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[Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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go4linux
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[Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#1 Post by go4linux »

I have an Nvidia 4080. From the Nvidia forum I understand that I need the 525 driver, which is already taking some time to go to testing, even longer to go to stable.
I would like to download and install the latest from Nvidia, but I am afraid to somehow compromise the system and future updates when the 525 will be available in the Debian repository.
What would be the best way to install the official driver from nvidia.com without messing up the whole system?
Many thanks.

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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#2 Post by @ttila »

I will have you same problem when i'll buy a 4060ti/4060 card, it hasn't released yet but, on Bookworm, nvidia driver has been updated to 515 version yesterday and as you write the RTX 40 family support starts with the 525 version of their drivers.
My solution could be to remove all Debian Nvidia packages and install official drivers or wait months until 525 will arrive on Testing/Sid.

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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#3 Post by itmicp »

Hi

When I had NVidia graphic card and I wanted to test the proprietary driver before installing it on my system,
I simply installed another debian system with multiboot on the same machine with the same desktop environment
just to do this test in a small 20GiB partition that I deleted after doing my tests.

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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#4 Post by stevepusser »

The sgfxi script aims to make installing the website driver as simple and safe as possible...

https://smxi.org/
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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#5 Post by go4linux »

stevepusser wrote: 2023-02-02 20:16 The sgfxi script aims to make installing the website driver as simple and safe as possible...

https://smxi.org/
This looks interesting. Thank you

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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#6 Post by sunrat »

stevepusser wrote: 2023-02-02 20:16 The sgfxi script aims to make installing the website driver as simple and safe as possible...

https://smxi.org/
+1 for sgfxi.
An issue with installing the website driver is it won't automatically upgrade the driver when a new version is available. The Debian repo version will upgrade it with normal system upgrades.
But as you have a bleeding edge card and need the latest driver, sgfxi is your best option. I don't remember if it can uninstall the repo driver effectively although it does include an uninstall routine, been a while since I had a brand new card and used sgfxi.
May be best to run sgfxi from a console login for best results.
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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#7 Post by go4linux »

sunrat wrote: 2023-02-02 21:58 +1 for sgfxi.
An issue with installing the website driver is it won't automatically upgrade the driver when a new version is available. The Debian repo version will upgrade it with normal system upgrades.
But as you have a bleeding edge card and need the latest driver, sgfxi is your best option. I don't remember if it can uninstall the repo driver effectively although it does include an uninstall routine, been a while since I had a brand new card and used sgfxi.
May be best to run sgfxi from a console login for best results.
So I looked at it a little, there is something that is not clear yet.
It looks like sgfxi basically does the job of some Nvidia packages, is that correct? If yes, what packages are they? I should probably equivs-build them.

Also, it seems like using the run file from Nvidia is a viable solution, just there is no update. Can I say, like in the previous question, that using the official file from Nvidia is the same as using some Debian packages? Like there are no special changes in other files needed, or something like that?
Because in that case I could easily run the file from Nvidia, equivs-build some yet to be identified packages, pin them, and keep it like that until I manually update it.

My main concern, as I said in my first post, is that the file from Nvidia and the Debian packages work in different ways, so I might end up with a non working system.

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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#8 Post by None1975 »

@ttila wrote: 2023-02-02 10:28 My solution could be to remove all Debian Nvidia packages and install official drivers or wait months until 525 will arrive on Testing/Sid.
Very bad advice. Installing drivers this way only works for the current kernel, and after the next kernel update, your video drivers will not work until they are manually reinstalled again.
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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#9 Post by sunrat »

None1975 wrote: 2023-02-03 13:08
@ttila wrote: 2023-02-02 10:28 My solution could be to remove all Debian Nvidia packages and install official drivers or wait months until 525 will arrive on Testing/Sid.
Very bad advice. Installing drivers this way only works for the current kernel, and after the next kernel update, your video drivers will not work until they are manually reinstalled again.
It's always the best advice to install the drivers from Debian repo. Except when there is no driver available in the repo for the card as in OP's case.
sgfxi just downloads and installs the driver from Nvidia website, but has extra checks and safeguards compared to just installing the .run file.

I just had a quick look and 525 driver is available in Experimental repo so it could be installed from there. However there are no guarantees that will work, be bug-free, or not kill a puppy somewhere. But then the driver from Nvidia website has the same lack of guarantees.
You can try it. Add experimental to sources and install. Experimental should have the least preference in policy so shouldn't install anything else. It's an experienced user process really but not too difficult.
I would highly recommend, rather insist, that you make full system and data backups before attempting any method anyway.
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Those who have lost data
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Re: [Software] Best way to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site?

#10 Post by @ttila »

@sunrat , totally agree with you.
I've always used packaged apps/drivers, i never used official drivers. I'll do the same with the new video card, i'll buy on october so there will all the time to wait drivers in Debian repos.
I have never heard before of sgfxi, i'll investigate.

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