Installing Nvidia Quadro Drivers (470.x) on Arch Linux

I know, Linus knows, Nvidia is the worst company Linux has ever dealt with, and my experience was no exception. I searched many tutorials online on how to get the drivers for my Nvidia Quadro K2000 driver installed on my "workstation"-class computer (cough i7-4770 cough) to no avail.

Yesterday, I got help from a friend online, who, like me, is into Linux and computers, and helped me with his tips and tricks to get through this. He had given me a step-by-step procedure on how to properly manage my system after trying and failing miserably.

Step 1: Install DKMS and linux-headers

Before you start installing the drivers, you need to update your system, along with installing DKMS and the Linux headers. You can install them with just one simple command:

sudo pacman -Syu dkms linux-headers

Simple as that.

Step 2: Install the Nvidia Driver AUR Package

Simply install the Nvidia driver package by running git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nvidia-470xx-dkms, along with cd nvidia-470xx-dkms and makepkg -si. This will install version 470.xx of the drivers which support the video card. Note that the NVENC version is too old for ffmpeg to handle as it is stuck in version 11.1.

Step 3: Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

You must edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf for the drivers to fully work. Type sudo vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and edit the line that begins with HOOKS and remove kms. After saving the file, run sudo mkinitcpio -P and reboot the system.

When you log in with X11 or Wayland, the drivers should fully work. Try running glxgears, fire up Blender, play some Minecraft or CS:GO, and you should get high FPS.

August 27, 2023