I so wish this were representative. I have been trying to install nvidia drivers on debian and doing so bricked my entire workstation lol. If you know anything about this don’t hesitate to chime in btw
Mint has a driver manager application that makes installing nvidia drivers point-and-click simple.
Come to think of it, the three PCs I use on a regular basis all have nvidia GPUs (970, 1080, discrete quadro in a dell laptop) and all are running Mint. No problems, even playing games.
I even use that one script to unlock the number of simultaneous NVENC sessions after I update the driver.
Yes, it was only after grub that the drivers were loaded and the kernel presumably panicked or at least nothing was displayed. Not sure if that is what you mean by bricked the entire workstation. If something broke before the kernel is loaded I doubt it was because of the drivers.
If you want to keep your current Debian installation alive you can try to chroot into it from a live usb.
Sorry if this is completely obvious to you but I really don’t know what to expect based on your description.
Having looked at your other comments and the post you linked I too am intimidated. It looks as though you have access to your boot menu and bios though. I don’t know what the upsides of secure boot are but I never turned it on on my current desktop PC. Maybe disabling it could help?
Thanks for the suggestion, I disabled it and it boots again! a few people suggested the same, and I asked them in return how important they think secureboot is. It’s not very clear to me because if I have to toggle it on again, it means I have to solve that MOK key thing I just inflicted on myself. And I’m not clear on how
You should know nvidia is the worst and it is definitely an nvidia problem. Nothing else (even DNS) is, such a pain on linux. Nvidia routinely ships broken software on their stable branch even for their top of the line consumer cards.
I have two 4k monitors and run many flavors of Linux as daily drivers. Plus I have a 4090. It’s not a super common setup but for a company as huge as nvidia they should be testing dual monitor setups and it is clear they do not. I have stopped updating my nvidia drivers after the 3rd time I lost basic functionality after a driver update.
Yea I heard nvidia is terrible with Linux. Unfortunately in my line of work I don’t really have a choice… maybe with HIP-RT… in a few years… let’s see!
I’ll be conservative with graphics updates then. Thanks a lot for the advice
No idea why you took this personal or why you assumed I didnt know why DKMS is. DKMS doesn’t work for every situation.
Nvidia has the money to ship a product that works and is compatible with rolling updates like every other driver in existence. Ive never had to use dkms for my amd cards.
I didn’t take it personally but installing core software packages from websites instead of using your distro’s package manager is the worst possible practice. Absolutely nothing that should be recommended publically without anyone with a clue protesting. I don’t really believe the “DKMS doesn’t work for any situation” argument either, tbh. Either there is a miodule matching your kernel, compiler and glibc then DKMS will just work or there isn’t. In the latter case you better believe in your distro’s maintainers’ descisions or you really know what you’re doing - and the fact that you’re overriding package management in a production environment tells me that you don’t. Better someone on the internets is telling you than your boss, believe me.
Bro I used Arch linux and installed via pacman. I think maybe you are confusing me for the guy telling people to visit nvidia.com and follow their instructions. Appreciate the lecture though.
Yes, but the problem is that it’s not that hard to wipe your personal files incidentially. An operating system can be replaced easily without deleting your /home partition (you did create an extra /home partition, did you?) but your personal stuff not so much.
And that’s why there’s three things you should never forget:
have a backup
have an automated backup (or you’ll end up having no backup at all)
have a tested way to restore from backup
Just argue against that fact, blame me of incompetence, know it all better, I’ll just laugh at you because you will as sure as the sun rises in the morning remember my words. Three times if you’re missing a single one of these three. Don’t ask why I am so definitely sure about that - let’s say it was a three step learning process…
Having a backup is not enough. Having an actual backup is better but still not enough. Having a tested recovery procedure is not trivial but usually is enough. I have not yet experienced the case when even that fails and I hope I never will.
I see, well nothing is at risk really since I moved everything to a different drive before trying this whole thing, and did a full backup on an external drive as well. I’ve been burnt before! and I’m absolutely going to use a live image to wipe the disk because for some reason, I thought I had installed Nobara over Bazzite but I can still boot Bazzite… anyway, big mess
I ran dpkg --get-selections to get all my installed packages and here’s the installed Nvidia stuff. Try to install what’s missing.
If you can’t even get to command line, try to backup your data to an external source by using a live USB, and replace your debian with Pika OS, which has all the Nvidia stuff out the gate.
Thanks a bunch for the advice but I can’t start my system. That’s regardless of the distro I try and install (I already overwrote Trixie with Bazzite… and now with Nobara).
I followed this tutorial :https://fostips.com/install-nvidia-driver-in-debian-13/?amp=1
I explain the situation over here in more detail if by any chance this rings a bell with you :
you done fucked up the secure boot settings I think. I am in no way qualified to help you.
I don’t even understand how you can install a different OS. Work off a live USB if you even can.
As far as I understand this is the bit you fucked up. btw, the images in the debian forum post just show “filename1.jpg” as text and don’t display. post on !/c/[email protected]
Step2: Enroll MOK keyfor Secure Boot
Debian updates its kernel (minor versions) regularly for security updates and fixes. Without re-building kernel modules every time, DKMS is used, which however needs be signed for secure boot using a machine owner key (MOK).
1. First, run the command below to check if Debian was installed with UEFI boot by running the command below in terminal:
ls /sys/firmware/efi
The command tells to list the /sys/firmware/efi directory content. If it says “No such file or directory”, then you have Debian installed as legacy boot.
2. Next, run command to check if secure boot enabled:
sudo mokutil --sb-state
If both UEFI and secure boot enabled (as the screenshot below shows you), then you need to run commands below one by one to create and enroll MOK key.
3. First, run the command below to manually generate a mok key.
sudo dkms generate_mok
Run sudo apt install dkms if the dkms command not found, andset a password for the key.
4. Next, run command to import the key:
sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub
5. Finally, reboot your computer. At next boot, it should pop-up a screen (see the screenshot below), asking to perform MOK menagement.
There, just choose to Enroll MOK -> continue -> confirm -> enter password (you setwhen creating the key) -> reboot.
After enabled non-free repository and enrolled MOK key, you may then run the commands below to install NVIDIA driver.
First, install the kernel headers for DKMS:
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(dpkg --print-architecture)
Can’t see the images in the forum, but is the kernel actually starting? (Does it get past grub? Does it get to grub?)
From your forum post it sounds like you’re seeing a secure boot issue, which may require changing some bios settings. (Installing the non free driver definitely breaks secure boot.)
Yep, definitely secure boot. For now, you may be able to disable secure boot on your workstation or boot off of the install media and run the commands to enroll the mok key that you were given in another thread.
Thank you so much, that was it. I mean, I disabled secureboot, so now I can boot into either Bazzite or Windows, but this whole MOK key business? I’d love to know if I should try and correct it right now because it’ll come to bite me in the ass later if I don’t? What would you say?
Sounds representative, it didn’t even try to stop you!
Everyone else is saying secure boot should be correct. I was unable to load my nvidia driver until disabling secure boot, but I luckily had integrated graphics. What I think happened is you switched to to nvidia drivers that required proper secure boot before it would load. The drivers that are loaded before that don’t require secure boot to be setup so that’s why you had an output.
lol, yes. Thank you I disabled secureboot and it boots ok now. Thanks for the feedback it does help understanding a bit about how this all works. If that wasn’t obvious enough I’m a big noob with Linux.
Anyway, can I leave secureboot disabled and be fine? or is this MOK business something I should solve right now?
My understanding is secure boot is kinda worthless so it’s not that important to sort out. It let’s the bios trust the OS but that is a fairly limited attack vector. I don’t know enough about it though, so feel free to enroll the MOK keys bc it’s not that hard tbh, just annoying
Ok thank you! I’d do it but I don’t fully understand the implications. Can I for instance re-generate a MOK key from whatever distro I install next and use that?
Thanks, the issue was with secureboot actually, I found how to disable it and I can boot again. As for nvidia I will wipe the disk from a live image and start over, I am not familiar enough with what you suggested to tackle it (for now…). Thanks a lot for the suggestion.
The secureboot is borked apparently, which prevents me from booting anything. Fortunately I just had to disable it from the UEFI. It boots now! I have other issues but everything in time! I think I can fix them from a live image actually. Thanks for the help!
I so wish this were representative. I have been trying to install nvidia drivers on debian and doing so bricked my entire workstation lol. If you know anything about this don’t hesitate to chime in btw
Mint has a driver manager application that makes installing nvidia drivers point-and-click simple.
Come to think of it, the three PCs I use on a regular basis all have nvidia GPUs (970, 1080, discrete quadro in a dell laptop) and all are running Mint. No problems, even playing games.
I even use that one script to unlock the number of simultaneous NVENC sessions after I update the driver.
No clue how to fix it. I had a similar issue and it fixed itself when I switched to endeavouros with i3.
Ok, thank you for the feedback still. You were able to install a different OS and boot into it normally?
Yes, it was only after grub that the drivers were loaded and the kernel presumably panicked or at least nothing was displayed. Not sure if that is what you mean by bricked the entire workstation. If something broke before the kernel is loaded I doubt it was because of the drivers. If you want to keep your current Debian installation alive you can try tochrootinto it from a live usb. Sorry if this is completely obvious to you but I really don’t know what to expect based on your description.Having looked at your other comments and the post you linked I too am intimidated. It looks as though you have access to your boot menu and bios though. I don’t know what the upsides of secure boot are but I never turned it on on my current desktop PC. Maybe disabling it could help?
Thanks for the suggestion, I disabled it and it boots again! a few people suggested the same, and I asked them in return how important they think secureboot is. It’s not very clear to me because if I have to toggle it on again, it means I have to solve that MOK key thing I just inflicted on myself. And I’m not clear on how
Thanks again
😊
You should know nvidia is the worst and it is definitely an nvidia problem. Nothing else (even DNS) is, such a pain on linux. Nvidia routinely ships broken software on their stable branch even for their top of the line consumer cards.
I have two 4k monitors and run many flavors of Linux as daily drivers. Plus I have a 4090. It’s not a super common setup but for a company as huge as nvidia they should be testing dual monitor setups and it is clear they do not. I have stopped updating my nvidia drivers after the 3rd time I lost basic functionality after a driver update.
Yea I heard nvidia is terrible with Linux. Unfortunately in my line of work I don’t really have a choice… maybe with HIP-RT… in a few years… let’s see!
I’ll be conservative with graphics updates then. Thanks a lot for the advice
I only ever upgrade my graphics drivers when I upgrade my kernel.
You should know how dkms works or get a job that suits you better. That’s an amazing level of incompetence for someone in a professional position.
No idea why you took this personal or why you assumed I didnt know why DKMS is. DKMS doesn’t work for every situation.
Nvidia has the money to ship a product that works and is compatible with rolling updates like every other driver in existence. Ive never had to use dkms for my amd cards.
I didn’t take it personally but installing core software packages from websites instead of using your distro’s package manager is the worst possible practice. Absolutely nothing that should be recommended publically without anyone with a clue protesting. I don’t really believe the “DKMS doesn’t work for any situation” argument either, tbh. Either there is a miodule matching your kernel, compiler and glibc then DKMS will just work or there isn’t. In the latter case you better believe in your distro’s maintainers’ descisions or you really know what you’re doing - and the fact that you’re overriding package management in a production environment tells me that you don’t. Better someone on the internets is telling you than your boss, believe me.
Bro I used Arch linux and installed via pacman. I think maybe you are confusing me for the guy telling people to visit nvidia.com and follow their instructions. Appreciate the lecture though.
Good news is it’s much harder to accidentally wipe/fragment all your files than it is to break your system
If anything is lost right now, you might be able to get it back just by booting from a live USB to explore your file system
Yes, but the problem is that it’s not that hard to wipe your personal files incidentially. An operating system can be replaced easily without deleting your /home partition (you did create an extra /home partition, did you?) but your personal stuff not so much.
And that’s why there’s three things you should never forget:
Just argue against that fact, blame me of incompetence, know it all better, I’ll just laugh at you because you will as sure as the sun rises in the morning remember my words. Three times if you’re missing a single one of these three. Don’t ask why I am so definitely sure about that - let’s say it was a three step learning process…
I won’t nitpick when your overall point is “have a backup” 💯
Having a backup is not enough. Having an actual backup is better but still not enough. Having a tested recovery procedure is not trivial but usually is enough. I have not yet experienced the case when even that fails and I hope I never will.
I see, well nothing is at risk really since I moved everything to a different drive before trying this whole thing, and did a full backup on an external drive as well. I’ve been burnt before! and I’m absolutely going to use a live image to wipe the disk because for some reason, I thought I had installed Nobara over Bazzite but I can still boot Bazzite… anyway, big mess
Thanks for the help !!
I ran
dpkg --get-selectionsto get all my installed packages and here’s the installed Nvidia stuff. Try to install what’s missing.If you can’t even get to command line, try to backup your data to an external source by using a live USB, and replace your debian with Pika OS, which has all the Nvidia stuff out the gate.
nvidia-alternative nvidia-driver nvidia-driver-bin nvidia-driver-libs:amd64 nvidia-driver-libs:i386 nvidia-egl-common nvidia-egl-icd:amd64 nvidia-egl-icd:i386 nvidia-installer-cleanup nvidia-kernel-common nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-kernel-support nvidia-legacy-check nvidia-modprobe nvidia-persistenced nvidia-settings nvidia-smi nvidia-support nvidia-suspend-common nvidia-vdpau-driver:amd64 nvidia-vulkan-common nvidia-vulkan-icd:amd64 nvidia-vulkan-icd:i386EDIT : from
apt list --installedThanks a bunch for the advice but I can’t start my system. That’s regardless of the distro I try and install (I already overwrote Trixie with Bazzite… and now with Nobara). I followed this tutorial :https://fostips.com/install-nvidia-driver-in-debian-13/?amp=1
I explain the situation over here in more detail if by any chance this rings a bell with you :
https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=164124
Cheers, appreciate the advice
you done fucked up the secure boot settings I think. I am in no way qualified to help you.
I don’t even understand how you can install a different OS. Work off a live USB if you even can.
As far as I understand this is the bit you fucked up. btw, the images in the debian forum post just show “filename1.jpg” as text and don’t display. post on !/c/[email protected]
Step 2: Enroll MOK key for Secure Boot Debian updates its kernel (minor versions) regularly for security updates and fixes. Without re-building kernel modules every time, DKMS is used, which however needs be signed for secure boot using a machine owner key (MOK). 1. First, run the command below to check if Debian was installed with UEFI boot by running the command below in terminal: ls /sys/firmware/efi The command tells to list the /sys/firmware/efi directory content. If it says “No such file or directory”, then you have Debian installed as legacy boot. 2. Next, run command to check if secure boot enabled: sudo mokutil --sb-state If both UEFI and secure boot enabled (as the screenshot below shows you), then you need to run commands below one by one to create and enroll MOK key. 3. First, run the command below to manually generate a mok key. sudo dkms generate_mok Run sudo apt install dkms if the dkms command not found, and set a password for the key. 4. Next, run command to import the key: sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub 5. Finally, reboot your computer. At next boot, it should pop-up a screen (see the screenshot below), asking to perform MOK menagement. There, just choose to Enroll MOK -> continue -> confirm -> enter password (you set when creating the key) -> reboot. After enabled non-free repository and enrolled MOK key, you may then run the commands below to install NVIDIA driver. First, install the kernel headers for DKMS: sudo apt install linux-headers-$(dpkg --print-architecture)Thank you that’s already a lead !
I did follow the instructions to the letter so not sure what I should have done differently
I am going to ask on the community you linked. Thanks again
I just cross-posted my cry for help over there. Thanks again for the redirection. https://programming.dev/post/39832602
Can’t see the images in the forum, but is the kernel actually starting? (Does it get past grub? Does it get to grub?)
From your forum post it sounds like you’re seeing a secure boot issue, which may require changing some bios settings. (Installing the non free driver definitely breaks secure boot.)
Hi, how do I check for that ? how do I recognize grub ?
Here is a crosspost of my thread from the Debian forums :
https://programming.dev/post/39832602
Thanks a bunch for stopping by…
Yep, definitely secure boot. For now, you may be able to disable secure boot on your workstation or boot off of the install media and run the commands to enroll the mok key that you were given in another thread.
Thank you so much, that was it. I mean, I disabled secureboot, so now I can boot into either Bazzite or Windows, but this whole MOK key business? I’d love to know if I should try and correct it right now because it’ll come to bite me in the ass later if I don’t? What would you say?
Thanks again
Sounds representative, it didn’t even try to stop you!
Everyone else is saying secure boot should be correct. I was unable to load my nvidia driver until disabling secure boot, but I luckily had integrated graphics. What I think happened is you switched to to nvidia drivers that required proper secure boot before it would load. The drivers that are loaded before that don’t require secure boot to be setup so that’s why you had an output.
This is just an nvidia thing unfortunately.
lol, yes. Thank you I disabled secureboot and it boots ok now. Thanks for the feedback it does help understanding a bit about how this all works. If that wasn’t obvious enough I’m a big noob with Linux.
Anyway, can I leave secureboot disabled and be fine? or is this MOK business something I should solve right now?
Thanks again
My understanding is secure boot is kinda worthless so it’s not that important to sort out. It let’s the bios trust the OS but that is a fairly limited attack vector. I don’t know enough about it though, so feel free to enroll the MOK keys bc it’s not that hard tbh, just annoying
Ok thank you! I’d do it but I don’t fully understand the implications. Can I for instance re-generate a MOK key from whatever distro I install next and use that?
I believe so. You just enroll the new keys and then you’re good
oh alright. I’ll try it. I must have missed a step in the tutorial the first time, or mistyped something… Cheers,
SSH in and forcibly uninstall all Nvidia packages, then reinstall them fresh following Nvidia’s website.
At least this has worked for me on Ubuntu on several occasions.
Thanks, the issue was with secureboot actually, I found how to disable it and I can boot again. As for nvidia I will wipe the disk from a live image and start over, I am not familiar enough with what you suggested to tackle it (for now…). Thanks a lot for the suggestion.
Like the hardware or just the install?
A live usb would let you in to fix it
The secureboot is borked apparently, which prevents me from booting anything. Fortunately I just had to disable it from the UEFI. It boots now! I have other issues but everything in time! I think I can fix them from a live image actually. Thanks for the help!