How to Install RTX 5070 on Ubuntu 24.04 with KDE Plasma (X11)

If you recently built a system with an NVIDIA RTX 50-series GPU and are running Ubuntu 24.04 (Oracular), you might find the out-of-the-box experience… underwhelming. No display, no desktop, and nvidia-smi throwing cryptic errors. Been there. Here’s how I finally got everything working, including KDE Plasma on X11.

This post documents the final working steps I took, including why each part is necessary. Whether you’re installing from scratch or debugging a broken setup, this is for you.

⚡ Step 1: Install a Newer Linux Kernel

Tool used: mainline (Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Installer)

Why: Ubuntu 24.04 ships with a kernel that may not fully support NVIDIA’s newest drivers for RTX 50-series cards (Blackwell architecture). Installing a newer kernel (I used 6.12.20) was necessary to get the NVIDIA driver to compile.

There are newer versions of kernels in mainline, and in the future those may work even better with newer versions of NVIDIA’s driver. You can list the available versions using:

mainline list | less

To install the tool and a compatible kernel:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mainline -y

Then install the newer kernel version: (I chose 6.12.20 for now)

sudo mainline install 6.12.20

After installation, reboot and select the new kernel via GRUB. You can check which one you’re running:

uname -r
# Should say: 6.12.20-061220-generic

🚗 Step 2: Install NVIDIA Driver (Open Kernel Modules)

Package: nvidia-driver-570-open

Why: This version supports the RTX 5070 and newer kernels. The “open” version uses the newer open-source kernel modules, improving compatibility with custom kernels.

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-570-open -y

After installation, reboot again. Then verify with:

nvidia-smi

You should see your GPU info without errors.

🌐 KDE Plasma (X11) Setup

I like KDE Plasma with X11 so here is how to install those. I find some packages are missing and I had to install them manually.

🧱 Install KDE Minimal + Plasma Desktop

sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop -y

Log into Plasma using X11 (not Wayland).

🛠 Add Missing KDE System Apps

Some KDE modules like mouse or display settings weren’t installed by default. Add them manually:

sudo apt install systemsettings kde-cli-tools plasma-systemmonitor kscreen -y

This includes:

• systemsettings: Core KDE settings hub
• kde-cli-tools: Required for settings modules to work properly
• plasma-systemmonitor: Resource monitor
• kscreen: Display and monitor configuration tool

✅ Verify the Desktop Session

Make sure you’re on X11 (not Wayland):

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
# Output should be: x11

🚀 Conclusion

After these steps, I had a fully working desktop:

• Kernel 6.12.20
• NVIDIA driver 570.124.04
• KDE Plasma running on X11

Everything from display configuration to CUDA acceleration via nvidia-smi works as expected. I hope this helps someone else navigating the rocky path of bleeding-edge hardware on Linux!