NVIDIA GPU support in Docker on KDE Linux

Help
1

Hi,

I’m currently testing KDE Linux and setting up my homelab. I’m having trouble getting NVIDIA GPU support working with Docker.

My hardware is a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and the NVIDIA driver works correctly on the host. I can use GPU acceleration with DaVinci Resolve, FFmpeg, and games without issues.

System information:

KDE Linux
VERSION="2026-09-28 02:54"
Kernel: 7.2.7-arch1-1

NVIDIA driver: 615.71.09
GPU: GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

Docker: 29.8.1
containerd: 2.4.0
runc: 1.5.2

Docker reports CDI support:

CDI spec directories:
/etc/cdi
/var/run/cdi

However, running a CUDA container with GPU access fails:

sudo docker run --rm --gpus all \
  nvidia/cuda:12.8.1-base-ubuntu24.04 nvidia-smi

with:

failed to discover GPU vendor from CDI: no known GPU vendor found

I also tried:

sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker

but nvidia-ctk is not available on the system.

I found that Kapsule provides NVIDIA support through its --nvidia-drivers option, but migrating my homelab to Kapsule/Incus isn’t currently possible because some of the container images required by my stack are not available for that environment.

My homelab is therefore currently dependent on Docker/Compose.

What is the recommended/supported way to enable NVIDIA GPU support for Docker containers on KDE Linux? Is there an intended way to provide the NVIDIA Container Toolkit/CDI integration on the immutable KDE Linux system?

Thanks! :vulcan_salute:

2

I think that as of now, the offical direction of travel would be nested containerization, with Docker running inside a Kapsule image.

Unofficially, something that has worked for me on “un-nested” Podman (and probably would work on Docker too) is to make a systemd sysext out of the contents of the nvidia-container-toolkit Arch package (which includes nvidia-ctk among other things).

3

Thanks, that clears things up.

For my current homelab setup, I think KDE Linux is a “no go” for now, mainly because I rely heavily on Docker with NVIDIA GPU support and I’d rather not add the extra complexity of a sysext or nested container setup.

That said, I definitely want to test both approaches in the future, especially the Kapsule + nested Docker path, as the project evolves.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction and sharing your experience!

:vulcan_salute:

4

See also https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/work_items/94. Looks like someone just needs to do it!

5

Hi,

I’m glad to hear that a solution is feasible without becoming a headache for the distro’s maintenance. I’ve been using KDE Linux frequently over the past 12 months, and this Docker issue is the final hurdle to a full migration.

:vulcan_salute: