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Debian Stable , just updated, Nvidia drivers didn't get built/brought to current kernel via dkms. How to build/activate after update?

I have a Debian 11 stable install, (Secure Boot is enabled) that i recently updated.
It went from 5.10.0-18-amd64 to 5.10.0-21-amd64, kernel wise.

However, the nvidia-settings and nvidia-SMI commands don't work- and I've noticed in my /usr/lib/modules/5.10.0-21-amd64 directory , that it doesn't have the /updates/dkms folder I see in the other kernel i have , /lib/modules/5.10.0-18-amd64/updates/dkms which has 5 nvidia module files in it.

Prior to the update, a few months back I had uncommented/enabled
sign_tool="/etc/dkms/sign_helper.sh" in /etc/dkms/framework.conf
after being told dkms is how you update without having to sign nvidia modules every single time you update on a secure-boot enable system.

Currently trying to figure out what is going wrong. I did run sudo dkms status, and it gives nvidia-current, 470.161.03: added i've read it's supposed to say installed, not added.

Possibly releveant info: /lib/modules actually has a few kernel directories

5.10.0-10-amd64 5.10.0-11-amd64 5.10.0-13-amd64 5.10.0-15-amd64 5.10.0-18-amd64 5.10.0-21-amd64

of all of those, only 11 and 18 have /updates/dkms/(bunch of nvidia modules) Are those old folders causing an issue? I currently only have the 18 and 21 kernels on the system now currently anyway, after a apt autoremove was performed after the update.

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  • How did you install the Nvidia drivers the first time around? Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 0:50
  • Pretty sure it was sudo apt install nvidia-driver I don't think i did anything special - just as far as installation goes. At a certain point after install i looked into and then made mok keys and started signing kernel modules due to Secure Boot (before i looked into how to avoid having to do that) , but that was post-install of course Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 1:12
  • Nvidia drivers from the repository should work with dkms. Commented Feb 4, 2023 at 1:14
  • SOLVED I had to clear out EVERYTHING in /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-current/470.161.03 with rm -f then did the same to everything in /lib/moduless, then used locate dkmsnvidia*.ko , to ensure no more modules were around, not even in the prior kernel18's folder then i installed the drivers again, and did a sudo update-initramfs and rebooted -And from here, the modules were in the /libmodules/5.10.0-21-amd64/updates/dkms folder which appeared now. nvidia smi and settings STILL didnt work- i manually signed the ko modules, that got it. Oddly old kernel files blocked proper updating. Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 3:34

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