On 22/11/2025 15:24, Hans wrote:
After compilation, you can uninstall the headers.
Please, reread first message in this thread. It describes consequences of this step.
Please note, you need them again, when upgrading or reinstalling the NVidia- drivers or at any kernel upgrade.
Kernel upgrade is a regular procedure. So a kernel headers metapackage is must have if some kernel module is compiled locally.
Matthew, you have apt and dpkg logs, so you can find a moment when kernel headers were uninstalled and whether a metapackage depending on last kernel headers version was installed at all. If you were following
<https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/upgrading.en.html>then you have backup of package states prior to upgrade. It should help to determine if you faced some bug or you were just misguided and apt behavior is expected.