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The negativo17 Route

negativo17 packages the same NVIDIA driver as RPM Fusion, differently. NVIDIA Drivers documents the RPM Fusion route and is the one to follow if you have no particular reason to be here. This page covers the alternative, and how to move between the two.

The two are mutually exclusive. They ship packages with overlapping file ownership and different names, so dnf will install pieces of both without complaint and leave you with half a driver. negativo17's own documentation opens its installation section by telling you to remove any RPM Fusion NVIDIA packages first.

Which one to use

RPM Fusion negativo17
Package names xorg-x11-drv-nvidia*, akmod-nvidia nvidia-driver*, akmod-nvidia, dkms-nvidia
Kernel module akmod (rebuilt locally) akmod or DKMS, your choice
Branch on Fedora production/current short-lived branch
Version, Sept 2026 (F44) 610.57.04 615.71.09
Legacy branches 580, 470, 390 packaged none — current only
Secure Boot signs automatically via akmods akmods signing, or sign by hand
Packaging style one large driver package plus subpackages split into many small subpackages

Both work. Neither is "correct".

Take RPM Fusion if you have an older card needing a legacy branch, if you run an atomic variant, or if you want the path with the most community troubleshooting behind it. Take negativo17 if you want newer driver branches sooner, want DKMS instead of akmods, or want the finer-grained package split — CUDA libraries without the display driver, for instance.

negativo17 packages only the current branch. If your card needs 580, 470 or 390, this route is not available to you — see Identify your GPU and pick a branch.

Install

Sort out Secure Boot first, the same as on the RPM Fusion route. Enable the fedora-nvidia repository as described in Third-Party Repositories, then install with akmods:

sudo dnf5 install nvidia-driver akmod-nvidia nvidia-settings

Or with DKMS instead:

sudo dnf5 install nvidia-driver dkms-nvidia nvidia-settings

DKMS and akmods solve the same problem — rebuild an out-of-tree module when the kernel changes — with different plumbing. DKMS hooks kernel package installation and rebuilds inline; akmods runs as a systemd service. DKMS signs its modules with its own per-system key at /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub, which you enroll with mokutil --import the same way — see Secure Boot. akmods here uses the same /etc/pki/akmods key as the RPM Fusion route.

CUDA and the rest are separate packages, which is the point of this repo:

# CUDA runtime for the driver, no display components
sudo dnf5 install nvidia-driver-cuda

# 32-bit libraries for Steam and Wine
sudo dnf5 install nvidia-driver-libs.i686

Wait for the module to build and verify it before rebooting — the same modinfo -F version nvidia check, and the same reasons, as What akmods actually does.

negativo17's own installation page tells you to disable Secure Boot rather than sign, and points at Red Hat's module-signing guide as the alternative. The akmods route above works here too, since the same akmods package builds and signs it.

Open and proprietary kernel modules

negativo17's packaging lets you switch between the proprietary and open kernel module sources through /etc/nvidia/kernel.conf, rebuilding with akmods --rebuild or the equivalent dkms build / dkms install pair. Its documentation carries the exact commands; they reference driver versions in the 545 era, so treat the version strings there as examples rather than as current.

Switching between the two

Do not layer one on the other. Remove the first completely, then install the second.

RPM Fusion → negativo17:

sudo dnf5 remove 'xorg-x11-drv-nvidia*' 'akmod-nvidia*'
sudo dnf5 config-manager addrepo \
  --from-repofile=https://negativo17.org/repos/fedora-nvidia.repo
sudo dnf5 install nvidia-driver akmod-nvidia

negativo17 → RPM Fusion:

sudo dnf5 remove 'nvidia-driver*' 'dkms-nvidia*' 'akmod-nvidia*' 'nvidia-kmod-common'
sudo dnf5 config-manager setopt fedora-nvidia.enabled=0
sudo dnf5 install akmod-nvidia

Do not use dnf remove '*nvidia*' for this, even though you will see it suggested. That glob matches nvidia-gpu-firmware, a Fedora package that nouveau and nova_core need in order to bring up your card at all. Removing it leaves you with no working driver of any kind.

Between the removal and the reinstall your machine has no NVIDIA driver. Run the whole sequence in one sitting, and verify with modinfo before rebooting. If something goes wrong partway, you can still boot — the removal strips the nouveau blacklist from your kernel arguments.

How do I tell which one is installed?

dnf5 repoquery --installed '*nvidia*' --queryformat '%{name} %{from_repo}\n'

If packages come from more than one of rpmfusion-nonfree* and fedora-nvidia, start over from a clean removal using the sequence above.

Sources