Debian 12 fails to install nVidia drivers

[Martek]

My first attempt at this I accidentally added the unstable section to the apt sources list. This completely broke the system so I have just installed Debian 12 again and this times followed the correct parts of the instructions. However, the following error comes up:

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Errors were encountered while processing:
 nvidia-kernel-dkms
 nvidia-driver
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Can anyone help resolve this?

[Aki]

Hello,

What is your installed Debian and kernel version ? You can verify with the following commands:

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cat /etc/debian_version
uname -a

Did you installed the kernel headers ? You can verify with the following commands:

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apt --installed list "linux-headers-*"

What are the nvidia kernel modules installed ? You can verify with the following command:

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apt --installed list "nvidia*"

[Martek]

Thanks but I decided to remove the nVidia card from my PC and just use the integrated GPU on my Intel CPU. I reinstalled Debian just to be sure as I hadn't started using it anyway and the install was so much simpler and just works. I stopped gaming on PC years ago and I had never bothered changing the GPU so now was a good excuse to do it.

[Aki]

Hello,

It’s your choice, of course.

May you please run the commands I suggested and report back their output in a follow-up message ? It could be useful to other forums readers.

Please report also the model of nvidia graphics card.

Thanks.

[Martek]

What is your installed Debian and kernel version ? You can verify with the following commands:

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cat /etc/debian_version
uname -a

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12.5
Linux debian-kde 6.1.0-20-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.85-1 (2024-04-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Did you installed the kernel headers ? You can verify with the following commands:

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apt --installed list "linux-headers-*"

I did install the kernel headers but, as I said, I have now removed the GPU and reinstalled Debian over the previous install. So the clean install without nVidia GPU shows:

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Listing... Done
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-amd64/stable,now 6.1.76-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-common/stable,now 6.1.76-1 all [installed,automatic]

What are the nvidia kernel modules installed ? You can verify with the following command:

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apt --installed list "nvidia*"

Again, as I said, there are now no nvidia kernel modules installed because I removed the GPU and reinstalled Debian.

[sunrat]

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12.5
Linux debian-kde 6.1.0-20-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.85-1 (2024-04-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

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Listing... Done
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-amd64/stable,now 6.1.76-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-common/stable,now 6.1.76-1 all [installed,automatic]

Your kernel headers should be the same version as the kernel but they are not. This would be the reason your nvidia-driver package failed to build the kernel modules. The situation is strange as the kernel and headers should update together automatically as long as you have the linux-image-amd64 and linux-headers-amd64 metapackages installed, which they should be in a standard default install.

Your negative comments (in another topic) about Nvidia devices may be appropriate for your personal experience but in no way do they reflect everyone's experience. Personally I use a GTX 970 card, 8 years old now, and it has performed admirably when using the Nvidia drivers from default stable repositories.

[Martek]

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12.5
Linux debian-kde 6.1.0-20-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.85-1 (2024-04-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

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Listing... Done
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-amd64/stable,now 6.1.76-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
linux-headers-6.1.0-18-common/stable,now 6.1.76-1 all [installed,automatic]

Your kernel headers should be the same version as the kernel but they are not. This would be the reason your nvidia-driver package failed to build the kernel modules. The situation is strange as the kernel and headers should update together automatically as long as you have the linux-image-amd64 and linux-headers-amd64 metapackages installed, which they should be in a standard default install.

Your negative comments (in another topic) about Nvidia devices may be appropriate for your personal experience but in no way do they reflect everyone's experience. Personally I use a GTX 970 card, 8 years old now, and it has performed admirably when using the Nvidia drivers from default stable repositories.

I totally agree but I can only comment on my experience. I think I made it clear in that topic that I was giving my experience only.

I suppose it would be worthwhile knowing why my headers are out of sync for future reference. This is a clean install and all I have done since then is a "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt upgrade"

[sunrat]

I suppose it would be worthwhile knowing why my headers are out of sync for future reference. This is a clean install and all I have done since then is a "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt upgrade"

Show

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apt list -i linux-image-amd64 linux-headers-amd64