Re: nvidia vs nouveau driver and initrd.* size
On 2024-08-01 10:23:53 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> Vincent Lefevre composed on 2024-08-01 15:26 (UTC+0200):
>
> > I have several Debian/unstable machines, all with a Nvidia card.
>
> > On one of them, due to a bug in nouveau in the past, I use the
> > proprietary nvidia driver: libnvidia-legacy-390xx-* packages.
> > And the initrd size is reasonable:
>
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 66937544 2024-07-30 11:27:32 initrd.img-6.9.12-amd64
>
> > Note that on this machine, firmware-nvidia-graphics is not installed.
> > According to its description, this package is apparently for the
> > nouveau driver:
>
> > Package: firmware-nvidia-graphics
> > [...]
> > Source: firmware-nonfree
> > Version: 20240709-1
> > Suggests: initramfs-tools
> > Conflicts: firmware-misc-nonfree (<< 20230625-3~)
> > Description: Binary firmware for Nvidia GPU chips
> > This package contains the binary firmware for Nvidia graphics chips using
> > the nouveau driver.
> >
> > On other machines, I use the nouveau driver, but
> > firmware-nvidia-graphics now makes the initrd.* file much larger.
> > See the increase:
>
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 69879473 2024-07-19 02:11:58 initrd.img-6.7.12-amd64
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 112644015 2024-08-01 13:01:40 initrd.img-6.9.12-amd64
>
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1076561
>
> > which may be a problem with the small /boot partition (500 MB).
> > This is currently OK, but if I want to have 3 or 4 kernels (e.g.
> > due to future bugs), this might not be possible.
>
> > Should I switch to the proprietary nvidia driver on these machines?
> AIUI, those old enough to use 390 drivers won't likely have support
> much longer, if even supported now,
The machines for which I currently use nouveau are new.
So, if I switch to the proprietary nvidia driver, this will
be the latest version, not the 390 drivers.
> while the bug fix should trim initrd size considerably before
> too long.
What do you mean?
--
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)
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