Question

6

How can I convert the Nvidia driver installer into a deb?

rated 0 times [ 6] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 5542 / 1 Year ago, mon, february 6, 2023, 8:12:28

Every so often there's a beta version of the Nvidia driver that I want to try out. This has happened today: there's been a big performance issue with version 295.40 and I want to try the shiny new XRandR-enabled 302.07.

I'm more than able to download the installer, remove all the repo-installed driver files and install the new version but it's frankly a pain in the bottom to turn that around and go back to the repo version. It also means I have to re-install the driver manually each time there's a Kernel upgrade.

The other option we commonly give people is a PPA but in this case I'm being really impatient. It's going to be a few days before any PPA gets this but I need to try this today. I've already manually installed it on the media centre and I'm eyeing up my desktop now.

So how do I take an installer (eg: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-302.07.run) and convert that into a new nvidia-current/nvidia-current-updates package?

Another way of asking this might be: How do people package the Nvidia drivers?

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arbaour

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1 Year ago

answered 1 Year ago anatta · Accepted Answer

Unless there are structural differences i the new version it should be possible to re-use the current packaging:

NEWVERSION=302.13

DIR=nvidia-graphics-drivers-"$NEWVERSION".orig/

## Making a new tarball

mkdir $DIR

# Copy in new run files

cp NVIDIA*.run $DIR

tar --owner=root --group=src -caf nvidia-graphics-drivers_"$NEWVERSION".orig.tar.gz $DIR

rm -r $DIR



## Setting up the packaging source

apt-get source nvidia-graphics-drivers

cd nvidia-graphics-drivers*/

# Remove old run files and copy in new

rm NVIDIA*.run

cp ../NVIDIA*.run .

# This version number should ensure it gets replaced by official version...

dch -v $VERSION-1 "my release"; dch -l~mybuild "local build"; dch -r



## Installing build-dependencies

mk-build-deps

sudo dpkg -i nvidia-graphics-drivers-build-deps*.deb; apt-get install -f



## Building

debuild -us -uc

Something like that might work, there's quite a bit of mucking around, which I guess is why PPA packages don't get released instantly ;)