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authormjfernez <mjf@mjfer.net>2023-07-11 23:21:59 -0400
committermjfernez <mjf@mjfer.net>2023-07-11 23:23:10 -0400
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+Tips and tricks related to hardware
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+I recently upgraded by PC from an Nvidia 1050 Ti card to a new 3060 Ti
+card. I've been updating the drivers for this card since before there
+was a Debian package, so I've been through the installation quite a few
+times and run into my share of weird issues. This last upgrade was no
+exception, so I figured I'd document the process in case anyone out
+there is as bad at installing these as me!
+
+## Step 1: The Replacement
+
+The best part of installing a new graphics card is getting to open up
+the guts of your computer (it's also the scariest part, since this is
+also the best opportunity to knock out a hard drive or a RAM stick).
+Fortunately this is pretty easy, first make sure you hit the little lever
+(switch?) on the PCI slot to pop out the old card. Then just slide the
+new guy in. Note though to people getting a card from the RTX 30 line
+(or higher) -- these cards run pretty big, so make sure you have enough
+space in you case. You can see I barely made it myself!
+
+A second note to RTX users: most if not all these cards come with an
+extra power supply input (two 8-pin connectors). If your power supply is
+short on outputs, you can get a splitter cable like the one you see in
+the picture to match the inputs. I personally am running a 600 W supply
+for everything right now, which seems to be running fine. You should
+check some other power guides though if you're concerned your power
+supply won't drive the card
+
+## Step 2: Re-installing the drivers
+
+At first I tried to just naively update and see what happened, but I
+received a "broken packages" error for nvidia-driver and other related
+packages after running this.
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt update
+$ sudo apt upgrade
+```
+
+This turned out to be a two-part error, one was the driver itself, two
+was an update in Debian sid.
+
+### Part one: Fix Broken Packages
+
+Whenever I see broken packages, I tend to to assume that the name of a
+package got updated. In this case, there was a
+[note](https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#non-free-split)
+on the apt list changes that mentioned a separate "non-free-firmware"
+branch had been made, which had some of the components I needed. I
+just added "non-free-firmware" to my /etc/apt/sources.list:
+
+```
+deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
+```
+
+Note: you may not need "non-free" here anymore, I simply had that since
+that was where the package used to be.
+
+### Part two: Re-install nvidia-driver
+
+I tried to update again at this point, but encountered the same error.
+At this point I figured the best thing to do was to just try to
+reinstall all nvidia related software again:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt purge nvidia-*
+$ sudo apt update
+$ sudo apt upgrade
+```
+
+Ok no errors on the update this time, let's try again:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt install nvidia-driver
+```
+
+### Part negative three: Just in case
+
+In the dark days before the Debian team had an Nvidia package, you had
+to install drivers manually. I haven't had to do this in years, but I
+like having the option. You can download the latest drivers on their
+website:
+
+https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver
+
+The file will have a really long name like
+"NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-525.89.02.run," so I suggest renaming it first to
+something like "driver.run"
+
+In order to run this file, you need to stop your graphics environment.
+Press CTRL + ALT + F1 to log out and open a terminal-only session.
+Login with your credentials. Then stop the X-server
+
+```bash
+$ sudo service lightdm stop
+```
+
+If you use a different X manager you might need to replace "lightdm"
+with "gdm" or "kdm" (Gnome and KDE). Now we can run the driver install:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo chmod +x driver.run
+$ sudo ./driver.run
+```
+
+Accept all the prompts and you'll have the factory made driver software.
+Note, you have to manually update this way though. So try to figure out
+the nvidia-driver package before resorting to this method!
+
+## Step three: Reboot and test
+
+Reboot and then check the Nvidia X server setting panel
+(nvidia-settings) to make sure your card is detected correctly
+
+
+But the ultimate test right now is Kerbal Space Program 2 (still in
+early access)
+
+