NVIDIA GPU seem to be not working after updates

[anacierdem]

Describe the bug

Whenever there is a system update, Steam games (things using GPU in general) stop working on next boot. Only after running ujust upgrade & a cold boot they work properly again.

What did you expect to happen?

I expect the system to just work from a cold start after a system update.

Output of bootc status

● Booted image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx-nvidia-open:gts
        Digest: sha256:73ec83c0520ecb0131e1b193ca678fcc6f53a77281630bc8278e6065913fc264 (amd64)
       Version: gts-41.20250928 (2025-09-28T06:17:40Z)

  Rollback ostree
           Commit: 7fa88968eb26afdce2cd5afcfae3f76bd29eb1cb71de662f41c176caf4a45fa0

   Other image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx-nvidia-open:gts
        Digest: sha256:69a0623109f364c9b0140745d4208692e692f75db257243b6f0bd3ba937f3e71 (amd64)
       Version: gts-41.20250803 (2025-08-03T06:07:37Z)
        Pinned: yes

Output of groups

anacierdem wheel docker incus-admin libvirt

Extra information or context

I think some flatpak is causing it to get itself fixed, but apparently those flatpaks are only available after the update? I didn't get an isolated list of flatpaks though as this is pretty difficult to predict and isolate.
BTW, IIRC NVIDIA GPUs doesn't work with a "restart" after updates so that's why I always turn the system off and boot it again for more context.

[repires]

AI Generated:

This is a known issue on Bluefin and other Fedora-based OSTree systems with NVIDIA GPUs: after a system update, GPU-dependent apps (like Steam) often fail until you perform a full upgrade and a cold boot. The root cause is usually a mismatch between the NVIDIA driver libraries and the nvidia-container-toolkit, or incomplete module reloads after an atomic update. A simple restart isn't enough—only a full power off and boot reliably reloads the drivers and modules (Bluefin #3293).

Workarounds include: always doing a cold boot after updates, using ujust rebase-helper to roll back to a stable image if the latest NVIDIA driver is buggy (Bluefin #3018), and, if you hit library version mismatches, temporarily making /usr writable with sudo bootc usroverlay and manually creating symlinks for missing libraries (Bluefin #2862). There’s no official automated fix yet, but a post-boot systemd unit to automate symlink creation or run ldconfig is being considered.

Flatpak apps may interact with system drivers differently, but there’s no confirmed fix via Flatpak—most users rely on cold booting and image rollback for stability. If you want to check for library mismatches, run ls -l /usr/lib64/libnvidia-* and look for missing versions. For persistent issues, monitor the NVIDIA driver discussions and keep your system on the last known good image.

[repires]

Hi @anacierdem

Can you confirm if this was fixed on the latest image? Thank you for you feedback!

[anacierdem]

Sure, I'll need to test against this for a few updates. I'll let you know my findings. What change exactly we expect to fix this?

[repires]

Sure, I'll need to test against this for a few updates. I'll let you know my findings. What change exactly we expect to fix this?

possibly the newer nvidia version.

[anacierdem]

I think the situation is a bit different now. Instead of not working at all, GPU workloads running very slow when this happens. System stutters a lot until next boot and GPU performance is way below expected when running something like FurMark.

[dosubot]

Hi, @anacierdem. I'm Dosu, and I'm helping the bluefin team manage their backlog and am marking this issue as stale.

Issue Summary

• You reported that GPU-using apps on Bluefin DX NVIDIA Open, including Steam, stop performing correctly after updates and only recover after ujust upgrade plus a cold boot.
• You later clarified the failure mode changed from a complete breakage to severe GPU slowdown, system stuttering, and persistently poor performance until the next reboot.
• A possible Flatpak interaction was suspected, but no specific app or root cause has been isolated yet.
• The latest follow-up asked whether the issue is still reproducible on the newest image, with the newer NVIDIA version noted as a possible factor, but no confirmed fix was identified.

Next Steps

• Please let us know if this is still relevant on the latest version of Bluefin; if it is, you can keep the discussion open by commenting here.
• Otherwise, this issue will be automatically closed in 14 days.

Thanks for your understanding and contribution.