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Debian installer chooses the wrong NVidia driver

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Van Snyder

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Feb 21, 2023, 3:20:06 PM2/21/23
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I have an NVidia GF108 video card. It works just fine, so I don't see a reason to replace it.

It needs the nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver.

But when I installed Debian 11, it chose the 470 driver, which doesn't work with GF108.

Maybe that was caused by selecting "install all the drivers" instead of "install only the relevant drivers." I thought that meant "download them all in case you install some new hardware."

Shouldn't the installer install only the drivers for the relevant hardware, even if it downloads all of them?

I'm not going to re-install just to do an experiment to see if the installer does it right if I tell it to install only the relevant drivers.

Georgi Naplatanov

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Feb 21, 2023, 3:50:06 PM2/21/23
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Hi!

It seems that nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver is available in Debian 11
(bullseye). You have just to install it. If you have problems again,
then try to use open source driver for NVidia's cards - Nouveau. it's
installed by default and you have just to uninstall NVidia's proprietary
drivers - nvidia-*.

Kind regards
Georgi

Van Snyder

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Feb 21, 2023, 4:20:05 PM2/21/23
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I did install it, but it took me a week to find that that was the problem. I had expected Debian's installer to choose to use the correct driver even if all the drivers it has in its entire achive are downloaded.


Kind regards
Georgi


Georgi Naplatanov

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Feb 21, 2023, 4:30:07 PM2/21/23
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There is a package nvidia-detect

it tells you which driver is appropriate for your NVidia's video card.

Kind regards
Georgi

Mario Marietto

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Feb 21, 2023, 4:50:06 PM2/21/23
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If I dont get wrong,nvidia created one single driver which works for every gpu or almost ? it means that if I install the 525 driver for my RTX 2080 ti will it work also for my old gpu,GTX 1060 ? 

Georgi Naplatanov

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Feb 21, 2023, 5:00:06 PM2/21/23
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On 2/21/23 23:45, Mario Marietto wrote:
> If I dont get wrong,nvidia created one single driver which works for
> every gpu or almost ? it means that if I install the 525 driver for my
> RTX 2080 ti will it work also for my old gpu,GTX 1060 ?
>

AFIK, NVidia offers different driver generations and my understanding is
that package nvidia-detect recommends which driver generation is the
best for your video card.

Kind regards
Georgi

Mario Marietto

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Feb 21, 2023, 5:30:05 PM2/21/23
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its not easy for me,because I have those GPUs on a single system. The OS that im running is freebsd and I tried to virtualize debian 11 with bhyve (hypervisor for freebsd). Well,debian accept the 2080 ti and I can use it within debian guest,but the 1060 does not work. it is not initialized. I tried to use the 525 for both. I cant use the 390 for both the GPU.

Il mar 21 feb 2023, 23:27 Mario Marietto <mariet...@gmail.com> ha scritto:
its not easy for me,because I have those GPUs on a single system. The OS that im running is freebsd and I tried to virtualize debian 11 with bhyve (hypervisor for freebsd). Well,debian accept the 2080 ti and I can use it within debian guest,but the 1060 does not work. it is not initialized. I tried to use the 525 for both. I cant use the 390 for both the GPU.

Jeremy Hendricks

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Feb 22, 2023, 3:50:06 PM2/22/23
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Van, what is the specific GPU you have? I know it’s GF108 but what is the actual model?

On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 3:33 PM Van Snyder <van.s...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Yeah, I used that. Why didn't the installer use it, and choose the 390 driver instead of installing the 470 driver?


Kind regards
Georgi


Jeremy Hendricks

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Feb 22, 2023, 4:10:05 PM2/22/23
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I think I know why. 

They made Kepler and Fermi variants of the GT 630. The nvidia driver probably wrongly assumes it’s Kepler.

On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 4:01 PM Van Snyder <van.s...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
On Wed, 2023-02-22 at 15:43 -0500, Jeremy Hendricks wrote:
Van, what is the specific GPU you have? I know it’s GF108 but what is the actual model?

# nvidia-detect
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 630] [10de:0f00] (rev a1)

Felix Miata

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Feb 23, 2023, 12:40:06 AM2/23/23
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Jeremy Hendricks composed on 2023-02-22 16:02 (UTC-0500):

> I think I know why.
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_600_series

> They made Kepler and Fermi variants of the GT 630. The nvidia driver
> probably wrongly assumes it’s Kepler.

> Van Snyder composed on 2023-02-22 13:01 (UTC-0800):

>> # nvidia-detect
>> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF108
>> [GeForce GT 630] [10de:0f00] (rev a1)

>> Van Snyder wrote:

>> I have an NVidia GF108 video card. It works just fine, so I don't see a
>> reason to replace it.

>> It needs the nvidia-legacy-390xx-driver.

>> But when I installed Debian 11, it chose the 470 driver, which doesn't
>> work with GF108.

Jeremy's right you have a Fermi. Like mine it shouldn't need any proprietary driver:

# xdriinfo
Screen 0: nouveau
# inxi -C --vs
inxi 3.3.24-00 (2022-12-10)
CPU:
Info: quad core model: AMD Phenom II X4 965 bits: 64 type: MCP cache:
L2: 2 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3423 min/max: N/A cores: 1: 3423 2: 3423 3: 3423 4: 3423
# inxi -GSaz --zl --hostname
System:
Host: gb970 Kernel: 6.0.0-6-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
v: 12.2.0 parameters: root=LABEL=<filter> ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0
plymouth.enable=0 noresume mitigations=auto consoleblank=0 vga=791
video=1440x900@60 5
Desktop: Trinity v: R14.0.13 tk: Qt v: 3.5.0 info: kicker wm: Twin v: 3.0
vt: 7 dm: 1: TDM 2: XDM Distro: Debian GNU/Linux bookworm/sid
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 630] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nouveau
v: kernel non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~late 2022)

*** arch: Fermi code: GF1xx process: 40/28nm built: 2010-16 pcie: gen: 1 ***

speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DVI-I-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: VGA-1
bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0f00 class-ID: 0300 temp: 46.0 C
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.6 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3600x1200 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 762x254mm (30.00x10.00")
s-diag: 803mm (31.62")
Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 pos: primary,left model: NEC EA243WM serial: <filter>
built: 2011 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2
size: 519x324mm (20.43x12.76") diag: 612mm (24.1") ratio: 16:10 modes:
max: 1920x1200 min: 640x480
Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 pos: right model: Dell P2213
serial: <filter> built: 2012 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2
size: 473x296mm (18.62x11.65") diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes:
max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
API: OpenGL v: 4.3 Mesa 22.3.3 renderer: NVC1 direct-render: Yes

Same difference if using Bookworm.
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata

David Wright

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Mar 22, 2023, 10:50:05 AM3/22/23
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On Tue 21 Feb 2023 at 14:36:21 (-0800), Van Snyder wrote:
> On Tue, 2023-02-21 at 22:45 +0100, Mario Marietto wrote:
> > If I dont get wrong,nvidia created one single driver which works for
> > every gpu or almost ? it means that if I install the 525 driver for
> > my RTX 2080 ti will it work also for my old gpu,GTX 1060 ? 
>
> The 470 driver that the Debian installer chose doesn't work with GF108.
> Only the 390 driver works. If you look at one of the alternative text
> screens (not X) the load process is complaining about that -- but it
> took me a week to find that.

Perhaps https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
would have helped. Perhaps it needs an extra note adding.

Cheers,
David.
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