Debian cuda-drivers-580 Package (580.105.08-1) Improperly Pulls In v590 Components

Graphics / Linux Linux
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When the v590 driver informed me at reboot that my GTX-1070 Ti was no longer supported, I attempted to roll back to v580. To that end, I purged all NVIDIA driver components, then selected cuda-drivers-580 for installation, which succeeded. Upon reboot, I was again informed that v590 drivers no longer supported the GTX-1070 Ti.

Reviewing the install logs, I found that, while cuda-drivers-580 was specified, the dependent components were all v590. A quick look at the package’s dependencies revealed:

Depends: nvidia-driver (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-driver-cuda (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-kernel-dkms (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-settings (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-xconfig (>= 580.65.06)

This is insufficient; this will pick up any later version, including v590 and later (i.e. it doesn’t work like NPM or Rust/cargo versioning). Later versions that are incompatible must be explicitly excluded – something like this:

Depends: nvidia-driver (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-driver (<< 590), nvidia-driver-cuda (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-driver-cuda (<< 590), nvidia-kernel-dkms (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-kernel-dkms (<< 590), nvidia-settings (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-settings (<< 590), nvidia-xconfig (>= 580.65.06), nvidia-xconfig (<< 590)

Dependent packages should also be checked to ensure they don’t inadvertently pull in too-new components. Appropriate Breaks: and/or Conflicts: lines wouldn’t go amiss, either.

How to prevent API mismatch
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Again, as mentioned in your parallel thread, see the pinned thread on the topic.

$ sudo apt -V install nvidia-driver-pinning-580
Installing:                     
   nvidia-driver-pinning-580 (580-5)

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 37
  Download size: 2,910 B
  Space needed: 12.3 kB / 81.3 GB available

After installing the nvidia-driver-pinning-580 package, I’m no longer offered the 590 drivers.

nVidia drivers remain at 580.105.08-1 version.

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