[WORKAROUND] Debian 11 (Bullseye) and nvidia-legacy-340xx...

[Sam33]

Hello everyone,

For those (like me) running old computers, some feedback I would like to share:

I run a old graphic card (integrated NV50 family (Tesla), NVAC (MCP79/MCP7A) ION)
I use it for media center, so video hardware decoding is mandatory (on Buster with nvidia-legacy-340xx driver, everything was great !)

For Bullseye, I tried (again...) NOUVEAU driver with the nvidia firmwares (325.15) with vdpau decoding (same situation with va decoding):
- video hardware decoding can be activated
- but video artifacts appear and kernel crashes every now and then... (NULL pointer in drm !)

So, back to square one: use nvidia blob drivers...

As they are no longer available on Bullseye, you can use them from Sid, but not every version seems to work correctly:
- nvidia-legacy-340xx-*_340.108-12_amd64.deb: again, kernel crashes (NULL pointer in drm_pci_set_busid)
- nvidia-legacy-340xx-*_340.108-11_amd64.deb: seems to work like a charm !

So, if your are stuck like me, you can try this (ugly ?) workaround:
1) install a minimal xorg system (with for instance frame buffer driver for dependencies)
aptitude -Ry install xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-input-libinput rxvt-unicode xorg dbus dbus-x11

2) install everything generic for nvidia blobs
aptitude -Ry install dkms linux-headers-amd64 nvidia-installer-cleanup nvidia-support glx-alternative-nvidia libvdpau1 nvidia-modprobe nvidia-kernel-common

3) patch your depot source to access nvidia-legacy-340xx-*_340.108-11_amd64.deb (snapshot.debian.org, prior to 20211228 update that introduced nvidia-legacy-340xx-*_340.108-12_amd64.deb)
echo "deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20211227/ sid main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

4) install nvidia-legacy-340xx-*_340.108-11_amd64.deb
aptitude -y -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false update
aptitude -Ry install nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver nvidia-legacy-340xx-smi

5) restore your depot source to pure Bullseye

Now, I have a Debian 11 (with 14 packages from Sid) that seems to work, at least for now !

This is not pretty, perhaps not for everyone, but it might help...

Sam.

[peer]

I am going to try this. I just opened a now topic about the same problem

edit:
I tried this After a reboot the pc did not react on mouseclicks and keyboard. Also I heard a continous beep for the pc.
So this is unfortunately not a working solution for me

[Sam33]

Sorry to hear that...

In case your PC:
- boots correctly
- launches Xorg
- but Xorg does not react to inputs (mouse, keyboard,...)
=> you may check that the user is in "input" group.

But I fear your pb might be more serious...

Sam.

[peer]

For the moment it is working with a clean install of debian 11 and the nouveau driver.

[Sam33]

Good news !

Let me know if you succeed in using hardware decoding (via vdpau or va)
(NOUVEAU was stable until I activate hardware decoding, with nvidia 325.15 firmware)

Sam.

[hellomrmeseeks]

Can confirm that this worked on a fresh Debian 11 for a DellD830.

You sir are a legend!

p.s. How can I test if this "hardware decoding" is active?

I am a Linux Noob

[stkat]

thanks for this tutorial, also works on G84GLM (Quado FX 570M) !
Seems that xfce4 was causing the problems on my machine. Switched to lxqt and now version 340.108-17 runs stable (so far - fingers crossed).

[Zaxon_]

I just upgraded my old system from Debian 10 to 11 where I have Ion2 Nvidia card.

Strangely I do not have higher resolution but only 800x600.

I tried to run the live version of Debian 11 on the machine and over there the resolution is native to my screen display 1920x1080 with nouveau driver.

Now I wonder how can I make the same setup on my box. Any ideas how should I handle this?

[pierrechtux]

Very nice, horrific job. I do admire!
I regularly end up with FrankenDebians with similar approaches...

[arzgi]

I just upgraded my old system from Debian 10 to 11 where I have Ion2 Nvidia card.

Strangely I do not have higher resolution but only 800x600.

I tried to run the live version of Debian 11 on the machine and over there the resolution is native to my screen display 1920x1080 with nouveau driver.

Now I wonder how can I make the same setup on my box. Any ideas how should I handle this?

Sure you can, current stable Debian is 12. Also nouveau gets newer versions. Try 12, but remember to read relaese notes.

[Sam33]

Hi,

Update following Bookworm release:
the workaround seems also compatible with Bookworm
You just need to adapt the sid snapshot (for 14 packages):

Code: Select all

echo "deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20221204T212138Z/ sid main contrib non-free non-free-firmware" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

This is still ugly, but the only solution I have found to continue using old hardware as media center

Sam.

[biglo]

Hi Sam,
Your workaround worked perfectly on my old aspire r3700 nettop (ION2) running Bookworm
I don't think it's ugly but a piece of art
A big thank you

[stevepusser]

Hunnh...I've been backporting the Sid 340xx drivers to Bookworm, Bullseye, and even Buster bases (MX 23, 21, and 19) as they continue to patch them for newer kernel builds; currently at 6.6 kernels:

https://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/pool/ahs/n/n ... acy-340xx/

I don't have the hardware, but apparently it works for other users. Also may require a newer dkms we have backported from Bookworm...