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Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia driver

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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rbose21
Posts: 7
Joined: 2019-07-18 10:23

Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia driver

#1 Post by rbose21 »

Hi all,
I have a 32 bit Debian 9 (4.9.0-9-686-pae + 4.9.0-6-rt-686-pae)installed on my machine. Due to the fact that these kernels are too old to support my second display adapter, I installed nvidia driver from stretch-backports. During the installation I saw the message saying the installation conflicts with nouveau driver and mentioned the solution is to reboot. However since I do not want to create problems due to nvidia, I uninstalled the nvidia driver straightway using the instuctions below

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sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf   // I did not do this as there was no xorg.conf file in my X11 folder
echo 'nouveau' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
Then I restarted and Debian won't load, I am new to Linux but spend a few hours trying to fix this, I thought it was the case of just removing nvidia drivers, but even reinstalled gnome from safe mode.
Any idea what might be wrong?

Thanks in advance

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phenest
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Joined: 2010-03-09 09:38
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Re: Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia drive

#2 Post by phenest »

When it suggested you reboot, you should have done just that. All would have been fine.
Also, when you ran this command:

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apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
... did you check what it was removing? Using wildcards like that can lead to removing something you need if you're not careful.
I suggest reinstalling and reboot when it asks.
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stevepusser
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Re: Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia drive

#3 Post by stevepusser »

You probably still have the nouveau driver still blacklisted in the /etc/modules file.

You also have more problems ahead with that 4.18.74 driver in backports.

First is that the Nvidia driver will not build for any Debian realtime "rt" kernel. It may be possible to work around this by using the low latency Liquorix kernel instead if you need that sort of kernel for audio work, but you'll also need to make sure your driver is patched to build on the current 5.2 Liquorix kernel--you may need the Sid version for that.

Even worse for you is that the 418.74 driver in backports only supports 64-bit systems. You would need to use the legacy 390xx driver version in Sid if you need a 32-bit version compatible with 5.2 kernels. You can use the normal 390 driver in Stretch if you switch to a normal 4.9 kernel.

If you have a machine that's remotely modern, a 64-bit system install is by far the better choice.
MX Linux packager and developer

rbose21
Posts: 7
Joined: 2019-07-18 10:23

Re: Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia drive

#4 Post by rbose21 »

Thanks phenest and stevepusser for your replies.

Reg "When it suggested you reboot, you should have done just that. All would have been fine.", I had a similar issue on a 64bit install of the same kernels (unfortunately I have to use the exact kernels and 32-bit for my project, but me trying to install the nvidia driver from backports was just to enable my second monitor) and when I restarted as suggested by the installer, the debian wouln't load and I had to reinstall. That's why when this happened again I tried to remove what I installed immediately to get back to the original working state/driver (although with one monitor). Unfortunately I didn't check what all it removed when I purged nvidia. If I remember correctly, I reinstalled nouveau and nvidia from safe mode, but still can't load debian

In my modules file, I have the following
  • nouveau
    nouveau
    nouveau
At this point, I only want to be able to recover my system, so happy to forget using backports, my machine is pretty new (that's why the debian I have is missing the drivers for my Intel UHD P630 graphics card, and I tried to install the drivers)

Thanks for helping out

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stevepusser
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Re: Debian 9 not loading after trying o install nvidia drive

#5 Post by stevepusser »

Debian Stretch dates back to 2016, and does not support 2018 hardware like your CoffeeLake UHD630 without the use of quite a few packages from stretch-backports, such as firmware, Mesa, a newer kernel like 4.19, and so on.

Is there a reason why you're not using the new Debian 10 release, which will support your machine out of the box (get the ISO that includes the non-free firmware to make things easier on yourself)?
MX Linux packager and developer

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