GNOME Software To Better Support NVIDIA's Proprietary Linux Driver

As a planned change for Fedora 41, Red Hat engineers are working on upstream GNOME Software better supporting the NVIDIA proprietary driver installation by allowing the installation to work gracefully with UEFI Secure Boot enabled systems.

The NVIDIA drivers were removed from the GNOME Software app center since it didn't work well with Secure Boot enabled systems. But the NVIDIA drivers are now set to return with GNOME Software being able to better handle the Secure Boot situation.

Red Hat's Milan Crha recently opened this merge request for upstream GNOME Software to ease the installation of the akmods key into MOK for apps like the NVIDIA drivers, so that it will work in Secure Eobot enabled environments. Milan explained there:

"Currently, to trigger the code (apart of enable build of it, which is disabled by default), the app needs a flag that it requires the akmods key to be installed. Only if the secure boot is enabled it's tested whether the key is installed or not, and if not, then this gets into the action. It's currently provided only for the NVIDIA drivers, but more apps can be added if needed."

The upstream GNOME Software change is still undergoing review. Red Hat is working on it as part of this Fedora 41 change proposal so that the NVIDIA driver installation plays well with Secure Boot and the driver listing when using RPM Fusion appears in GNOME Software for a nice user-friendly experience for those wanting to use NVIDIA's closed-source driver stack.