[Drivers] NVIDIA drivers corrupted/broken after system update (kernel update)

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After an update that modifies your kernel header, you may find your GUI is no longer functioning. This is totally normal and expected. While losing your GUI can be frustrating, the solution is pretty simple: reinstall your graphics driver.

Step 1: Become root (or use sudo)

[exx@localhost ~]$ sudo su
[sudo] password for exx: 
[root@localhost exx]#

Step 2: Find your installer file or download a new one

If you have updated the kernel and are experiencing issues, you need to re-run the NVIDIA*.run installer to reinstall the NVIDIA Driver.

The installer file should be located in either /home/exx or /root. If you no longer have this installer file or can't find it, you can get the latest by searching on NVIDIA's website. Select your card from the drop-down and you will be shown the current version for your card.

For example, on the date this article was published, the current driver for the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is 550.54.14, as seen in this screenshot:

As of March 2024, NVIDIA stores all of their drivers in a very reliable structure, so as long as you know the version, you can get the file via command line by running the below wget and replacing the # with the correct version number, for example, 550.54.14:

wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/###.##.##/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-###.##.##.run

Step 3: Make your installer executable

[root@localhost exx]# chmod +x NVIDIA*run
[root@localhost exx]#

Step 4: Disable all GUI elements

This step is primarily as a "just in case" there are any lingering GUI components that need to be disabled.

[root@localhost exx]# init 3

Step 5: Run the installer

Follow the prompts here and you should be good to answer yes to anything except when prompted if you want the installer to configure nvidia-xconfig for you. Answer no to that step.

Step 6: Reboot

You SHOULD now have a working GUI.