[TUTORIAL] Proxmox 9.1; nvidia drivers; desktop GUI

slavik-f

New Member
May 22, 2024
12
7
3
USA
My goal:
1. install Proxmox 9.1 on Dell Precision T7820 (64GB RAM, Intel Xeon 5218, NVIDIA P620)
2. use NVIDIA drivers
3. install desktop GUI

Step 1: Install Proxmox

First, It's good idea to configure BIOS:
- Enable Intel VT-d (for IOMMU); needed in case I'll use GPU passthrough
- Enable and choose UEFI boot, because it supports >4TB discs and is needed for GPU passthrough
- Disable Secure Boot, as it mess with NVIDIA drivers

Boot from USB, run install. And I was getting blank screen.
I had to add the nomodeset Kernel Parameter, as described here:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Installation#nomodeset_kernel_param

Finish install, reboot.

Step 2: Configure repos

That can be done from web UI:
- Datacenter -> NODE -> Updates -> Repositories
- disable CEPH and ENTERPRISE
- add PROXMOX NO-SUBSCRIPTION

use SSH to login and run:

# install latest updates:
apt update
apt upgrade -y

Step 3: install nvidia drivers

Code:
# create this file to prevent other drivers from interfering with NVIDIA drivers:
nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-videos.conf

# add these 3 lines to it:
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

# save by pressing CTRL-O
# exit by pressing CRTL-X

update-initramfs -u -k all
reboot now

After reboot, I have this kernel version, your version may be a bit different:

uname -a
Linux t7820 6.17.4-1-pve

At this point, ideally we would run:
apt install nvidia-driver (do NOT run this)
But that will install drivers version 550, which is incompatible with kernel 6.17.4

Go to NVIDIA website and find link to latest version:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

download and run it:

Code:
wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/580.119.02/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.119.02.run
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.119.02.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.119.02.run

There was few warning and prompt during install: Click Yes / Next / ...

After it's done, you should have system with nvidia drivers:

Code:
lspci -nnk | grep -A 2 -i nvidia
0000:d5:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP107GL [Quadro P620] [10de:1cb6] (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:1264]
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia

Code:
nvidia-smi
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.119.02             Driver Version: 580.119.02     CUDA Version: 13.0     |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| 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 P620                    Off |   00000000:D5:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 36%   45C    P0            N/A  /  N/A  |       0MiB /   2048MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
Last edited:
As of now the latest version is:

Code:
wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/580.126.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.126.09.run
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.126.09.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.126.09.run
 
  • Like
Reactions: zed
When I run ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.126.09.run I'm getting the below error:


ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel. Please make sure you
have installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are properly configured;
on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the 'kernel-source' or 'kernel-devel'
RPM installed. If you know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the
kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' command line option.

By any chance, is there a fix for this? I have the NVIDIA 4080 OC and I'm on Linux pve 6.17.9-1-pve #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 6.17.9-1 (2026-01-12T16:25Z) x86_64 GNU/Linux
 
Last edited:
I switched to the run file myself because NVIDIA took too long to support debian 13. I don't expect this to change in the future.