkms streams lock driver updates to the specified driver branch.
When using precompiled drivers, a dnf plugin is enabled that prevents upgrading to a kernel for which no precompiled driver exists yet (a warning will be displayed by dnf during such an upgrade situation). Stale .ko files are also cleaned up via this dnf plugin.
Special kernel module packages can be optionally built that implement an alternative to DKMS. The new approach does not require gcc to be installed anymore, nor does the EPEL repository need to be enabled. The source files for the driver kmod packages are compiled in advance and then linked at installation time, hence these are called "precompiled drivers".
For additional use cases, modularity profiles default, ks, fm, src (where applicable) can be combined.

Prerequisites

Download inputs

NVIDIA driver runfile
NVIDIA modprobe tarball
NVIDIA persistenced tarball
NVIDIA settings tarball
NVIDIA xconfig tarball

NVIDIA driver runfile

Datacenter location: http://us.download.nvidia.com/tesla/ (not browsable)

ex: http://us.download.nvidia.com/tesla/440.33.01/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-440.33.01.run
UDA location: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/

ex: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/440.64/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-440.64.run
GRID runfiles: NVIDIA-Linux-${arch}-${driver}-grid.run are compatible.

ex: NVIDIA-Linux-aarch64-455.04.18-grid.run

CUDA runfiles: cuda_${toolkit}_${driver}_linux.run are not compatible.

However a NVIDIA driver runfile can be extracted intact from a CUDA runfile:

sh cuda_${toolkit}_${driver}_linux.run --tar mxvf
> ex: sh cuda_11.2.2_460.32.03_linux.run --tar mxvf

ls builds/NVIDIA-Linux-${arch}-${driver}.run
> ex: ls builds/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-460.32.03.run

NVIDIA modprobe tarball

GitHub location: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-modprobe/releases

ex: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-modprobe/archive/460.32.03.tar.gz
UDA location: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-modprobe

ex: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-modprobe/nvidia-modprobe-460.56.tar.bz2

NVIDIA persistenced tarball

GitHub location: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-persistenced/releases

ex: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-persistenced/archive/460.32.03.tar.gz
UDA location: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-persistenced

ex: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-persistenced/nvidia-persistenced-460.56.tar.bz2

NVIDIA setttings tarball

GitHub location: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-settings/releases

ex: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-settings/archive/460.32.03.tar.gz
UDA location: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-settings

ex: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-settings/nvidia-settings-460.56.tar.bz2

NVIDIA xconfig tarball

GitHub location: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-xconfig/releases

ex: https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-xconfig/archive/460.32.03.tar.gz
UDA location: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-xconfig

ex: https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-xconfig/nvidia-xconfig-460.56.tar.bz2

Set global variables

notes:

$arch is x86_64, ppc64le, or aarch64 (sbsa)
$major is the first . delimited field in the driver version,

ex: 460 in 460.32.03
$extension is bz2 OR gz depending on the tarballs downloaded
$KERNEL is string including distro tag and architecture,

ex: 4.18.0-193.28.1.el7.aarch64
Supports: NVIDIA-Linux-${arch}-${version}-grid.run

export version="460.32.03"
export VERSION="$version"
export major="460"
export arch="x86_64"
export extension="gz"
export KERNEL=$(uname -r)
export IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1
export RUN_FILE="/path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-*.run"
export OUTPUT="$HOME/rpm-nvidia"
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT"

Install build dependencies

note: Enable EPEL to install DKMS

sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

note: store the package list in an array (easy copy & paste)

# Packaging
list=("rpm-build")  

# Kernel modules (dkms-nvidia, precompiled-kmod)
list+=("dkms")
# Kernel headers and source code (precompiled-kmod)
list+=("kernel-headers-$KERNEL" "kernel-devel-$KERNEL")  

# Compilation
list+=("m4" "gcc")
# Misc (nvidia-driver & nvidia-persistenced)
list+=("libappstream-glib" "libtirpc-devel")  

# Python (nvidia-plugin)
list+=("python36")
# Repository metadata
list+=("createrepo" "openssl")  

# Desktop integration (nvidia-settings)
list+=("gtk2-devel" "gtk3-devel" "jansson-devel" "dbus-devel" "desktop-file-utils")
# X.org utilties (nvidia-settings)
list+=("libXext-devel" "libXrandr-devel")
# GLVND (nvidia-settings)
list+=("mesa-libGL-devel" "mesa-libEGL-devel")
# Video extensions (nvidia-settings)
list+=("libXxf86vm-devel" "libXv-devel" "libvdpau-devel")  

# Install all the build dependencies
sudo dnf install ${list[@]}

> ex: sudo dnf install -y rpm-build dkms m4 gcc \
kernel-headers-$KERNEL kernel-devel-$KERNEL \
libappstream-glib libtirpc-devel python36 createrepo openssl \
gtk2-devel gtk3-devel jansson-devel dbus-devel desktop-file-utils \
libXext-devel libXrandr-devel mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libEGL-devel \
libXxf86vm-devel libXv-devel libvdpau-devel

Clone git repositories

NVIDIA driver
DKMS nvidia
NVIDIA kmod common
NVIDIA modprobe
NVIDIA persistenced
NVIDIA settings
NVIDIA xconfig
NVIDIA plugin
NVIDIA precompiled kmod (optional)

note: for RHEL8-derivatives, checkout rhel8 branch

git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-driver
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-dkms-nvidia
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-kmod-common
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-modprobe
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-persistenced
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-settings
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-xconfig
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-nvidia-plugin
git clone -b rhel8 https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod

Building packages

nvidia-driver

Generate tarballs from runfile

note: make sure $VERSION variable is set

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-driver
rm -rf temp
./nvidia-generate-tarballs.sh

note: please wait, this step will take several minutes to complete

ls *.tar.xz
> nvidia-driver-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz  # x86_64 script does not have -${arch} suffix
> nvidia-driver-${version}-i386.tar.xz     # 32-bit libraries for x86_64 only
> nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz    # not used here

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-driver
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp *.conf SOURCES/
cp *.xml SOURCES/
cp nvidia-driver-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz SOURCES/
cp nvidia-driver.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --target "${arch}" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-driver.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

dkms-nvidia

nvidia-kmod tarball

Copy tarball from yum-packaging-nvidia-driver

cd yum-packaging-dkms-nvidia
rsync -av ../yum-packaging-nvidia-driver/nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz $PWD/
cd -

or

Generate tarball from runfile

cd yum-packaging-dkms-nvidia
sh "$RUN_FILE" --extract-only --target extract
mkdir nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}
mv extract/kernel nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}/
tar -cJf nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}
cd -

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-dkms-nvidia
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp dkms-nvidia.conf SOURCES/
cp nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz SOURCES/
cp dkms-nvidia.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --target "${arch}" \
    -v -bb SPECS/dkms-nvidia.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-kmod-common

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-kmod-common
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp 60-nvidia.rules SOURCES/
cp 99-nvidia.conf SOURCES/
cp nvidia.conf SOURCES/
cp nvidia-kmod-common.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --target "noarch" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-kmod-common.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-modprobe

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-modprobe
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp ../nvidia-modprobe-${version}.tar.* SOURCES/
cp *.patch SOURCES/
cp nvidia-modprobe.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --define "extension $extension" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-modprobe.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-persistenced

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-persistenced
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp ../nvidia-persistenced-${version}.tar.* SOURCES/
cp *init* SOURCES/
cp *.service SOURCES/
cp nvidia-persistenced.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --define "extension $extension" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-persistenced.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-settings

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-settings
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp ../nvidia-settings-${version}.tar.* SOURCES/
cp *.desktop SOURCES/
cp *.patch SOURCES/
cp *.xml SOURCES/
cp nvidia-settings.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --define "extension $extension" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-settings.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-xconfig

rpmbuild

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-xconfig
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp ../nvidia-xconfig-${version}.tar.* SOURCES/
cp *.patch SOURCES/
cp nvidia-xconfig.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "version $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --define "extension $extension" \
    -v -bb SPECS/nvidia-xconfig.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

nvidia-plugin

rpmbuild (dnf-plugin-nvidia)

cd yum-packaging-nvidia-plugin
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp nvidia-dnf.py SOURCES/
cp dnf-plugin-nvidia.spec SPECS/  

rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    -v -bb SPECS/dnf-plugin-nvidia.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

precompiled-kmod

note: this is an optional step

nvidia-kmod tarball

Copy tarball from yum-packaging-nvidia-driver

cd yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod
rsync -av ../yum-packaging-nvidia-driver/nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz $PWD/

or

Generate tarball from runfile

cd yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod
sh "$RUN_FILE" --extract-only --target extract
mkdir nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}
mv extract/kernel nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}/
tar -cJf nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}

X.509 Certificate

Generate X.509 public_key.der and private_key.priv files.

Example x509-configuration.ini. Replace $USER and $EMAIL values.

cd yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -utf8 -sha256 -days 36500 -batch \
  -config x509-configuration.ini \
  -outform DER -out public_key.der \
  -keyout private_key.priv

Parse kernel string

export kernel_main=$(echo "$KERNEL" | awk -F "-" '{print $1}')
export kernel_suffix=$(echo "$KERNEL" | awk -F "-" '{print $2}' | sed "s|\.$arch||")
export kernel_dist=$(echo "$kernel_suffix" | awk -F "." '{print "."$NF}')
export kernel_release=$(echo "$kernel_suffix" | sed "s|\.$kernel_dist||")  

> ex:
kernel_main="4.18.0"
kernel_release="240.22.1"
kernel_dist=".el8_3"

rpmbuild

note: compilation may take up to 10 minutes (depending on hardware)

cd yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod
mkdir BUILD BUILDROOT RPMS SRPMS SOURCES SPECS
cp nvidia-kmod-${version}-${arch}.tar.xz SOURCES/
cp public_key.der SOURCES/
cp private_key.priv SOURCES/
cp kmod-nvidia.spec SPECS/  

# latest
rpmbuild \
    --define "%_topdir $(pwd)" \
    --define "debug_package %{nil}" \
    --define "kernel $kernel_main" \
    --define "kernel_release $kernel_release" \
    --define "kernel_dist $kernel_dist" \
    --define "driver $version" \
    --define "epoch 3" \
    --define "driver_branch ${major}"
    --target ${arch}
    -v -bb SPECS/kmod-nvidia.spec  

find -name "*.rpm" -exec cp -v {} $OUTPUT/ \;
cd -

Create repository

Generate metadata

mkdir my-custom-repo
# NVIDIA driver packages
cp -v $OUTPUT/*.rpm my-custom-repo/
# Modularity script
cp -v yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod/genmodules.py $PWD/

createrepo_c -v --database my-custom-repo
python3 genmodules.py my-custom-repo modules.yaml
modifyrepo_c modules.yaml my-custom-repo/repodata/

Enable local repo

Create custom.repo file

[custom]
name=custom
baseurl=file:///path/to/my-custom-repo
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Copy to system path for yum package manager
```
sudo cp custom.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
```
Clean dnf cache
```
sudo dnf clean all
```

Pre-install actions

Remove any existing NVIDIA driver installation

To uninstall a CUDA toolkit runfile installation
```
sudo /usr/local/cuda-X.Y/bin/cuda-uninstall
```
To uninstall a standalone NVIDIA driver runfile installation:
```
sudo /usr/bin/nvidia-uninstall
```

To uninstall an RPM installation:

sudo dnf module remove nvidia-driver
sudo dnf remove "*nvidia-driver*" "*nvidia-settings*"
sudo dnf module reset nvidia-driver

To disable CUDA repository:

sudo dnf config-manager --set-disabled cuda

Package manager installation

RHEL8 streams: latest, XXX, latest-dkms, XXX-dkms

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:${stream}
> ex: sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:latest

To use a modularity profile (default: default): default, ks, fm, src

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:${stream}/${profile}
> ex: sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:465-dkms/ks

note: Multiple profiles can be combined

> ex: sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:460/{fm,src}

Select an installation branch

To select an installation branch, choose only one from the four options below:

Always update to the highest versioned driver (precompiled).

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:latest

Lock the driver updates to the specified driver branch (precompiled).

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:XXX

note: XXX is the first . delimited field in the driver version, ex: 460 in 460.32.03

Always update to the highest versioned driver (non-precompiled).

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:latest-dkms

note: DKMS install uses compilation for kmod-nvidia-latest-dkms package (make take up to 10 minutes depending on hardware)

Lock the driver updates to the specified driver branch (non-precompiled).

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:XXX-dkms

note: DKMS install uses compilation for kmod-nvidia-latest-dkms package (make take up to 10 minutes depending on hardware) note: XXX is the first . delimited field in the driver version, ex: 460 in 460.32.03

References

Blog post: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/streamlining-nvidia-driver-deployment-on-rhel-8-with-modularity-streams/
Precompiled status page: https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/rhel8/x86_64/precompiled/
Presentations: https://github.com/NVIDIA/yum-packaging-precompiled-kmod#Presentations
Report a bug: https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia_bug/add

note: If you are not already a member, join the NVIDIA Developer Program: https://developer.nvidia.com/join

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RHEL8 PACKAGING GUIDE

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

Download inputs

NVIDIA driver runfile

NVIDIA modprobe tarball

NVIDIA persistenced tarball

NVIDIA setttings tarball

NVIDIA xconfig tarball

Set global variables

Install build dependencies

Clone git repositories

Building packages

nvidia-driver

Generate tarballs from runfile

rpmbuild

dkms-nvidia

nvidia-kmod tarball

or

rpmbuild

nvidia-kmod-common

rpmbuild

nvidia-modprobe

rpmbuild

nvidia-persistenced

rpmbuild

nvidia-settings

rpmbuild

nvidia-xconfig

rpmbuild

nvidia-plugin

rpmbuild (dnf-plugin-nvidia)

precompiled-kmod

nvidia-kmod tarball

or

X.509 Certificate

Parse kernel string

rpmbuild

Create repository

Generate metadata

Enable local repo

Pre-install actions

Remove any existing NVIDIA driver installation

Package manager installation

Select an installation branch

References