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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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How do I install the nVidia drivers on Linux? I asking in case I decide to finally switch (found some Linux DAW, now all is happy, likely will go with Ubuntu + KDE).
For the Open Source Nouveau Driver, it's included in Mesa. You may also need the
xf86-video-nouveaudriver for 2D acceleration on X11 depending on your hardware. For example anything older than NV50 (G80) would likely need it. Newer GPU's have seen better results when falling back onto the modesetting driver.For the Proprietary Drivers, it depends on the distro; most allow you to install them during the installation of the distro (few do it automatically afaik), using a GUI driver manager/detection tool included in some distros or using your package manager.
A distro like fedora however requires extra steps because they're not included in the official repos.
I hope you find this more informative than "install PopOS or X distro" that includes the proprietary drivers on the installation ISO itself.
On Ubuntu it's just an option during installation. So far that's the easiest install I've seen.
OpenSUSE supports a graphical install through their software manager, but I found it caused some issues so I ended up using the command line. That was actually very easy if you're not uncomfortable using a terminal. Their docs were also accurate and easy to follow.
On fedora I followed the official docs but their instructions didn't work, so I had to find some thread on a forum with alternate instructions. It took over an hour to get it working.
For sheer ease of use I would definitely stick to Ubuntu since that's also the only distro Steam officially supports. I've had a good experience with OpenSUSE though so I'm sticking with it.
Depends on the distro you choose, but these days it's nothing too complicated. Either clicking an option for enabling the private driver in the drivers settings, or worse case just running a couple commands to manually add the private driver repo and download the package. You are done in 5 min m
What DAW do you use? I was pretty happy with Bitwig, the only con is that it's not FOSS.
I found LMMS, which is perfectly fine for playing around with music. Lacks a few features though unfortunately, like recording at the moment. Not open source, but I also use Reaper, mainly to test MIDI stuff of my game engine through a loopback port on Windows (I'm a crazy person, and I wrote software synthesizers for my game engine).
LMMS and Reaper weren't my things. I usually do everything by Terminal, but DAWs I'd where UI is a core necessity. IMO LMMS and Reaper just dont have those. Good that you found a setup through! Music on Linux is definitely getting better, maybe even faster than gaming.
If you're set on Nvidia, I recommend Pop OS or Nobara. Pop has a separate image that preinstalls Nvidia drivers. Nobara has a built in tool to download and install Nvidia drivers on first launch. Of the two, I'd probably go with Nobara (I've been using it for a year or so, love it) because not only does it have that tool, it also has an official KDE version, which it sounds like you'd prefer. You could install KDE with Pop, but I've done that before, and it creates a bloated nightmare of conflicting apps.
Pick a distro that ships with Nvidia drivers out of the box. My personal recommendation is Pop OS.
Not NVidia driver-related, but I would recommend KDE Neon or Kubuntu since they're both KDE and Ubuntu-based, KDE Neon is made by KDE while Kubuntu is an Ubuntu flavor.