Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS – RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU not recognized with nvidia‑driver‑575 (falls back to llvmpipe)

Support and Help
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1

Hello Ubuntu community!

I’m working on setting up my new MSI Vector 16 HX A2XW laptop for a dual Windows/Ubuntu boot for ROS2/HoloOcean/UE5 development.
I’m running into a problem where Ubuntu will not recognize my GPU. Here are the specifics.

Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (x86‑64 Desktop ISO, fully up‑to‑date)

Desktop Environment:
GNOME 42 (Wayland disabled; running the default Xorg session)

Problem Description:

Fresh install boots and works on Intel graphics, but my discrete NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU (Ada Lovelace, PCI ID 10de:2f18) never initializes:

  • Installed nvidia-driver-570 (PPA) → nvidia-smi says “No devices were found”; renderer = llvmpipe
  • Installed nvidia-driver-575 (current “new-feature” branch in graphics-drivers PPA) → exact same result
  • Internal display works; HDMI is dead; 3D apps use software rendering

System Information:

  • Laptop: MSI Vector 16 HX A2XW
  • CPU: Intel Core i9‑14900HX (integrated graphics present)
  • BIOS: latest; Secure Boot disabled
  • GPU modes tried: Hybrid (MUX-less) and Discrete

What I’ve Tried:

  1. Tested nvidia-driver-570 as recommended by Ubuntu’s built-in “Additional Drivers” tool (without any third-party PPA) → no change
  2. Added ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa, re-tested nvidia-driver-570 → no change
  3. Upgraded to nvidia-driver-575 from same PPA → no change
  4. Verified kernel modules load (lsmod | grep nvidia lists nvidia, nvidia_drm, nvidia_uvm, etc.)
  5. Confirmed driver bound to device (lspci -k shows Kernel driver in use: nvidia)
  6. Disabled Secure Boot, VMD, and Fast Boot in firmware
  7. Tested both Hybrid and Discrete GPU modes in BIOS
  8. Installed build-essential / libglvnd-dev / pkg-config; installer shows no warnings
  9. Purged and re-installed drivers multiple times; same outcome

Screenshots or Error Messages:

$ lspci | grep -i vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f18] (rev a1)

$ dpkg -l | grep nvidia-driver
ii  nvidia-driver-575    575.64.03-0ubuntu0~gpu22.04.1  amd64  NVIDIA driver metapackage

$ nvidia-smi
No devices were found

$ glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.7, 256 bits)

Would love some help on this as I’ve fought through multiple issues with getting this setup working, this seems like the last hurdle to get this setup functioning.

2

Your PC is a model released in 2025, therefore, you should probably start with an Ubuntu release later than 22.04 (i.e. later than April 2022)

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will receive backports from 25.04 in August 2025
More info here

Possibly, Ubuntu 25.04 may be a better starting point.

Generally, new hardware needs a recent kernel.

3

You also do not mention if you have tried the “Additional Drivers” from Ubuntu at all before jumping onto the PPA with all the third-party stuff, what happened with it, did you actually try it, what driver did it suggest etc …

4

Thanks Ogra, here’s what I tested (and I’ll add it to the post)

  • The nvidia-driver-570 recommended by Ubuntu itself (“Additional Drivers” without any third-party PPA)
  • nvidia-driver-570 from the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
  • nvidia-driver-575 from the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

All resulted in the same outcome: nvidia-smi reports “No devices found” and the system falls back to llvmpipe software rendering.

5

Screenshot from 2025-07-15 09-06-11
Screenshot from 2025-07-15 09-06-11947×504 73.1 KB

Screenshot from 2025-07-15 09-09-30
Screenshot from 2025-07-15 09-09-30956×564 63.2 KB

Screenshots confirming:

  • When using only the official Ubuntu repositories (no third-party PPA), the tested driver offered is nvidia-driver-570.
  • When the ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa is enabled, newer drivers like 570 and 575 are also shown.

In both cases, I tested the available drivers directly and encountered the same result:
nvidia-smi shows “No devices found” and OpenGL falls back to llvmpipe.

6

You did not upgrade kernel, did you? Also, before you tried updating drivers, did you remove/purge old files/drivers? You might want to try that. Give it a fresh clean install.

sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-*’ then sudo apt-get autoremove

since you already added ppa, do sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver-575 nvidia-dkms-575