Using nvidia drivers on Debian Squeeze 64-bit with backported kernel

This article consists of notes I’ve written while attempting to get the official nvidia drivers to work on Debian Squeeze with a backported kernel.

For the record, on my system I am using kernel version 2.6.39-bpo.2-amd64.

I forget the exact forum page I found, but it seems using DKMS is now the preferred way of installing the official drivers in Debian. http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers seems to confirm this, although it is not immediately obvious.

Anyway, basically the procedure should be as simple as:

apt-get install -t squeeze-backports dkms nvidia-kernel-dkms

However, if you look carefully, an error likely occurred. If you missed the error, you should be able to reproduce it via:

dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-kernel-dkms

The output should be something like:

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 195.36.31
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Loading new nvidia-195.36.31 DKMS files...
Building only for 2.6.39-bpo.2-amd64
Building initial module for 2.6.39-bpo.2-amd64

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 2.6.39-bpo.2-amd64 (x86_64)
Consult the make.log in the build directory
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/ for more information.

Looking at /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/make.log, I found the following errors:

$ grep -ie error /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/make.log 
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/nv-linux.h:22:28: error: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/nv-linux.h:92:75: error: linux/smp_lock.h: No such file or directory
make[4]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build/nv.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/195.36.31/build] Error 2
make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make: *** [modules] Error 2

Okay, we’re missing some include files. It seems these are files which are not included in recent kernel versions.

Reference for smp_lock.h: http://idratherhack.blogspot.com/2011/04/nvidia-drivers-fail-without-smplockh.html

References for autoconf.h:

1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dahdi-linux/+bug/591375
2. http://alxrem.blogspot.com/2011/05/nvidia-drivers-on-debian-squeeze-with.html

Basically, smp_lock.h is for the now obsolete Big Kernel Lock, and autoconf.h got moved.

So, how do we kludge together a fix? The following is what I could come up with. Copy/paste this into a bash shell:

(
    set -o errexit

    die () {
        echo "$@" > /dev/stderr
        exit 1
    }

    if (($(id -u) != 0)); then
        die "This snippet must be run as root."
    fi

    # Install prerequisites
    apt-get install -t squeeze-backports dkms nvidia-kernel-dkms

    # Create fake smp_lock.h
    cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/source/include/linux
    if [ ! -e "smp_lock.h" ]; then
        touch smp_lock.h
        echo "Created dummy smp_lock.h."
    fi

    # Link to relocated autoconf.h
    cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/include/linux
    ln -sv ../generated/autoconf.h

    # Patch header file in nvidia sources
    # (Patch based on: http://alxrem.blogspot.com/2011/05/nvidia-drivers-on-debian-squeeze-with.html)
    cd /usr/src/nvidia-195.36.31
    cp -v nv-linux.h{,.bak}
    patchfile=$(tempfile)
    cat <<"EOF" > $patchfile
--- a/nv-linux.h     2011-05-11 12:26:22.206190191 +0400
+++ b/nv-linux.h  2011-05-04 15:36:27.163263047 +0400
@@ -975,8 +975,13 @@
 #endif
 
 #if defined(NV_ACQUIRE_CONSOLE_SEM_PRESENT)
-#define NV_ACQUIRE_CONSOLE_SEM() acquire_console_sem()
-#define NV_RELEASE_CONSOLE_SEM() release_console_sem()
+# if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 38)
+#  define NV_ACQUIRE_CONSOLE_SEM() console_lock()
+#  define NV_RELEASE_CONSOLE_SEM() console_unlock()
+# else
+#  define NV_ACQUIRE_CONSOLE_SEM() acquire_console_sem()
+#  define NV_RELEASE_CONSOLE_SEM() release_console_sem()
+# endif
 #else
 #define NV_ACQUIRE_CONSOLE_SEM()
 #define NV_RELEASE_CONSOLE_SEM()
EOF
    patch -Np1 -i $patchfile
    rm $patchfile

    # Reconfigure kernel sources (which will automatically build the nvidia DKMS module)
    dpkg-reconfigure linux-headers-$(uname -r)

    # Explicitly reconfigure the nvidia bits (sometimes this seems to be done automatically, sometimes not...)
    dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-kernel-dkms
)

Okay, that was a little long, but the above should successfully install the kernel module. (No warranty, but I developed and tested this on my two amd64 Debian Squeeze machines.)

For full disclosure, side effects of the above snippet are as follows:

1. New empty header: /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/linux/smp_lock.h
2. New symlink: /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/include/linux/autoconf.h (-> ../generated/autoconf.h)
3. Modified header: /usr/src/nvidia-195.36.31/nv-linux.h (original is backed up as /usr/src/nvidia-195.36.31/nv-linux.h.bak)

From here, what typically remains is:

apt-get install -y nvidia-glx  # or one of the nvidia-glx-legacy-* modules
apt-get install -y nvidia-glx-ia32  # optional
apt-get install -y nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings
if [ -e "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" ]; then
    echo "/etc/X11/xorg.conf exists; please change the display driver to "nvidia".
else
    nvidia-xconfig
fi

At this point, reboot, and you should be up and running!

Note that none of what I’ve done here is really original; I’ve just assembled notes from others and put them together in a few bash snippets. Just hope it’ll help someone get up and running faster than it took me. =)

---

Sidenote #1: On the Debian wiki page, if you don’t know about DKMS and try to read this page, you’ll likely end up assuming that module-assistant is the way to go, but I found that this would not work in my case, probably due to the backported kernel. (I don’t exactly remember the error.)

Sidenote #2: Installing nvidia-kernel-dkms adds a blacklist rule for the nouveau module, but Xorg’s defaults will cause nouveau to be loaded anyway unless an appropriate Xorg.conf file exists.

Sidenote #3: Found someone who had nearly an identical problem: http://alxrem.blogspot.com/2011/05/nvidia-drivers-on-debian-squeeze-with.html The notes are almost a complete solution, minus the smp_lock.h fix. I’m guessing it was written before the BKL was completely removed.

UPDATE #1: Unfortunately WordPress decided to butcher my source code and replace HTML special characters with character entities. I’ve fixed the code; hopefully the character replacements were the only changes it “helped” me with. Please let me know if this works.

UPDATE #2: Thank you everyone for your feedback. I was pretty late getting back to this but have finally updated the procedure based on your comments. Thanks!

UPDATE #3: Just a quick note, as I haven’t had time to fully apply and test this myself. I’ve noticed an update is necessary for this to work with the new backported 3.2 kernel. At a minimum, the following patch looks to be needed. (Note: the sourcecode WordPress plugin is not preserving tabs in the patch, so please apply manually.)

--- /usr/src/nvidia-195.36.31/Makefile.bak	2012-02-14 20:31:03.000000000 -0800
+++ /usr/src/nvidia-195.36.31/Makefile	2012-02-14 22:57:22.000000000 -0800
@@ -155,8 +155,9 @@
 
 # Check for kernel versions that we don't support.
 
-BELOW26 := $(shell if [ $(VERSION) -lt 2 -o $(PATCHLEVEL) -lt 6 ]; then \
-		echo y; fi)
+#BELOW26 := $(shell if [ $(VERSION) -lt 2 -o $(PATCHLEVEL) -lt 6 ]; then \
+#		echo y; fi)
+BELOW26 :=
 
 ifeq ($(BELOW26),y)
 $(error Only 2.6.x and later kernels are supported \

Yes, I know this doesn’t “fix” the if condition; however it should allow the compilation to proceed. I’ll post more once I have details.