Ive been really wanting to use the TPM backed FDE Ubuntu offers but have seriously struggled to figure out what to do with the nvidia drivers. There appears to be absolutely no documentation on it at this point but i was able to figure out the snap components and needing to install an nvidia kernel through snap.
Thats my current road block is after that i cant get anything userspace to recognize the GPU. I tried just installing the nvidia userspace bits thinking it might work but no. Im at a loss and really kinda surprise how obtuse TPM FDE installations feel and how difficult it is to find how to do things without dredging tons of snap documentation and hoping.
Is this a problem with Ubuntu TPM FDE and Nvidia? Or, with configuring the Nvidia driver after a successful installation of Ubuntu with TPM FDE and Nvidia? I ask because I see this:
Nvidia drivers are the only out-of-tree kernel drivers supported by TPM/FDE. You can’t install other third-party drivers using DKMS.
We find that in Ubuntu Release notes>26.04 LTS>Changes since 25.10>Limitations of TPM-backed full disk encryption.
The snap components pc-kernel command should list the available nvidia components for your installed kernel snap … (and the snap components command without package name should list even more)
What do you do to install the nvidia usersspace like nvidia-smi,etc. as just installing them through apt doesnt appear to work
Installing the userspace packages after getting the kernel module running still results in nvidia-smi saying there is no gpu. I installed everything but the kernel modules manually as you get the modules from the snap kernel
Configuration after successful TPM install with nvidia. The kernel module is already there and loaded but none of the nvidia userspace required for games and other programs to use the gpu work if you install the nvidia packages through apt
I replied to this topic with the idea that the topic will become part of the unofficial documentation that will be revealed by an internet search. It could become useful to those of us who are tempted to have TPM FDE but who do not know what we are doing.
Researching for official documents has shown that there is indeed a need for documentation. Including that based on user experience. Think of the forth coming Ubuntu Wiki.
I do not game. I do not have Nvidia hardware. I do have an install of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. If I was to re-install with TPM FDE so as to get experience I guess the re-install would be successful. Yet I think that I should do a lot of research to make sure that I do not mess up.
And we have already revealed that gamers need to do additional things. What they are is yet to be revealed.
Yes, thats why i made the post because the kernel modules are pretty useless without the userspace components
The TPM FDE option feels really under documented and feels like there should be far more friction to installation that way if its so heavily lacking function on popular hardware
Edit: i think after spending weeks trying to figure this out Im just going to move on. If you come across this on a search and have an nvidia laptop just dont even bother.
TPM FDE install option for Ubuntu seems to have extreme usability issues unless you are running a very basic system with very basic needs. The lack of ability to enable SSD discard, nvidia issues like kernel snap and apt packages not being updated with the same frequency or not working at all, recovery of data being a potential problem, absolute lack of documentation etc. just make this too frustrating and fragile to even consider.
I really am not sure why this is so easily available to users when its as messy as it is. The idea is sound but please hide it from people till its actually usable in a way that doesnt require substantial amounts of pain killers or is documented adequately. This should not be a simple click away for folks but should require seeking it out to test
