Having troubles installing nvidia driver

wh33t · 02-15-2016, 11:51 AM

I followed these instructions: https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphi...e-backports.29

And I still don't appear to be able to change resolutions to my monitors native resolution.

How can I tell if it installed correctly?

Emerson · 02-15-2016, 11:55 AM

By inspecting Xorg log.

erik2282 · 02-18-2016, 03:19 PM

INSTALL NVIDIA DRIVERS on Debian Jessie

The easiest way to install NVIDIA GeForce Driver on Debian Linux 8 ( Jessie ) is to use official contrib and non-free debian repository. First add the following non-free and contrib repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list. Therefore, first change the content of your /etc/apt/sources.list file to include contrib and non-free packages eg.:
deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
Next, update your repositories:
# apt-get update
At this point the nvidia-driver package becomes available for the installation:
# apt-get install nvidia-driver
During the installation you will see a notification about conflicting
version of the free software nouveau nvidia driver with your currently
being installed non-free nvidia kernel module which you can simply
ignore.
# apt-get install nvidia-xconfig
The next command will generate a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig
Now REBOOT the computer.
When it comes back up, see if the nvidia setting window comes up with this command:
$ nvidia-settings
If it does, your're done!

I've installed the nvidia drivers in Debian Jessie on 4 systems at work like this and worked perfectly each time.

got this from:
https://linuxconfig.org/nvidia-gefor...-linux-8-64bit

enorbet · 02-19-2016, 08:02 PM

Don't forget that in most distros the nvidia install creates /var/log/nvidia-installer.log and even /var/log/nvidia-uninstaller.log so those are worth a peek too.

at least for error-free installs.

wh33t · 02-19-2016, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erik2282

INSTALL NVIDIA DRIVERS on Debian Jessie

The easiest way to install NVIDIA GeForce Driver on Debian Linux 8 ( Jessie ) is to use official contrib and non-free debian repository. First add the following non-free and contrib repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list. Therefore, first change the content of your /etc/apt/sources.list file to include contrib and non-free packages eg.:
deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
Next, update your repositories:
# apt-get update
At this point the nvidia-driver package becomes available for the installation:
# apt-get install nvidia-driver
During the installation you will see a notification about conflicting
version of the free software nouveau nvidia driver with your currently
being installed non-free nvidia kernel module which you can simply
ignore.
# apt-get install nvidia-xconfig
The next command will generate a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig
Now REBOOT the computer.
When it comes back up, see if the nvidia setting window comes up with this command:
$ nvidia-settings
If it does, your're done!

I've installed the nvidia drivers in Debian Jessie on 4 systems at work like this and worked perfectly each time.

got this from:
https://linuxconfig.org/nvidia-gefor...-linux-8-64bit

Did all that. After the reboot x wouldn't launch. It gave some error message but without X working I can't access the forums to post it. Classic experience in Linux for me. Things that should work according to instructions just don't.

Emerson · 02-19-2016, 08:25 PM

Classic GUI user thinking, unable to think outside of box.

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...e-bin-services

You could have used a CLI tool and pastebin the log.

wh33t · 02-19-2016, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerson

Classic GUI user thinking, unable to think outside of box.

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...e-bin-services

You could have used a CLI tool and pastebin the log.

Precisely.

wh33t · 02-20-2016, 03:32 PM

Ok, I managed to do the command line pastebin thing.

Here is my xorg log. Can anyone help me decipher what the issue is? Something to do with nvidia-current?

http://paste.debian.net/401803

ondoho · 02-21-2016, 12:29 AM

have a look at 'EE': it failed to load the (proprietary) nvidia module.
this is usually because the nouveau module has not been blacklisted.
but without further info this is just an educated guess.

further info:

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iEA5 'vga|3d'

wh33t · 02-21-2016, 01:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

have a look at 'EE': it failed to load the (proprietary) nvidia module.
this is usually because the nouveau module has not been blacklisted.
but without further info this is just an educated guess.

further info:

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iEA5 'vga|3d'

Here is the output of that command.

http://paste.debian.net/402093

ondoho · 02-21-2016, 03:45 PM

looks like lspci didn't even recognize the card properly.
according to this post(*) you should run

Code:

sudo update-pciids

- then post the output i requested earlier again.

basically you have to find the right driver version for your device (**), install it properly, blacklist the foss driver nouveau.

(**) i always use and recommend the archwiki for that.

(*) there might be some more good info for you.

wh33t · 02-21-2016, 05:27 PM

Code:

sudo update-pciids

http://paste.debian.net/402436

I think it's recognizing it now. It still doesn't startx properly though.

enorbet · 02-23-2016, 04:26 AM

This is exactly (one of ) the reasons I prefer to boot to runlevel 3 in Slackware, which is Multi-User Command Line Only. All Graphics issues can easily be worked out without the pain of dealing with the limitation of Maintenance Level (Runlevel 1 in Slackware) and an extra step to get to Multi-User which is basically everything minus X only.

From Runlevel 3 (I generally add it's use to other distros that don't have it by default by editing /etc/inittab) one can install the nVidia Proprietary driver as per it's instructions and then lsmod to see that the module loads before ever attempting X. If it fails, rather than rebooting, you're right back to a fully functional CLI system. There you can check logs, edit xorg.conf and most often solve any issues from that one boot.

At this point wh33t, you need to see if nouveau is loading. run "lsmod" and see if it is present. If it isn't, see if nvidia is present. If it isn't try "modprobe nvidia". The last command will either succeed even before it is called by X, or fail and give an error message. If nouveau did load you need to retrace and fix the blacklisting process as nvidia will not load as long as nouveau is present.

Assuming you either know enough to write the required lines in xorg.conf or let the nvidia installer do it for you, X should now load properly. Personally I prefer to get to X via a Display Manager/Login Box and my preference there is kdm. One reason is that it defaults with a HotKey to drop back to console. Upon doing that one does have to "killall kdm" to run kdm again but I consider that a small matter.

I haven't run Debian in over 5 years and even then it was just a test for a few months so please be sure to either follow Debian-specific procedure or to change inittab if that seems to appeal to you.

Summary: At this point
Insure nouveau is not loading
Insure nvidia IS loading

wh33t · 02-23-2016, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

This is exactly (one of ) the reasons I prefer to boot to runlevel 3 in Slackware, which is Multi-User Command Line Only. All Graphics issues can easily be worked out without the pain of dealing with the limitation of Maintenance Level (Runlevel 1 in Slackware) and an extra step to get to Multi-User which is basically everything minus X only.

From Runlevel 3 (I generally add it's use to other distros that don't have it by default by editing /etc/inittab) one can install the nVidia Proprietary driver as per it's instructions and then lsmod to see that the module loads before ever attempting X. If it fails, rather than rebooting, you're right back to a fully functional CLI system. There you can check logs, edit xorg.conf and most often solve any issues from that one boot.

At this point wh33t, you need to see if nouveau is loading. run "lsmod" and see if it is present. If it isn't, see if nvidia is present. If it isn't try "modprobe nvidia". The last command will either succeed even before it is called by X, or fail and give an error message. If nouveau did load you need to retrace and fix the blacklisting process as nvidia will not load as long as nouveau is present.

Assuming you either know enough to write the required lines in xorg.conf or let the nvidia installer do it for you, X should now load properly. Personally I prefer to get to X via a Display Manager/Login Box and my preference there is kdm. One reason is that it defaults with a HotKey to drop back to console. Upon doing that one does have to "killall kdm" to run kdm again but I consider that a small matter.

I haven't run Debian in over 5 years and even then it was just a test for a few months so please be sure to either follow Debian-specific procedure or to change inittab if that seems to appeal to you.

Summary: At this point
Insure nouveau is not loading
Insure nvidia IS loading

Unfortunately I don't understand what half of that means. But here is the output of sudo lsmod http://paste.debian.net/402861

sudo modprobe nvidia caused an error but for some reason typing sudo modprobe nvidia > modprobe.out wouldn't write the error message to the file.

Maybe I'll just give up and use Ubuntu. Seems like that might be more realistically where I'm at with Linux.

el barto · 02-23-2016, 11:19 PM

First thing I do when installing Debian, is using kwrite / gedit or mousepad as su

Code:

mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list

delete everything and replace it with

Code:

# Debian MAIN
deb http://http.debian.net/debian stable main
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian stable main

deb http://http.debian.net/debian stable-updates main
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian stable-updates main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main

# Debian MAIN CONTRIB NON-FREE
deb http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

# Debian BACKPORTS
deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main
deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports contrib

# Debian MULTIMEDIA
deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org stable main non-free

# Pipelight (silverlight)
deb http://repos.fds-team.de/stable/debian/ jessie main

Save it and close it.

run the following

Code:

wget http://repos.fds-team.de/Release.key

Code:

apt-key add Release.key

Code:

apt-get update

you will get an error message, do the following

Code:

apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring

Code:

apt-key add Release.key

Code:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Installing Nvidia drivers is explained here.

For installing nvidia drivers I do the following for current GPU:

Code:

aptitude -r install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') nvidia-kernel-dkms

Code:

apt-get install nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings

Code:

nvidia-xconfig

For legacy GPU I check which version is right for my GPU. f.ex. 304:

Code:

aptitude -r install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') nvidia-legacy-304xx-kernel-dkms

Code:

apt-get install nvidia-xconfig

Code:

nvidia-xconfig

Depending your card you can install vdpau

Code:

apt-get install vdpauinfo

Think this is it. Never had any problems following this except the one time after an upgrade a new version of Nvidia driver was installed on my legacy GPU and ended up with a black screen.