[SOLVED] how to make future updates no longer break nvidia.

[diversity]

The title sais it all. I am once again in a pickle because like a good trooper I hit update when I am told there are available. Especially when it is security related.

But what I would like to learn is how to prevent then the nvidia drivers going bad and I can no longer use them. No longer login to my desktop envirnoment that made use of these drivers.

How can we tell the update procedure to never change anything one cares about?

 

[l.leahu-vladucu]

Hello diversity! Updates are important for security, so you did the right thing. You are using the proprietary Nvidia driver, right? The situation with the Nvidia driver is a bit more complicated, since using it requires having the kernel headers installed for dkms to build the module. For that to work, you need to install the kernel headers for your kernel version. For example, for kernel 6.8 you'll need to install proxmox-headers-6.8, for kernel 6.11 you'll need to install proxmox-headers-6.11, etc. DKMS should then be able to rebuild the modules automatically whenever updates are installed. However, since the headers were not installed before upgrading, you'll now need to first install the headers, then - just this one time - call dkms install manually.

If you still have issues, please provide us with some more information (kernel version, driver version, etc.).

 

[diversity]

thank you thank you I accept graceful the scouts honers badge
Nah all jokes aside.

Thank you for the response. And yes you were correct. It were the non free nvidia drivers that went haywire after the kernel update.

I am still not sure though do I really need them? especially given now we have proxmox embracing more and more features like VirtGL.

I will go on for a while with the nouveau just to see if I can find other ways to have videos play smooth. And have local AI models run as efficient as could be.

But as soon as I need the non free stuff again I will follow your suggestion and see how long it lasts. If it then breaks again months/years down the line, I will be sure to followup detailed.

 

[diversity]

this message is really just overhead and not really needed for the thread in the first place;

But I felt the need to defend a desktop environment over a server OS like Proxmox.

You see, some of us think that root on ZFS should be the default. on any system, any device. period.

Now that I use one of the many Proxmox installations I have as a desktop should then not come as a surprise

If only the installation iso's and there emergency feature would start working again for those ZFS scenarios then all would be bliss

Or by now they do and I just missed that note?

 

[l.leahu-vladucu]

You're welcome! Glad to hear it's working now!

Thank you for the response. And yes you were correct. It were the non free nvidia drivers that went haywire after the kernel update.

Basically, you will simply need to follow Debian's Nvidia Graphics Drivers guide, but install the correct kernel header package from the Proxmox repositories (proxmox-headers-6.8, proxmox-headers-6.11, etc.). On each kernel update, DKMS will run automatically and make it work with your current kernel version. In case the headers are missing, you just need to install them and run dkms autoinstall or dkms install -m MODULE/VERSION manually afterwards.

Thank you for the response. And yes you were correct. It were the non free nvidia drivers that went haywire after the kernel update.

I am still not sure though do I really need them? especially given now we have proxmox embracing more and more features like VirtGL.

I will go on for a while with the nouveau just to see if I can find other ways to have videos play smooth. And have local AI models run as efficient as could be.

Whether you should use the proprietary Nvidia drivers or Nouveau depends on your use case. Nouveau has a feature matrix showing the GPU features that are available for each GPU generation. If you are happy with what they offer and don't have any performance issues, you can continue simply using Nouveau. Otherwise you can use the proprietary Nvidia drivers. The choice is yours

I am still not sure though do I really need them? especially given now we have proxmox embracing more and more features like VirtGL.

I still want to mention that VirGL is a virtual GPU for QEMU virtual machines (see VirGL documentation), but you still need a graphics driver on your host to communicate with the physical GPU if you want video output on your Proxmox VE host.