Pacman is unable to find nvidia proprietary driver

josemanuel · 2026-04-11 23:21:04

I'm having trouble installing the NVIDIA proprietary driver on my system. Despite having "nvidia" package installed and removed before, Pacman cannot find the proprietary driver anymore.

[user@PC ~]$ lspci -k | grep -A 3 -E "(VGA|3D)"
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 397d
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

It's simply not there:

pacman -Ss nvidia  
core/linux-firmware-nvidia 20260309-1 [installed]
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
extra/bumblebee 3.2.1-21
    NVIDIA Optimus support for Linux through VirtualGL
extra/cuda 13.2.0-1 [installed]
    NVIDIA's GPU programming toolkit
extra/cudnn 9.20.0.48-1
    NVIDIA CUDA Deep Neural Network library
extra/egl-gbm 1.1.3-1 [installed]
    The GBM EGL external platform library
extra/egl-wayland 4:1.1.21-1 [installed]
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
extra/egl-wayland2 1.0.1-1 [installed]
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (2)
extra/egl-x11 1.0.5-1 [installed]
    NVIDIA XLib and XCB EGL Platform Library
extra/ffnvcodec-headers 13.0.19.0-1
    FFmpeg version of headers required to interface with Nvidias codec APIs
extra/hip-runtime-nvidia 7.2.1-2
    Heterogeneous Interface for Portability (Nvidia runtime)
extra/libnvidia-container 1.19.0-1
    NVIDIA container runtime library
extra/libva-nvidia-driver 0.0.16-1
    VA-API implementation that uses NVDEC as a backend
extra/libvdpau 1.5-4 [installed]
    Nvidia VDPAU library
extra/libxnvctrl 595.58.03-1 [installed]
    NVIDIA NV-CONTROL X extension
extra/nccl 2.29.7-1
    Library for NVIDIA multi-GPU and multi-node collective communication primitives
extra/nsight-compute 2026.1.0.9-3
    Interactive profiler for NVIDIA CUDA and OptiX
extra/nvhpc 26.3-1
    NVIDIA HPC SDK
extra/nvhpc-comm-libs 26.3-1
    NVIDIA HPC SDK - communication libraries
extra/nvhpc-compilers 26.3-1
    NVIDIA HPC SDK - compilers
extra/nvidia-cg-toolkit 3.1-8
    NVIDIA Cg libraries
extra/nvidia-container-toolkit 1.19.0-1
    NVIDIA container toolkit
extra/nvidia-open 595.58.03-3 [installed]
    NVIDIA open kernel modules
extra/nvidia-open-dkms 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA open kernel modules - module sources
extra/nvidia-open-lts 1:595.58.03-3
    NVIDIA open kernel modules
extra/nvidia-prime 1.0-5
    NVIDIA Prime Render Offload configuration and utilities
extra/nvidia-settings 595.58.03-1 [installed]
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
extra/nvidia-utils 595.58.03-1 [installed]
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
extra/nvshmem 3.6.5-1
    NVIDIA parallel programming interface based on OpenSHMEM
extra/nvtop 3.3.2-1
    GPUs process monitoring for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA
extra/nvtx 3.5.0-1
    NVIDIA Tools Extension (NVTX) library
extra/opencl-nvidia 595.58.03-1 [installed]
    OpenCL implemention for NVIDIA
extra/primus_vk 1.6.2-1
    Nvidia Vulkan offloading for Bumblebee
extra/python-cuda 13.2.0-1
    Python interface for CUDA provided by NVIDIA
extra/python-cuda-bindings 13.2.0-1
    Python interface for CUDA provided by NVIDIA
extra/python-cuda-tile 1.2.0-1
    A Python-based DSL and parallel programming model for NVIDIA GPUs
extra/python-nsight 0.9.6-1
    Python kernel profiling interface based on NVIDIA Nsight Tools
extra/python-nvidia-ml-py 13.595.45-1
    Python bindings for the NVIDIA Management Library (NVML)
extra/python-nvmath 0.8.0-2
    NVIDIA Math Libraries for Python
extra/python-nvtx 3.5.0-1
    NVIDIA Tools Extension (NVTX) library - Python bindings
extra/python-pycuda 2026.1-2
    Python wrapper for Nvidia CUDA
extra/vulkan-nouveau 1:26.0.4-1
    Open-source Vulkan driver for Nvidia GPUs
extra/xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.18-1 (xorg-drivers)
    Open Source 3D acceleration driver for nVidia cards

Installed nvidia packages:

[user@PC ~]$ pacman -Qs nvidia  
local/cuda 13.2.0-1
    NVIDIA's GPU programming toolkit
local/egl-gbm 1.1.3-1
    The GBM EGL external platform library
local/egl-wayland 4:1.1.21-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/egl-wayland2 1.0.1-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (2)
local/egl-x11 1.0.5-1
    NVIDIA XLib and XCB EGL Platform Library
local/libvdpau 1.5-4
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/libxnvctrl 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA NV-CONTROL X extension
local/linux-firmware-nvidia 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
local/nvidia-open 595.58.03-3
    NVIDIA open kernel modules
local/nvidia-settings 595.58.03-1
    Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
local/nvidia-utils 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/opencl-nvidia 595.58.03-1
    OpenCL implemention for NVIDIA

pacman.conf:

[user@PC ~]$ cat /etc/pacman.conf                         
#
# /etc/pacman.conf
#
# See the pacman.conf(5) manpage for option and repository directives

#
# GENERAL OPTIONS
#
[options]
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir     = /
#DBPath      = /var/lib/pacman/
#CacheDir    = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile     = /var/log/pacman.log
#GPGDir      = /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
#HookDir     = /etc/pacman.d/hooks/
HoldPkg     = pacman glibc
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -L -C - -f -o %o %u
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
#CleanMethod = KeepInstalled
Architecture = auto

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

#NoUpgrade   =
#NoExtract   =

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
#Color
#NoProgressBar
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5
DownloadUser = alpm
#DisableSandboxFilesystem
#DisableSandboxSyscalls

# By default, pacman accepts packages signed by keys that its local keyring
# trusts (see pacman-key and its man page), as well as unsigned packages.
SigLevel    = Required DatabaseOptional
LocalFileSigLevel = Optional
#RemoteFileSigLevel = Required

# NOTE: You must run `pacman-key --init` before first using pacman; the local
# keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Arch Linux
# packagers with `pacman-key --populate archlinux`.

#
# REPOSITORIES
#   - can be defined here or included from another file
#   - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
#   - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
#   - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
#     have identical names, regardless of version number
#   - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
#   - URLs will have $arch replaced by the name of the architecture
#
# Repository entries are of the format:
#       [repo-name]
#       Server = ServerName
#       Include = IncludePath
#
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
#

# The testing repositories are disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the
# repo name header and Include lines. You can add preferred servers immediately
# after the header, and they will be used before the default mirrors.

#[core-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[core]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#[extra-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# If you want to run 32 bit applications on your x86_64 system,
# enable the multilib repositories as required here.

#[multilib-testing]
#Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

#[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# An example of a custom package repository.  See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs

I'd really appreciate any help. I couldn't find anything like this and I think it's just some really silly mistake

Scimmia · 2026-04-11 23:26:41

See the news on the front page.

WorMzy · 2026-04-12 00:12:15

For clarity, there is no 'nvidia' package on Arch any more. It was replaced with 'nvidia-open', which you have installed. What is your actual problem?

https://xyproblem.info/

Arch Linux

#1 2026-04-11 23:21:04

Pacman is unable to find nvidia proprietary driver

#2 2026-04-11 23:26:41

Re: Pacman is unable to find nvidia proprietary driver

#3 2026-04-12 00:12:15

Re: Pacman is unable to find nvidia proprietary driver

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