Dealing with NVIDIA nonsense on Fedora Silverblue 35

Part 1 - console error

[joni@goldblum ~]$ rpm-ostree install kmod-nvidia
Checking out tree 91f0658... done
Enabled rpm-md repositories: fedora-cisco-openh264 updates fedora fedora-modular phracek-PyCharm google-chrome rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver updates-modular rpmfusion-nonfree-steam updates-archive
Importing rpm-md... done
rpm-md repo 'fedora-cisco-openh264' (cached); generated: 2021-09-21T18:07:30Z solvables: 4
rpm-md repo 'updates' (cached); generated: 2022-01-14T01:05:05Z solvables: 16495
rpm-md repo 'fedora' (cached); generated: 2021-10-26T05:31:27Z solvables: 65732
rpm-md repo 'fedora-modular' (cached); generated: 2021-10-26T05:08:36Z solvables: 1283
rpm-md repo 'phracek-PyCharm' (cached); generated: 2022-01-04T13:38:29Z solvables: 30
rpm-md repo 'google-chrome' (cached); generated: 2022-01-12T19:39:11Z solvables: 3
rpm-md repo 'rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver' (cached); generated: 2022-01-12T14:47:40Z solvables: 29
rpm-md repo 'updates-modular' (cached); generated: 2022-01-06T01:57:22Z solvables: 1371
rpm-md repo 'rpmfusion-nonfree-steam' (cached); generated: 2021-12-24T13:52:43Z solvables: 2
rpm-md repo 'updates-archive' (cached); generated: 2022-01-14T01:55:45Z solvables: 20049
Resolving dependencies... done
Will download: 8 packages (206.9 MB)
Downloading from 'rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver'... done
Downloading from 'updates'... done
Downloading from 'fedora'... done
Importing packages... done
Checking out packages... done
Running pre scripts... done
Running post scripts... done
error: Running %post for akmod-nvidia: bwrap(/bin/sh): Child process killed by signal 1; run `journalctl -t 'rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)'` for more information
[joni@goldblum ~]$

Part 2 - journal

Jan 14 18:50:45 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[23799]: Building /usr/src/akmods/nvidia-kmod-495.46-1.fc35.src.rpm for kernel 5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:  1227 |     if (dma_is_direct(get_dma_ops(dev)))
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:       |         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:       |         d_is_dir
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: In file included from /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/nvidia/nv-caps.c:24:
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/common/inc/nv-linux.h: In function 'nv_is_dma_direct':
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/common/inc/nv-linux.h:1227:9: error: implicit declaration of function 'dma_is_direct'; did you mean 'd_is_dir'? [-Werror=implicit-function-decl>
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:  1227 |     if (dma_is_direct(get_dma_ops(dev)))
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:       |         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:       |         d_is_dir
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:277: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/nvidia/nv-frontend.o] Error 1
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:277: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/nvidia/nv-modeset-interface.o] Error 1
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:277: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/nvidia/nv_uvm_interface.o] Error 1
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:277: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64/nvidia/nv-caps.o] Error 1
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[1]: *** [Makefile:1872: /tmp/akmodsbuild.lFrAQ5lW/BUILD/nvidia-kmod-495.46/_kmod_build_5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64] Error 2
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/kernels/5.15.13-200.fc35.x86_64'
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: make: *** [Makefile:80: modules] Error 2
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.FPrllN (%build)
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]: RPM build errors:
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     Unable to open sqlite database /usr/share/rpm/rpmdb.sqlite: unable to open database file
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     cannot open Packages index using sqlite - Operation not permitted (1)
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     cannot open Packages database in /usr/share/rpm
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     user mockbuild does not exist - using root
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     group mock does not exist - using root
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     user mockbuild does not exist - using root
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     group mock does not exist - using root
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     Unable to open sqlite database /usr/share/rpm/rpmdb.sqlite: unable to open database file
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     cannot open Packages index using sqlite - Operation not permitted (1)
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     cannot open Packages database in /usr/share/rpm
Jan 14 18:50:59 goldblum rpm-ostree(akmod-nvidia.post)[29803]:     Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.FPrllN (%build)

This was resolved by increasing the available file descriptors in both the /etc/systemd/user.conf and /etc/systemd/system.conf files like so:

# system.conf
# ...
#DefaultLimitNOFILE=1024:524288
DefaultLimitNOFILE=16384:524288

# user.conf
# ...
#DefaultLimitNOFILE=
DefaultLimitNOFILE=16384

Which, well of course it requires a reboot :)