Fixing NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti GPU Detection Issues on Arch Linux

Fixing NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti GPU Detection Issues on Arch Linux

The NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti GPU may fail to initialize properly on Arch Linux due to recent changes in NVIDIA’s driver support model. Typical symptoms include:

• nvidia-smi reporting:

  No devices were found
  

• Failed attempts to start graphical interfaces (Xorg, Wayland):

  (EE) No screens found
  

• Kernel logs (dmesg) containing:

  NVRM: This GPU requires the NVIDIA open kernel modules
  

Root Cause

NVIDIA has ceased adding support for newer GPUs, including the RTX 5070 Ti, to its proprietary kernel module (nvidia). Newer GPU models require the open-source kernel driver (nvidia-open).

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Remove Proprietary NVIDIA Drivers

sudo pacman -Rns nvidia nvidia-utils

2. Install Open-Source NVIDIA Kernel Modules

sudo pacman -S nvidia-open-dkms nvidia-utils

The nvidia-open-dkms package automatically rebuilds the module when kernel updates occur.

3. Regenerate Initial RAM Filesystem (initramfs)

sudo mkinitcpio -P

4. Reboot to Apply Changes

sudo reboot

Optional Xorg Configuration

In rare cases, automatic detection may fail. Manual Xorg configuration is performed as follows:

Create or edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia.conf:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "RTX5070Ti"
    Driver     "nvidia"
    BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"        # Verify via `lspci`
    Option     "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "true"
EndSection

Verification Steps

After rebooting, verify GPU recognition:

• Verify GPU detection:

  nvidia-smi
  

  The RTX 5070 Ti should now appear.

• Verify loaded modules:

  lsmod | grep nvidia
  

  Expected modules: nvidia, nvidia_drm, nvidia_modeset.

• Launch graphical environment:

  startx
  

  The desktop environment should start without errors.

Troubleshooting

• GPU still undetected: Confirm all proprietary drivers are fully removed and the open-source driver is installed correctly. Repeat the above steps.
• Persistent Xorg issues: Ensure the manual Xorg configuration file references the correct PCI address (verify via lspci | grep NVIDIA).

• DKMS build errors after kernel updates: Manually trigger a rebuild:

  sudo dkms autoinstall
  

Summary

The RTX 5070 Ti GPU no longer receives support from the proprietary NVIDIA kernel module. Switching to the open-source driver (nvidia-open-dkms) is mandatory to ensure full functionality under Arch Linux.