Debian 10 1-2 flickering to a black screen and back. Nvidia.

[globetrotterdk]

I just discovered that despite a successful install of the nvidia-driver, the nouveau module appears to be active together with nvidia. Am getting a flickering similar to nouveau driver / module.

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$ $ dpkg -l *nouveau
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  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1   amd64        X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver

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$ dpkg -l *nouveau2
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  libdrm-nouveau2:amd64 2.4.97-1     amd64        Userspace interface to nouveau-specific kernel DRM services -- runtime

Possibly just me, but the above doesn't really tell me if they are installed or not...

A visual inspection with Muon shows that the following are installed:
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
libdrm-nouveau2

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ls -al /etc/modprobe.d/
total 32
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    53 Jan  1 12:36 nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf -> /etc/alternatives/glx--nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf

Shows that the nouveau module should have been blacklisted.

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$ nano /etc/alternatives/glx--nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf

confirms that the file contains "blacklist nouveau".

What do I need to do to sort this out? I am currently using the following kernel:

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$ uname -r
5.7.0-19.1-liquorix-amd64

Started with the stock Debian Buster nvidia-driver, but have since moved to the backports version as I am using the above Liquorix kernel.

[globetrotterdk]

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau was easily uninstalled, but if I can't uninstall libdrm-nouveau2 without uninstalling libc6. Uninstalling both would basically remove my entire system, from xorg, to thunderbird and kde plasma.

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$ sudo apt remove libdrm-nouveau2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 kio : Depends: libkf5notifications5 (>= 4.96.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: libkf5wallet-bin but it is not going to be installed
 libgl1 : Depends: libglx0 (= 1.1.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
 libglx-mesa0 : Depends: libgl1-mesa-dri but it is not going to be installed
 libkf5wallet5 : Depends: libkwalletbackend5-5 (= 5.54.0-1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

the above doesn't really tell me if they are installed or not

The "ii" at the start of the line indicates that the packages are installed: https://askubuntu.com/questions/18804/w ... ii-rc-mean

But the nouveau module is supplied by the kernel so those packages are irrelevant (they supply the nouveau DDX driver and the DRI infrastructure for Mesa).

Why do you think that the nouveau module is active? The lscpi command can show which kernel modules are being used for your graphics card(s), read the man page to find the relevant option. Hint: it's under the "Display options" section.

[globetrotterdk]

the above doesn't really tell me if they are installed or not

The "ii" at the start of the line indicates that the packages are installed: https://askubuntu.com/questions/18804/w ... ii-rc-mean

But the nouveau module is supplied by the kernel so those packages are irrelevant (they supply the nouveau DDX driver and the DRI infrastructure for Mesa).

Why do you think that the nouveau module is active? The lscpi command can show which kernel modules are being used for your graphics card(s), read the man page to find the relevant option. Hint: it's under the "Display options" section.

Thanks for the reply. I started digging into this issue, because I am experiencing a 1-2 second flickering to a black screen and back, similar to what I have experienced with the nouveau driver / module. I mentioned this in a thread on Facebook about problems that AMD Ryzen powered computers, and was told that there was currently no documentation about such and issue with newish Intel based mother boards. So I started digging around and found that xserver-xorg-video-nouveau and
libdrm-nouveau2 were installed, despite having installed the "nvidia-driver" for Debian Buster, and then upgrading to the backports version.

Here is the relevant information:

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$ lspci -vvv
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core 8-core Desktop Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [Coffee Lake S] (rev 0d)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 8th Gen Core 8-core Desktop Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers [Coffee Lake S]
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: skl_uncore
        Kernel modules: ie31200_edac

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 0d) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 120
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
        Memory behind bridge: a3000000-a40fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000090000000-00000000a20fffff
        Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
        BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
                PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU102 [GeForce RTX 2080 Ti] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. TU102 [GeForce RTX 2080 Ti]
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 167
        Region 0: Memory at a3000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Region 1: Memory at 90000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Region 3: Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Region 5: I/O ports at 3000 [size=128]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: nvidia
        Kernel modules: nvidia

My concern remains to be the flickering that I am experiencing. Basically, just a mild irritation, but it shouldn't be something that I am experiencing on an Intel based tower computer with nvidia as the kernel driver in use.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I am experiencing a 1-2 second flickering to a black screen and back

Then why didn't you mention that in the OP? Please read https://xyproblem.info/

The nouveau kernel module appears to be blocked so you should probably edit the thread title to attract the attention of people who may know how to fix this.

[sunrat]

Your lspci indicates that the nvidia driver is in use. Those nouveau packages are irrelevant.
You may need Nvidia firmware, install the firmware-misc-nonfree package.
As your GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is relatively new, you may need to install the newer nvidia-driver package from backports and possibly a newer kernel, assuming you are using Buster.

[globetrotterdk]

Your lspci indicates that the nvidia driver is in use. Those nouveau packages are irrelevant.
You may need Nvidia firmware, install the firmware-misc-nonfree package.
As your GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is relatively new, you may need to install the newer nvidia-driver package from backports and possibly a newer kernel, assuming you are using Buster.

Thank you for that. I have run the following to match my Buster backports nvidia-driver:

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$ sudo apt install -t buster-backports firmware-linux-nonfree
$ sudo apt install -t buster-backports firmware-misc-nonfree

So far, no flickering, but I will give it a couple of days. Thanks again.

[globetrotterdk]

Then why didn't you mention that in the OP? Please read https://xyproblem.info/

The nouveau kernel module appears to be blocked so you should probably edit the thread title to attract the attention of people who may know how to fix this.

Sometimes difficult to figure out what is most relevant. If I hadn't posted as I had, I would still be unsure as to whether both drivers were loaded...
I have changed the subject to reflect the situation as it is revealed now...

[globetrotterdk]

Your lspci indicates that the nvidia driver is in use. Those nouveau packages are irrelevant.
You may need Nvidia firmware, install the firmware-misc-nonfree package.
As your GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is relatively new, you may need to install the newer nvidia-driver package from backports and possibly a newer kernel, assuming you are using Buster.

My monitor is still flickering...

I have tried with both the stock Debian Buster nvidia-driver, firmware-linux-nonfree and firmware-misc-nonfree, as well as the buster-backports versions when I changed to a Liquorix kernel. The problem continues. While not a huge irritation, it would still be nice to get it sorted.