I’m new to not just Garuda but Linux as a whole. I’m currently running dr460nized on a Dell E6430 with an I5-3320M and an NVS 5200M, kernel- 6.13.5-zen1-1-zen (64-bit). It’s pretty old hardware, and from my research it seems the nvidia driver version I’d need is the 390.xx. This considered, each time I run garuda-update it automatically installs the 570.xx which is incompatible with my hardware.
When I attempt to install the 390.xx version using both yay and pacman it causes a conflict with the version I just installed (570.xx) and I can’t break all the dependencies it’s linked to (being inexperienced and all), so i opted to reinstall the whole OS (this happened twice BTW). This time I didn’t run the auto update but instead tried to install the driver directly from the AUR. The package had the letters dkms at the end so I assumed it wouldn’t bug the kernel during updates (which it hasn’t till now). It installed the packages from the AUR and I ran garuda-update which updated chaotic aur and 3 or 4 other packages I can’t bring to mind.
I then proceeded to reboot the device and run nvidia-smi and it says that it can’t communicate with the driver, and that I should make sure the latest driver is runninng.
If anybody has experienced this issue or can enlighten me on any matter concerning the above, I’d be very greatful.
Hi there, welcome to the forum. 
I have moved your topic and removed the KDE tag as the issue has nothing to do with the desktop environment.
Could you please post your garuda-inxi as required by the topic template? This will give us a much better overview of your system and make it easier for us to help you.
Thanks.
TLDR; when you first install the OS is the easiest time to make sure you install your correct drivers. When loading your boot driver installer, do NOT choose the proprietary drivers option (at least for me, this was a source of extensive trouble).
i believe given the right info (from something like arch wiki and search engine info), you could also remove all the offending nvidia stuff, prior to installing the correct nvidia stuff from the arch repo (using the terminal for something like GitHub - korvahannu/arch-nvidia-drivers-installation-guide: A repository that holds a simple guide on how you can install and configure proprietary NVIDIA drivers for Arch Linux. although i’m not convinced that this guide is perfect for Garuda users… particularly the part about pacman hooks since Garuda uses dracut but hopefully someone else with more knowledge/expertise can weigh in on this subject).
NVIDIA - ArchWiki
Kernel module - ArchWiki
NVIDIA/Troubleshooting - ArchWiki
The last 2 links above may or may not be useful to you but could be worth looking over for learning at very least. Note the tips & tricks link at end of NVIDIA page as well as the link to the above troubleshooting.
My nvidia gfx card blurb
i went through this sort of thing with my nvidia GTX660 Ti and the whole Linux driver issues myself… when i started using Garuda XFCE.
My card is supposed to use the 470xx series driver at present, which is kept somewhat up to date ostensibly on the arch rep, and requires you install the dkms, utils and 32-bit files (plus the nvidia settings app although i have a feeling almost any nvidia settings will work as long as it’s not older than the driver… i could be wrong; using the 470xx settings worked but so did at least one other nvidia settings i tried)
it took me quite a lot of research and learning (total Linux newbie starting around mid Feb. this year, 2025), but i discovered that basically with such old hardware i needed to make sure i installed the OS using the Nouveau, then my proprietary nvidia drivers could be installed from the terminal.
Most of all this was just to be able to launch and play DotA 2 (vulkan error and some other odd visual behavior in the desktop with Nouveau driver).
issues with getting dota 2 and audio in general to work on Garuda
The story almost has a happy ending for me though i’m still trying to run down the cause of some random crash/freeze i get during vulkan rendering of Dota 2. Also i ended up having some sound issues; first with getting proper speakers to play in Garuda period, then in Dota 2… which i fixed for the most part, i believe, until recently when now it seems Dota 2 is almost certainly crashing due to how the sound drivers are being handled (it may have been crash/freeze due to audio before, but it was not as often or as obvious till a fairly recent series of OS updates for Garuda).
i really like Garuda compared with everything else i’ve tried; including ubuntu, which i found less simple than Garuda in many ways, and i’ve learned a lot about Linux trying to get all the things fixed.
i generally have 2-4 kernels installed using the Rani… in case one decides not to boot after a sys update
More blah about my Linux/Garuda experience to date [since about 3rd week in Feb. 2025]
or if i feel like seeing if the latest update to one has changed it (CachyOS for example).
Recently however the 7 different kernel i tried, including ones that were working a few days ago, have been reduced to just one working kernel ( Linux-LTS, CachyOS & CachyOS-LTS, Xanmod-LTS, Linux-5-LTS, Linux-6-LTS … none will boot except zen. i was using Linux-LTS and sometimes testing zen or CachyOS for speed increases… Linux-LTS has basically never failed me till recently, so i’m reinstalling shortly myself.
I think this is getting to be around my 7th or 8th Garuda [XFCE previously, though i am going to try some others next time] reinstall? I’ve partitioned my ssd in half to be able to easily back up/reinstall as well as dual-boot into another OS as needed. The Garuda snapshot system is fantastic, though as someone just learning Linux, i’ve found OS-reinstalls also quite helpful.
This code might help you
#not sure if you have to delete these files, or in this order, but i have too
sudo pacman -R garuda-nvidia-config
sudo pacman -R lib32-nvidia-utils
sudo pacman -R nvidia-settings
sudo pacman -R gwe
sudo pacman -R python-py3nvml
sudo pacman -R nvidia-dkms
sudo pacman -R nvidia-utils
sudo pacman -R egl-x11
#this is the main code to get nvidia-all up and running
rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty $HOME"/nvidia-all";
git clone https://github.com/Frogging-Family/nvidia-all.git
cd nvidia-all
makepkg -si
#if you uninstalled the above files reinstall them afterwards.
sudo pacman -S gwe
sudo pacman -S python-py3nvml
sudo pacman -S egl-x11
Cheers