Debian and NVIDIA

Getting the NVIDIA driver installed on a Debian based system can be a major pain in the ass for those who have never attempted it. Here are simple to follow instructions for getting this to work on most Debian based system. Make sure to read all the directions before starting, there will be times when your system will act like the install has failed. It might also be a good idea to open these instructions on your cell phone so you have them when you don't have a handy GUI interface.

you may need to add contrib and non-free to the /etc/apt/source.list

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Change: 

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main non-free-firmware
deb-src https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main non-free-firmware

To:

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware 

Make sure your system is up to date

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y

sudo reboot

sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64

sudo reboot

sudo apt install nvidia-driver nvidia-cuda-toolkit

a screen will popup talking about disabling the nouveau driver just select ok

sudo reboot

 

At this point you will either be good and your system will boot to your window manager. Or if your system is like mine, it will boot to a login prompt in the CLI. Fear not, hope is not lost.

Login to the prompt with your username and password and type the following commands.

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

change the following line...

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

to read...       

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia-drm.modeset=1"

press CTRL+X then Y to save and exit nano

Back at the prompt there are two more commands

sudo update-grub2

sudo reboot

 

At this point all should be good and it should boot to your window manager

The Jumper (Computer not High-rise)

I was working for a big box store in the computer repair department (I was the department). This guy, who was always a hothead and always had trouble with his computer, comes in just as red faced as ever. He walks up to the counter and drops his Packard-Bell desktop on the counter. He starts explaining that he was on the phone was their support (congratulations on getting through, first of all. Second, I’m sorry you had to deal with them). They wanted him to remove the jumper to the bios so it would reset. While this was a fairly common troubleshooting step for Packard-Bell, this time something went wrong.

Lorem ipsum

About ten years ago I was working on a software project for an engineering company that tracked job candidates. The company I was working for was trying to become their primary vendor, so we needed to provide a way of tracking which candidate was submitted to which open position. I was managing the project and was working with an outside developer.