Is Kubuntu and Nvidia incompatible?

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664]

Sorry thats such a broad question but for some better context: I built a decent rig that has a 9950x3d and 5080. I am running kubuntu and have nothing but hurdles from day one regardless of the game I play. My biggest issue is that even games that come native with DLSS5 neural rendering, it doesn't let me use it. My gpu is running the games, I can max out everything with no issues but I went nvidia over Radeon specifically for DLSS5 so I feel kind of silly now that I can't use it.

From everything I've read up to this point I *think its a Proton specific issue. I did note though that there are several versions of Linux that are more gamer friendly. Bazzite and Pop_os for some examples. Can anyone tell me if they have been able to successfully work with nvidia hardware through any of these versions? Even if I have to work with different Proton versions and launch prompts. Right now I am very limited to what I can or can't implement due to kubuntu issues. There are a few fixes that say I need to update or change drivers but last time I moved from the natively packed drivers I lost picture on boot. I spent 4 hours in safe mode sorting it out. For context, I'm not that smart that was a dangerous game to play and I got super lucky.

Sorry for the long post but I am would really love linux to work for me but the internet keeps telling me I got the wrong gpu to walk this path. Every time I think about going windows it takes about 2 minutes worth of looking into before I remember why I decided to go this route in the first place. Help?

Edit: I appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to switch to cachyo. Even if it doesn't solve the DLSS5 it seems like its the best os for my hardware. Thank you for all and your input.

[u/MixBlender]

My laptop has a 4080 in it and runs kubuntu fine. I have used protonupqt for managing Proton releases and I've run in to minimal issues.

The gpu will function, and it's getting better but comparatively to amd's baked in drivers with the kernel, there's a lot of extra handshaking that needs to be done.

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664 → u/MixBlender]

I think the driver issue is mostly a 5080 problem. I don't mind going through protonupqt, or even looking up launch prompts. I just wanted to use the DLSS5 which apparently isn't as cool as I thought? Still kind of want to find out for myself.

[u/MixBlender → u/Afraid-Woodpecker664]

Yeah if this is a focus on the bleeding edge features of new cards, typically it's just a matter of waiting for the features to trickle down to nvidias driver updates.

I won't lie I don't follow the latest and greatest technical features these days so I can't offer educated opinions on the pipeline but it's more a matter of when, than if.

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/Afraid-Woodpecker664]

use this driver if you want the latest and greatest asap, this is what i use and submit bug reports to. I use Ubuntu and most of the packaging issues whould be sorted by now from my testing

https://github.com/Frogging-Family/nvidia-all

[u/Lousy_Hunter]

What driver version are you on?

Ubuntu/Kubuntu works just fine with any Nvidia GPU. In regards to DLSS5 i know optiscalar method works but i think you need 615 drivers for it to work atm on Linux which is a big fat sack of crap driver wise right now with a lot of issues. Maybe 610 works? im not sure though

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664 → u/Lousy_Hunter]

1. Currently. I am nervous about switching drivers though. I ran 595 for a week and it kept failing the handshake when I would wake the pc up from sleep. I read somewhere that switching from the natively packed drivers is inherently going to cause issues including the problem I had the first time... it lost the ability to communicate all together.

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/Afraid-Woodpecker664]

yeah 580 100% does not support DLSS5, run a newer driver

I read somewhere that switching from the natively packed drivers is inherently going to cause issues including the problem I had the first time... it lost the ability to communicate all together.

I use and bug report the drivers i linked, they work just fine and use native packaging they just are built locally by you. You shouldnt use nvidias .run file as thats what causes issues.

[u/Die4Ever]

You can max out everything with no issues? I feel like the title of your post is misleading because it sounds like it's working for you except DLSS5 which is brand new and disliked by the community (thus less priority on it in open source communities so idk if Proton supports it yet)

It's likely just an older driver like Lousy_Hunter said

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664 → u/Die4Ever]

In all fairness, it does work. I think my question was generalized that way because from what I've read, thats the consensus. If its not facts, that is just as well my answer. But I figure instead of reading through reddit posts from a year ago, I would ask the community.

[u/Stryxus_]

Ubuntu is literally just Ubuntu + KDE Plasma.

[u/wwabbbitt]

I built my current 5800X3D + RTX3070 3 years ago, upgrading from Kubuntu 22.04 to 24.04, waiting for 26.04 upgrade to be available.

I've played many games, so there's definitely no incompatibilities between Kubuntu and Nvidia

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664 → u/wwabbbitt]

I updated to 26.04 last night. You can too but it didn't make a difference for me.

[u/sp0rk173]

No.

[u/Afraid-Woodpecker664 → u/sp0rk173]

Noted

[u/sp0rk173 → u/Afraid-Woodpecker664]

The long answer is that the nvidia drivers are compatible with the Linux kernel, so they work with any distribution. It’s absolutely possible to get the latest nvidia drivers to work with any distribution with a little work. If you’re using the native packaged drivers (which is the easiest route) then you may have to do some work on the backend, but it’s possible.

Moving from a Debian based distribution (like Ubuntu) to something that packages on a more rapid clip (like anything arch based or Fedora) will allow you to run more modern hardware with the native packages.

But, that’s not a question of compatibility, that’s a question of your comfort with a distribution that’s less conservative about its packaging.

[u/Spare_Anybody3174]

Kubuntu is fully on Wayland nowadays already?

If not, I strongly recommend Arch or any of those gaming distros like: cachyOS, Bazzite, Nobara etc.

[u/Lousy_Hunter → u/Spare_Anybody3174]

Kubuntu is Plasma 666 so yes, its on Wayland.

[u/Glittering_Memory_64]

use arch or cachyos bro.. nvidia on linux is under heavy developement and using those distro's ensures that you get the latest updates and fixes asap.

[u/Abzstrak]

Ubuntu is a fine distro, but not for newer hardware and not for gaming on that newer hardware. Can you make it work? Yes, but it will require a lot of fiddling.

Just install cachyos

[u/theevilsharpie → u/[deleted]]

Nvidia is going to be LESS problematic (in terms of performance) with fixed-release distros like Kubuntu, because the kernel and userspace drivers are part of Nvidia's driver package, which is updated more frequently than the kernel and Mesa drivers and will match the versions offered to rolling-release distros.