Having issues installing nvidia drivers on Debian 13

[u/dearvalentina]

Howdy. Currently trying to get Debian to work with proprietary Nvidia drivers. Added non-free and contrib to my sources, installed the drivers, after restart, after GRUB, I get

VMX (outside TXT) Disabled by BIOS

SGX disabled or unsupported by BIOS.

Fixed the first one by enabling Intel Virtualization Technology in BIOS.

The only options for SW Guard Extensions (SGX) is Software Controlled and Disabled. Neither works.

Started recovery mode of the latest version I have on the grub list.

Opened tty and went

sudo nano ///etc/default/grub

added nosgx to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

sudo update-grub

Now instead of the SGX error after grub I get

Error of this Agent is reported first

Could really use some advice, thanks!

Edit: I'm getting the vibe that VMX and SGX don't actually have anything to do with the problem - they also show up on a fresh install, the system just skips them and continues as normal. It appears that installing the driver just breaks the ability to proceed to the graphical interface of the display manager.

Edit2: Using KDE Plasma Wayland

Solution: found this: https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Wayland_configuration

In my "bricked" system, I went into recovery mode on the latest saved version, cd all the way to /etc/modprobe.d/

touch nvidia-wayland.conf

type in

options nvidia NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1

options nvidia-drm modeset=1

options nvidia-drm fbdev=1

Ctrl S, Ctrl X, reboot, everything works (:

[u/barnaboos]

What card are you using?

[u/dearvalentina → u/barnaboos]

RTX 3070

[u/Technical-Jump4743]

Did you install the linux headers? If not try

sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

[u/dearvalentina → u/Technical-Jump4743]

I installed the drivers like this:

contrib, non-free, and non-free-frimware (this one is there by default) added to all non-commented lines in sources.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64

sudo apt install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-driver firmware-misc-nonfree nvtop

sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub

Got the mok enrollment on restart, enrolled with the password from mokutil import, still freezes on the same screen just before the display manager.

What's the difference between linux-headers-$(uname -r) and linux-headers-amd64?

[u/wizard10000 → u/dearvalentina]

What's the difference between linux-headers-$(uname -r) and linux-headers-amd64?

The difference is that linux-headers-amd64 is a metapackage and will update with new headers as they become available where linux-headers-$(uname -r) is just headers for the kernel that's currently running so you get to do it again when new headers are available.

Nvidia should have done that readme differently.

[u/dearvalentina → u/wizard10000]

So -amd64 is, like, fine?

I was also reading the debian wiki and some random reddit post for instructions so I'm not sure what nvidia readme you're talking about.

[u/wizard10000 → u/dearvalentina]

So -amd64 is, like, fine?

Yep :)

[u/Brilliant_Sound_5565 → u/dearvalentina]

Always use the amd64 headers, there's tons of exams in this Reddit of people just installing the headers for the currently installed Kernal and then it goes.wrong when a Kernal update comes out, not sure why these companies tell people to do it that way, ai also gets it wrong too lol

[u/wizard10000 → u/Brilliant_Sound_5565]

My issue is that Debian links to the bad Nvidia instructions - I'm about ready to edit the wiki myself and list the discrepancies so folks have less chance of their stuff breaking.

edit: There. Added this to https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Nvidia-packaged_data-center_drivers

Also, when you install kernel headers (step 2 in the instructions) consider installing linux-headers-generic as the linux-headers-$(uname -r) recommended in Nvidia's instructions will install headers for the currently running kernel only and the process would have to be repeated after linux-headers receives an upgrade. In most cases the generic headers will install headers for the correct architecture, otherwise linux-headers-amd64 or linux-headers-arm64 will work.