#1 2025-09-21 14:58:41

aramir86

New Member

Registered: 2025-09-10

Posts: 4

Boron (Debian 12) + Nvidia

I've installed BunsenLabs Boron on my home lab server Dell PowerEdge T430, fixed the issue with GPG release key and ran bl-welcome script afterwards, so my system was very much up-to-date.

Then I followed instructions from NvidiaGraphicsDrivers (on Debian wiki) and despite the lack of obvious errors and a single warning about nouveau kernel module being incompatible with nvidia (something the installation script was supposed to take care of after reboot anyway), the driver installation wasn't successfull. So I did the following and now enjoy a proprietary Nvidia driver:

Purge existing NVIDIA packages:

sudo apt purge -y 'nvidia-*' 'libnvidia-*' nvidia-detect
sudo apt autoremove -y

Blacklist nouveau and update initramfs:

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf > /dev/null <<'EOF'
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
EOF
sudo update-initramfs -u

Add GRUB parameter to ensure nouveau stays disabled:

sudo sed -i 's/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau /' /etc/default/grub || sudo bash -c 'echo "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau\"" >> /etc/default/grub'
sudo update-grub

Install prerequisites and Debian driver:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential dkms pkg-config libglvnd-dev libglvnd0
# enable contrib/non-free in sources.list if not already, then:
sudo apt install -y nvidia-detect
nvidia-detect
sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver

After a reboot, the Nvidia driver was loaded successfully. See below.

inxi -SICGM

System:
  Host: bl-pet430 Kernel: 6.1.0-39-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: Openbox v: 3.6.1 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Server System: Dell product: PowerEdge T430 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0KX11M v: A07 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 2.19.0 date: 02/22/2024
CPU:
  Info: 2x 8-core model: Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4 bits: 64 type: MT MCP SMP
    cache: L2: 2x 2 MiB (4 MiB)
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1203 min/max: 1200/3000 cores: 1: 1200 2: 1200 3: 1200
    4: 1200 5: 1199 6: 1200 7: 1200 8: 1200 9: 1200 10: 1200 11: 1200 12: 1200
    13: 1200 14: 1200 15: 1200 16: 1200 17: 1200 18: 1200 19: 1200 20: 1200
    21: 1200 22: 1200 23: 1300 24: 1200 25: 1200 26: 1200 27: 1200 28: 1200
    29: 1200 30: 1200 31: 1200 32: 1200
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107GL [Quadro K620] driver: nvidia v: 535.247.01
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.247.01 renderer: Quadro K620/PCIe/SSE2
Info:
  Processes: 405 Uptime: 1h 40m Memory: 62.79 GiB used: 2.72 GiB (4.3%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.26

nvidia-smi

Sun Sep 21 12:15:03 2025       
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 535.247.01             Driver Version: 535.247.01   CUDA Version: 12.2     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                      |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+======================+======================|
|   0  Quadro K620                    On  | 00000000:03:00.0  On |                  N/A |
| 34%   44C    P0               3W /  30W |    215MiB /  2048MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                                         
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                            |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                            GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                             Usage      |
|=======================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      1241      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                          133MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A      1801      G   /usr/bin/python3                             76MiB |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+