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The Ultimate Rocky Linux Install Guide with NVIDIA Drivers

Here’s an outline of what is covered in the video. Since YouTube cuts off the text in the description, it’s better to use this post as a guide vs. the description on youtube.

THIS IS THE OLD 9.3 WAY. TRY THE NEW 9.4 EASY INSTALL HERE: https://github.com/TheLinuxITGuy/Rocky-Scripts

Outline and commands used:

 1. Download the Rocky Linux ISO from: https://rockylinux.org/download/

 2. **IMPORTANT** During install, select “Server” with NO GUI

 3. Configuration:

sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf install --nogpgcheck https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-9.noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-9.noarch.rpm
sudo dnf config-manager --enable crb

4. Dependencies and Tools

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-server-Xorg xorg-x11-xauth -y
sudo dnf install plasma-desktop kscreen sddm kde-gtk-config dolphin konsole kate plasma-discover firefox rocky-backgrounds sddm-breeze mpv  -y

5. Prep for NVIDIA

sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo dnf install kernel-devel epel-release
sudo dnf install dkms

6. Install NVIDIA

    Add repo:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/rhel9/$(uname -i)/cuda-rhel9.repo

    Dependencies:

sudo dnf install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel-$(uname -r) tar bzip2 make automake gcc gcc-c++ pciutils elfutils-libelf-devel libglvnd-opengl libglvnd-glx libglvnd-devel acpid pkgconfig dkms

    Install NVIDIA Driver:

sudo dnf module install nvidia-driver:latest-dkms

7. Disable nouveau in GRUB

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

    Append “nouveau.modeset=0” to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX:
  Note: your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX shouldn’t match mine. Mine is shown for demonstration purposes only.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=/dev/mapper/rl_localhost--live-swap rd.lvm.lv=rl_localhost-live/root rd.lvm.lv=rl_localhost-live/swap crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau"

    Write the changes out (If you are using BIOS, ONLY use the BIOS command.
  If you are using EFI, only use the EFI command. **VERY IMPORTANT**):

        BIOS:

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

        EFI:

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/rocky/grub.cfg

8. Reboot

    You’ll still boot to login prompt (No GUI yet)

9. Login and test NVIDIA

nvidia-smi

10. Set to boot to KDE

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo systemctl enable sddm

11. Install Flatpak and anything else you may want

sudo dnf install flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

12. Reboot into Rocky Linux KDE with NVIDIA :)

POST INSTALL:

13. Install DaVinci Resolve and fix to edit on Linux

     Download link: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

     Dependancies for DaVinci Resolve:

sudo dnf install apr apr-util mesa-libGLU
./DaVinci_Resolve_18.6.4_Linux.run

     Transcode Command:

   One liner:

ffmpeg -i "/home/chris/Documents/YT Videos/2023-12-13 09-01-33.mov" -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hq -pix_fmt yuv422p -c:a pcm_s16le \ OUTPUT_FILE.mov

    Batch:

for f in *.mov;        do            ffmpeg -i “$f” -y -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hq -pix_fmt yuv422p -c:a pcm_s16le \ “${f%.mov}_conv.mov”;        done

14. Install VMware Player for VMs

     Download Link: https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player/workstation-player-evaluation.html

      Install VMware player:

sudo dnf install kernel-headers kernel-devel
sudo ./VMware-Player-Full-17.5.0-22583795.x86_64.bundle

15. Fix Rocky Linux Neofetch icon in the terminal

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dylanaraps/neofetch/master/neofetch | grep -o Rocky
sudo curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dylanaraps/neofetch/master/neofetch -o /usr/bin/neofetch

16. Install Brave

sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo
sudo rpm --import https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc
sudo dnf install brave-browser

17. Install and fix obs-studio
  OBS Config File Location: /home/thelinuxitguy/.config/obs-studio/basic/profiles/Untitled/

18. Add Rocky wallpaper
  Wallpaper Link: https://global.discourse-cdn.com/business7/uploads/rockylinux/original/1X/b49931e04226c4413bbe3c2d5d5cb01a3c6669c6.png

Link to the Youtube video: https://youtu.be/7AUWzWlssjs

Thanks for following along and I hope this was helpful and informative.

Best regards,

The Linux IT Guy