To install the NVIDIA display driver, you must disable the default NVIDIA driver, download the NVIDIA display drivers, and configure the PCI device on the virtual machine.
Procedure
- Disable and blacklist the default NVIDIA Nouveau driver.
- Edit the grub.conf file.
For RHEL 6.6, the file is /boot/grub/grub.conf. For RHEL 7.1, the file is /etc/default/grub.conf.
RHEL Version |
Command |
6.6 |
sudo vi /boot/grub/grub.conf |
7.1 |
sudo vi /etc/default/grub.conf |
- Add the rdblacklist=nouveau line at the end of the kernel options.
- Edit the blacklist.conf file.
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
- Add the following line anywhere in the blacklist.conf file.
- Restart the virtual machine.
The display has a changed look and feel.
- (Optional) Verify that the Nouveau driver is disabled.
/sbin/lsmod | grep nouveau
If the
grep search does not return any results, the Nouveau driver is disabled.
- Copy or download the NVIDIA display driver to the virtual machine.
- For an NVIDIA GRID vGPU configuration, copy the NVIDIA Linux Display Driver to the virtual machine.
- For a vDGA configuration, download the NVIDIA driver from the NVIDIA Driver Downloads site.
Select the appropriate driver version from the NVIDIA drop-down menus:
Option |
Description |
Product Type |
GRID |
Product Series |
GRID Series |
Product |
Select the version (such as GRID K2) that is installed on the ESXi host. |
Operating System |
Linux 64-bit or Linux 32-bit |
- Open a remote terminal to the virtual machine, or switch to a text console by typing Ctrl-Alt-F2, log in as root, and run the init 3 command to disable X Windows.
- Install additional components that are required for the NVIDIA driver.
sudo yum install gcc-c++
sudo yum install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
sudo yum install kernel-headers-$(uname -r)
- Add an executable flag to the NVIDIA driver package.
The following example uses a driver package for NVIDIA GRID vGPU:
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-version-grid.run
The following example uses a driver package for vDGA:
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-version.run
- Start the NVIDIA installer.
For NVIDIA GRID vGPU:
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-version-grid.run
For vDGA:
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-version.run
- Accept the NVIDIA software license agreement and select Yes to automatically update the X configuration settings.
What to do next
Install View Agent on the Linux virtual machine. See Install View Agent on a Linux Virtual Machine.
Create a desktop pool that contains the configured Linux virtual machines. See Create a Desktop Pool That Contains Linux Virtual Machines.