Hi everyone,
I recently installed the NVIDIA drivers on my new Debian system and have been experimenting with different kernel versions. I noticed that kernel 6.17 seems to be newer than what the current Debian-packaged driver supports. I’m not very experienced with Linux kernel and driver release, so I wanted to ask a few things:
Have I made any mistakes in how I installed the NVIDIA drivers? I’m running Debian 13 (Trixie) with the backported 6.17 kernel, so I’m assuming this version might simply be too new for the driver/NVIDIA DKMS to build correctly.
I’m also a bit confused about versioning: Debian’s repositories provide NVIDIA driver version 550, but here on the forum I see mentions of driver versions up to 590, and the production branch seems to be around 580. Is this a Debian packaging delay, or is there something I’m misunderstanding about how these versions are distributed?
If this isn’t an installation issue, is there any general expectation for when a driver update might support kernel 6.17?
Thank you for explaining this :)
There are 3 major ways Nvidia drivers are packaged for Debian, see the details on the Debian wiki.
Debian generally packages only LTS versions, so 535, 550 and probably soon they will also add 580.
I’m on 6.17.8 from trixie-backports as well and 590 (still in beta) from the Nvidia DC repo works fine for me. Previously I was using 580 from the DC repo for Debian-12 and it was also working fine with this kernel (the DC repo for D-13 have been created just a few days ago).
How exactly have you tried to install the driver and what sort of problems are you experiencing exactly? Please consider attaching a bug report file.
Thank you for the speedy answer and sorry for a late one.
I was installing the nvidia-smi directly with apt
root@server:~# apt install nvidia-smi
Installing:
nvidia-smi
Installing dependencies:
firmware-nvidia-gsp libnvidia-egl-gbm1 libxkbfile1 nvidia-persistenced
glx-alternative-mesa libnvidia-egl-wayland1 libxmu6 nvidia-settings
glx-alternative-nvidia libnvidia-eglcore libxpm4 nvidia-support
glx-diversions libnvidia-encode1 libxt6t64 nvidia-suspend-common
libcuda1 libnvidia-glcore nvidia-alternative nvidia-vdpau-driver
libegl-nvidia0 libnvidia-glvkspirv nvidia-driver nvidia-vulkan-common
libfontenc1 libnvidia-gpucomp nvidia-driver-bin nvidia-vulkan-icd
libgl1-nvidia-glvnd-glx libnvidia-ml1 nvidia-driver-libs update-glx
libgles-nvidia1 libnvidia-pkcs11-openssl3 nvidia-egl-common x11-xkb-utils
libgles-nvidia2 libnvidia-ptxjitcompiler1 nvidia-egl-icd xcvt
libgles1 libnvidia-rtcore nvidia-installer-cleanup xfonts-base
libglx-nvidia0 libopengl0 nvidia-kernel-common xfonts-encodings
libice6 libsm6 nvidia-kernel-dkms xfonts-utils
libnvcuvid1 libxaw7 nvidia-kernel-support xserver-common
libnvidia-allocator1 libxcvt0 nvidia-legacy-check xserver-xorg-core
libnvidia-cfg1 libxfont2 nvidia-modprobe xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
Suggested packages:
nvidia-cuda-mps vulkan-tools xfs | xserver xfonts-100dpi | xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable
Recommended packages:
libcuda1:i386 nvidia-driver-libs:i386
Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 65, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
Download size: 0 B / 159 MB
Space needed: 454 MB / 897 GB available
Continue? [Y/n] y
...
<SNIPPED>
...
Building initial module nvidia-current/550.163.01 for 6.17.8+deb13-amd64
Sign command: /lib/modules/6.17.8+deb13-amd64/build/scripts/sign-file
Signing key: /var/lib/dkms/mok.key
Public certificate (MOK): /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub
Building module(s).........(bad exit status: 2)
Failed command:
env NV_VERBOSE=1 make -j16 modules KERNEL_UNAME=6.17.8+deb13-amd64
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.17.8+deb13-amd64 (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-current/550.163.01/build/make.log for more information.
dpkg: error processing package nvidia-kernel-dkms (--configure):
installed nvidia-kernel-dkms package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 10
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of nvidia-driver:
nvidia-driver depends on nvidia-kernel-dkms (= 550.163.01-2) | nvidia-kernel-550.163.01 | nvidia-open-kernel-550.163.01; however:
Package nvidia-kernel-dkms is not configured yet.
Package nvidia-kernel-550.163.01 is not installed.
Package nvidia-kernel-dkms which provides nvidia-kernel-550.163.01 is not configured yet.
Package nvidia-open-kernel-550.163.01 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing package nvidia-driver (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-12) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.8+deb13-amd64
Processing triggers for update-glx (1.2.2) ...
Processing triggers for glx-alternative-nvidia (1.2.2) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia to provide /usr/lib/glx (glx) in auto mode
Processing triggers for glx-alternative-mesa (1.2.2) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.41-12) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.148.3) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.17.8+deb13-amd64
Errors were encountered while processing:
nvidia-kernel-dkms
nvidia-driver
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root@server:~#
I am also attaching the bug report by nvidia-bug-report.sh
Thank you!
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (108.0 KB)
Now it’s clear: kernel 6.16+ requires Nvidia driver 580+ due to changes in some header files and you attempted to install 550 from the Debian repos on 6.17 from trixie-backports, so it failed to compile as expected.
You have a few options here:
- use the default 6.12 kernel and driver v550 from the Debian repos
- stay at 6.17 and install v580 or v590 using the dot-run installer
- stay at 6.17 and install v590 from the mentioned Nvidia DC apt repos (follow the instructions for Debian-12 from the official docs just replacing
$(distro) with debian13)
Whichever way you decide, first make sure to clean the current mess with apt-get --autoremove purge '*nvidia*' '*nvidia*:i386' '*cuda*' '*cuda*:i386'
Hope this helps :)
UPDATE:
- you didn’t mention what GPU you have: support for Maxwell, Pascal and Volta is discontinued since v590, so if you have an older GPU (like GTX 10xx or older), then you need to use v580 (or earlier) and choose proprietary modules flavor.
- when installing from the Debian repos, you should follow the exact instructions from the wiki: adding components, installing headers, finally installing
nvidia-driver + firmware + open/proprietary modules, NOT just installing nvidia-smi and hoping that all the rest will be somehow properly pulled-in also.
PS: I’ve added a warning to the wiki, so others will not fall into the same trap.
Followed this and made it work :)
Thanks for the help!
Glad it to hear it works :)
For anyone coming here in the (near) future: I’ve just noticed that there’s a corresponding version 550.163.01-4~bpo13+1 in trixie-backports: it is possible that it was patched to work with kernels 6.16+, but I haven’t verified it (I’ve added yet another note to the wiki though ;-] ).
UPDATE: proprietary flavor of 550.163.01-4~bpo13+1 indeed compiles correctly on the 6.17 kernel from trixie-backports. Open flavor still fails. The wiki has been updated accordingly.
UPDATE 2:
- open flavor from backports now also works on 6.17 kernels (1123024).
- I’ve filed a wishlist bug BTW to package some version supporting Blackwell (1123506)
the wiki has been updated with the above info and istructions.
Great news! thank you for this :)