madtunebk/Full Setup Guide for NVIDIA 550 on Debian 12.md

## Full Setup Guide for NVIDIA 550 on Debian 12.md

      
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              Full Setup Guide for NVIDIA 550 on Debian 12.md
            
          
    Full Setup Guide for NVIDIA 550 on Debian 12

Before You Begin

💡 Every command in this guide must be run in a terminal. Open a terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT + T or accessing the command line in a TTY (CTRL + ALT + F3).

Step 1: Fix sudo and Gain Root Access

By default, Debian 12 doesn’t grant sudo to the first user. Let’s fix that.
1.1 Switch to Root User

su -
Enter the root password.
1.2 Add Your User to the Sudo Group

Replace vali with your actual username:
Run:
usermod -aG sudo vali
Confirm it's added:
groups vali
Expected output:
vali : vali sudo

If sudo is not installed:
apt install sudo -y
Apply changes without reboot:
exec su -l vali
Test sudo:
sudo whoami
Expected output:
root


Step 2: Enable 32-bit (i386) Support & Update System

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

Step 3: Install Required Packages

sudo apt install -y build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-image-$(uname -r) libglvnd-dev libglvnd-dev:i386 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-video-all mesa-utils  nvidia-vaapi-driver libva-drm2 libva-glx2

Step 4: Disable Nouveau (Default Open-Source Driver)

4.1 Blacklist Nouveau

Run:
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf
Then add:
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
Save and exit (CTRL+X, then Y, then Enter).
Update Initramfs:
sudo update-initramfs -u
4.2 Modify GRUB

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Find the line starting with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and add: 'nouveau.modeset=0 nouveau.blacklist=1 nvidia-drm.modeset=1' to it:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nouveau.modeset=0 nouveau.blacklist=1 nvidia-drm.modeset=1"
Save and exit (CTRL+X, then Y, then Enter).
Then run:
sudo update-grub

Step 5: Install NVIDIA 550 Driver

wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/550.144.03/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.144.03.run
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.144.03.run
Switch to multi-user mode:
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
sudo reboot
After reboot, log in and run the installer::
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.144.03.run --no-x-check --no-nouveau-check
During installation, accept all prompts, including those for i386 libraries, initramfs regeneration, etc., EXCEPT for X11 configuration.
Restore GUI mode:
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot

Step 6: Verify Installation

nvidia-smi
Expected output:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.67 Driver Version: 550.67 CUDA Version: xx.x                      |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+---------------------------+
| GPU Name                     | Bus-Id               | Temp   | Memory Usage      |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+---------------------------+
| NVIDIA RTX XXXX               | 00000000:01:00.0    | 45C    | 100MiB / 8192MiB  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


(Optional) Install Vulkan & CUDA

sudo apt install -y vulkan-utils nvidia-cuda-toolkit
Verify CUDA:
nvcc --version
Final verification:
nvidia-smi
lsmod | grep nvidia
glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
If all these return expected results, your NVIDIA 550 driver is successfully installed on Debian 12! 🚀🔥