Fedora 38 Setup - Part II - Workstation Version | An Intersection of Engineering, Agriculture, Data Science and Innovation

WELL.. The KDE server version did not work well. The computer reboot when streaming while the CPU got temperatures around 61°C. Installing NVIDIA drivers did not resolved the issue. Black screens came after booting.. A possibility could be, missing the configuration in the boot setup to use the NVIDIA driver instead of the nouveau divers. Additionally there was mouse freezing, which could be fixed by using the solaar package. Bud did not had the opportunity to test it. I tried the KDE ISO version whit the same results than using the server version.

So, I am trying GNOME. After installing the Workstation ISO and setting up as in the previous post, the rebooting problem remains. It seems that is a recurring problem with the nouveau drivers (ABRT Analytics - Report #617657 - xorg-x11-drv-nouveau in gf100_gr_reset). This means that NVIDIA drivers are required; at least is what I presume. While using Ubuntu and loading the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, the workstation worked without any issues. In this post I am documenting how to install them.

The post image was created with midjourney. Prompt: /imagine Create an abstract paint that illustrates the fusion of engineering and innovation with Data Science, navigating the crossroads of expertise to create sustainable and efficient solutions using oil as the medium, with the impasto technique, emphasizing depth and contrast, and featuring a stunning midnight blue color palette. –no Letters, Text, Signature, Watermark, Logo, Stamp, Branding, Trademark, Copyright, Registered Trademark, Human, Person, People. –aspect 7:4 –s 750 –v 5 –q 2

Fixing Logitech drivers

Before starting with configuring with the video card drivers, I setup the Logitech mouse.

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install solaar 

Install NVIDIA Drivers

I followed the how to documentation in Howto/NVIDIA - RPM Fusion. The documentation provides all the required steps before and after the drivers configuration. Read the complete page before installing the drivers.

Configure RPM Fusion

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf groupupdate core

Secure Boot

Install akmods package.
```
sudo dnf install akmods
```
Read the README file to review the proper steps to follow.
```
nano /usr/share/doc/akmods/README.secureboot
```
Enroll process with Akmods
```
sudo /usr/sbin/kmodgenca
```

Enter the certificate information

-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Organization Name (eg, company) [akmods local]: erickcantu
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) [akmods]:ecantu
Email Address [[email protected]]:erick@erickcantu
Locality Name (eg, city) [None]:
State or Province Name (full name) [None]:
Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) [akmods local signing CA]:

Enroll new keypair with certificate and enter its password. It will be asked when the computer reboots.

sudo mokutil --import /etc/pki/akmods/certs/public_key.der
input password: 
input password again: 

Rebooting the system is needed for MOK to enroll the new public key. BE SURE YOU HAVE A WIRED KEYBOARD!!!

On next boot MOK Management is launched and you have to choose “Enroll MOK”.

Choose “Continue” to enroll the key or “View key 0” to show the keys already enrolled.

Confirm enrollment by selecting “Yes”.

You will be invited to enter the password generated above. WARNING: keyboard is mapped to QWERTY!

The new key is enrolled, and system ask you to reboot.

You can confirm the enrollment of the new keypair once the system rebooted with:
```
mokutil --list-enrolled | grep Issuer
```
or with:
```
sudo mokutil --test-key /etc/pki/akmods/certs/public_key.der
```
which should return
```
/etc/pki/akmods/certs/public_key.der is already enrolled
```

House keeping

I already have 10 enrolled keys, which I have been creating in the last days. Lets remove the ones that are not needed. For details see: uefi - Is it possible to delete an enrolled key using mokutil without the original .der file? - Ask Ubuntu

Create a mokkeys directory.
```
mkdir mokkeys
cd mokkeys
```
List the enrolled keys by exporting them to the mokkeys directory. I use zsh, therefore the lsa command. Use ll in bash.
```
mokutil --export
lsa
```
Review the keys content. Be careful to select only the keys that are not needed. You do not want to re-install everything again.
```
mokutil -l | less
```
Delete they selected keys by erasing the files name MOK000x.der. The command is going to ask you for a password that is needed after rebooting. Use the same password for each key. Ideally the same one that was used to enroll them.
```
sudo mokutil --delete MOK000x.der
```
You need to reboot the system. You will come to the blue screen that is going to ask you if you want to delete the selected keys. You do this part in a bash. Not per individual key. Reboot the system.

Install NVIDA Drivers from RPM Fusion

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia

Installed:
  akmod-nvidia-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                                  
  egl-gbm-1.1.0-4.fc38.x86_64                                                                             
  egl-wayland-1.1.11-3.fc38.x86_64                                                                        
  nvidia-settings-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                               
  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                           
  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                 
  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                   
  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64                                                      
  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power-3:530.41.03-1.fc38.x86_64      

The documentation provides a suggestion to install cuda. But, I will try with Howto/CUDA - RPM Fusion in the next post.

Reboot the computer.

IT BOOT TO A BLACK SCREEN

It happened again, the same bug as with the KDE version. The boot was to a black screen. This bug is well documented, and according to RPM Fusion documentation, the solution is in place. However, for the 530.41.03 driver version is not. You need to run the commands that are part of the KMS (Kernel Mode Setting”). Now I wonder if I should go back to the minimalist KDE server version.

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args='nvidia-drm.modeset=1'

Ensure the suspend command works

sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power
sudo systemctl enable nvidia-{suspend,resume,hibernate}

The package is already installed. I presume the configuration is also available. Will see if there are any issues after it suspends.

Video Acceleration

Video reproduction or streaming requires video acceleration. No need for additional ffmpeg drivers or media drivers. The following code is enough.

sudo dnf install nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-utils vdpauinfo

Nouveau verification

Review that Nouveau is not running the following code should produce nothing.

lsmod |grep nouveau

Change monitor scale options

By default in Fedora you can scale by 100%. This means that you can select 100% or 200% scale in the display menu. It is not possible to select something in between, e.g. 150%. This can be modified by running:

gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"

See: How to Enable Fractional Scaling on Fedora Linux - OMG! Linux

In the next posts, I will review installing LaTeX, modifying GNOME, maybe trying Hyland, but definitely trying EWW Widgets. Also we will review CUDA; this is going to be intersting.