[SOLVED] Issues with Debian Buster and nVidia drivers

[killy9999]

I recently upgraded from Stretch to Buster and I'm having issues with nVidia's proprietary drivers. I have installed the 390xx-legacy packages but it looks like drivers are not working properly. Steam client reports:

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Video Card:
    Driver:  VMware, Inc. llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0, 256 bits)
    Driver Version:  3.1 Mesa 18.3.6
    OpenGL Version: 3.1

Also:

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$ glxinfo | grep renderer
    GLX_MESA_multithread_makecurrent, GLX_MESA_query_renderer,
    GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_query_renderer,
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0, 256 bits)

All of this does not look good. Ideas?

[L_V]

I do not have Nvidia card to investigate, but for info:
Issues with Debian Buster and proprietary nVidia drivers
https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comment ... ry_nvidia/

[ killy9999 is may be wrtervc in another life. ]

+ http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=132688

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Ideas?

Don't buy NVIDIA hardware. Or try nouveau instead. Is this in a VM?

[sunrat]

When you have issues with drivers, it really helps to mention what hardware you are running. However you tried to install them, it didn't work.

Install inxi and show inxi -G for graphics info, or inxi -F for full system info.

I just installed Buster on desktop computer and nouveau showed minor errors in the journal. Installed nvidia drivers and no more errors. Better text rendering too. nouveau is working fine on my other system with HD screen but this one is UHD.

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$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] driver: nvidia v: 418.74 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 3840x2160~30Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 418.74

[killy9999]

Don't buy NVIDIA hardware.

Useless advice. BTW some years ago I bought a Radeon and ended up selling it soon after because of no Linux support. I'm sure things must have improved since then, but I've been sticking to nVidia ever since - I'm not gonna risk several hundred $ just to experiment. This is, I think, the first time nVidia is giving me trouble on Linux.

Anyway, I followed the suggestions from the reddit thread that was linked above and it worked for me. So I have the 418 drivers now up and running and things work well. Thanks everyone who contributed!

[sunrat]

Don't buy NVIDIA hardware.

Useless advice. BTW some years ago I bought a Radeon and ended up selling it soon after because of no Linux support. I'm sure things must have improved since then,...

It's popular advice these days (doesn't mean it's gospel), and AMD are doing much better with Linux now. They actually collaborate with Linux devs whereas Nvidia don't.
I've used Nvidia stuff for years with hardly any problem. As I said above, I just installed Buster and the nvidia drivers installed easily and work well.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Don't buy NVIDIA hardware.

Useless advice.

Why reward NVIDIA with your money when they refuse to support the open source community in any way?

But yeah you're probably right, I will refrain from participating in NVIDIA threads from now on.

[sunrat]

Why reward NVIDIA with your money when they refuse to support the open source community in any way?

But yeah you're probably right, I will refrain from participating in NVIDIA threads from now on.

Wise decision. There are many entities who don't support open source, best not to get our blood pressure up because of them.
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to bury the bodies of those who piss me off"

[killy9999]

Yeah, right, I've been a Linux user for 15 years, going through tons of trouble to launch every game that I can on Linux (instead of simply using Windows), but I totally don't support open source.

If I have problems installing drivers for the hardware *that I have* and get advice that I should not buy this hardware, then this is a useless advice, since I already have the hardware. This advice does not allow to solve my problem (which we now know had a simple solution). It doesn't matter whether it is about nVidia or anything else and it has nothing to do with open source - such an advice would be equally useless it was AMD or Intel or anyone else's hardware.