I recently upgraded my system from Debian 10 to Debian 12 to support my new GPU. My GPU is a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. I’m trying to install the NVIDIA driver using the official NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-570.133.07.run file, but I’m running into an issue.
Here are some system details:
Debian version: 12
Kernel version: 6.1.0-32-amd64
GPU: RTX 5070 Ti
First, I prepared my system by ensuring the following:
Secure Boot: Disabled
lspci | grep -E “VGA|3D” output:
09:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GB203 [GeForce RTX 5070 Ti] (rev a1)
I installed required packages with these command: apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) gcc make acpid dkms libglvnd-core-dev libglvnd0 libglvnd-dev dracut libc-dev
I added Nouveau to blacklist, updated grub and generated initramfs with dracut.
During driver installation, I selected the “MIT/GPL” license option. After the kernel module compilation completes, I receive the following error:
“ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module ‘nvidia.ko’.
This happens most frequently when this kernel module was built against the wrong or improperly configured kernel sources,
with a version of gcc that differs from the one used to build the target kernel,
or if another driver, such as nouveau, is present and prevents the NVIDIA kernel module from obtaining ownership of the NVIDIA device(s),
or no NVIDIA device installed in this system is supported by this NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release.”
I’ve checked the kernel headers and gcc versions, and they seem correct. Nouveau is blacklisted and disabled. I’m attaching my log files for reference.
Also, when I install only the RTX 5070 Ti on the system (without any other GPU), I get no display output at all — not even during boot or in GRUB. The screen stays completely black. This makes it very difficult to troubleshoot, and I can only proceed by accessing the system remotely.
IMHO “upgrading” to quite an outdated OS such as Debian-12 is probably not the most optimal move possible ;-] As you pointed yourself “Kernel version: 6.1”: that is pretty ancient… In most situations I highly recommend using Debian-13 instead: it’s been really stable in my case for the last year and it’s scheduled to be officially promoted to “stable” this May. Generally in case of Debian, series “testing” are usually what most other distros would call “stable”.
As .run installers are distro-agnostic, they are likely to cause some incompatibility issues from time time: one size does not always fit all. I usually recommend using the DC drivers Debian apt repo instead: see the official installation instructions and if you decide to go with Debian-13, then just follow the instructions for 12 for now.
Note however that this apt repo is a bit more conservative with pushing new versions, which usually appear with a few weeks delay comparing to .run installers (currently it’s at 570.124.06), which in case of such an unstable product as 50xx series that constantly require fixes to fixes, may possibly constitute a problem at some point.
This seems like a faulty hardware (which would not be surprising in case of 50xx products), but you may check if maybe there are some BIOS/EFI updates to your mobo before trying your luck with the warranty service.
Well try to increase/set/change the gcc13 to gcc14. It can solve your problem. But don’t forget with g++13 to g++14 too. Because later it can be problem.
I’ve resolved the issue. The problem was fixed after I updated the BIOS and upgraded my system to Debian 13. After that, the NVIDIA driver installed successfully and display output started working properly with the RTX 5070 Ti.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read or consider helping. Your support and the shared knowledge in this community are much appreciated!