Home server question: How hard is it to set up an Nvidia GPU on a Linux machine with no display server? - eviltoast

Okay, so I have an old gaming rig (4th gen i7, GTX 1070ti) that I want to turn into a home server. I’d like to use the GPU only for specific tasks, like encoding when watching stuff via Jellyfin. What would be easier?

  • Install Fedora or Rocky Linux with the normal GUI, install and configure the Nvidia drivers with akmod-nvidia, then just remove X/Wayland from the startup process?
  • Install either distro sans GUI, and install the nvidia drivers? Also, does akmod-nvidia work for systems with no display server?

So yeah. Any Linux people out there with nvidia cards and purely CLI servers out there? I’ve got a fair bit of experience with Linux, but I’ve just never done this before. And Google keeps giving me results about troubleshooting black screens after installing the drivers.

  • GnomeComedy@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    For sanity, use RHEL or a RHEL clone and not Fedora (less kernel updates, less opportunity for nvidia driver breakage), then use the official Nvidia rpm repo and the setup should be pretty straightforward.