NVIDIA drivers - again!

[jlarysz]

I'm setting up a new Debian installation, and all went well until I tried to make a GUI work. The setup is:

1: A respectable Asus / Intel motherboard and CPU
2: An Nvidia 750Ti video card

The "nvidia-detect" script told me that I need the "nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver" package, so I installed that and configured the "Xorg.conf" using the "nvidia-config" script. After many reboots and trying many things, I am well and truly stuck - I need help!

When I run "startx" I get:

Module nvidia-legacy-340xx not found in directory /lib/modules/4.9.0-7-686-pae

and it is right, there is nothing with this name in that directory. NOTE - the missing module reads "nvidia-legacy-340xx", and NOT "nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver"!

So what do I do now?

1: What should be in /lib/modules?
2: Should Linux be looking elsewhere for this module? If so, where and how?
3: Can I copy files into this location, and if so, what?

I appreciate any help I can get.

[dilberts_left_nut]

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

[Ardouos]

Just throwing it out there:

I have a Nvidia Geforce GTX 750ti and the current driver on stable and it works great:

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$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.130

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$ dpkg -l nvidia-driver
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                                               Version                        Architecture                   Description
+++-==================================================-==============================-==============================-=========================================================================================================
ii  nvidia-driver                                      384.130-1                      amd64                          NVIDIA metapackage

[stevepusser]

Did you install the compilers and kernel headers needed to build the drivers as explained in the wiki? Did you see the message about rebooting to blacklist the nouveau driver?

A quick way to install the driver build environment is to install module-assistant and then run as root or with sudo:

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m-a prepare

[milomak]

how did you begin to install the drivers?

[jlarysz]

Here's how I installed the NVIDIA drivers:

1: I verified the GPU with "nvidia-detect", which gave the correct driver to use "nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver".

2: I installed following the instructions in https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers for Debian 9 "stretch" and driver version 340.102

3: I built the "Xorg.conf" file using script "nvidia-config"

[4D696B65]

Here's how I installed the NVIDIA drivers:

1: I verified the GPU with "nvidia-detect", which gave the correct driver to use "nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver".

You can use the current driver, nvidia-detect is wrong in this case

2: I installed following the instructions in https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers for Debian 9 "stretch" and driver version 340.102

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Version_390.48_.28via_stretch-backports.29

3: I built the "Xorg.conf" file using script "nvidia-config"

Please delete the disgraceful xorg,conf that POS software created and use the manual method

[jlarysz]

In reply to ardouos, here's what I get:

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inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
           Display Server: X.org 1.19.2 driver: nvidia
           tty size: 100x51 Advanced Data: N/A for root out of X

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dpkg -l nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                Version        Architecture   Description
+++-===================-==============-==============-===========================================
ii  nvidia-legacy-340xx 340.106-2~deb9 i386           NVIDIA metapackage (340xx legacy version)

It looks prettty similar.

[jlarysz]

I'm following 4D696B65 instructions now, and have questions..

1: What is a stretch-backport?

2: How do I know if I have this?

[jlarysz]

I'm making progress. I followed 4D696B65 instruction and things seem better. I'm trying with no xorg.config at all - is that wise? I'm getting this from xstart:

xinit: connection to X server lost

[bw123]

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Manual

[jlarysz]

I'm still trying to install Nvidia drivers following the manual in https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDriver with some modification suggested by people in the thread.

1: I could not install drivers at all using the standard package repository; there were many un-resolvable dependencies.

2: I cleanup up the system and went to the backports repository. Both headers and "nvidia-driver" built but the driver package generated a bunch of warnings:

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update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-7-686-pae
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8107e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8107e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168h-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168h-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8106e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8411-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8402-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168f-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-3.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw for module r8169

Should I be worried?

[4D696B65]

Those errors are for Ethernet nic. Install the firmware, firmware-realtek
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firmware-realtek

[stevepusser]

1: I could not install drivers at all using the standard package repository; there were many un-resolvable dependencies.

This is simply not true if you're using the standard repositories. Can you reproduce the error messages or show the output of "inxi -r"? (complete list of repositories)

[jlarysz]

I don't have the list of unresolved libraries, and I'm reluctant to roll back the headers to non-backport just yet. Here's the list of repositories I am using:

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root@BlueLight:~# inxi -r
Repos:     Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list
           deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main contrib non-free