nvidia vs nouveau driver and initrd.* size

[Vincent Lefevre]

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

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?

[Felix Miata]

Post by Vincent Lefevre
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.
-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
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.
-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

Post by Vincent Lefevre
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, while the bug fix should trim initrd size considerably
before too long.

[Vincent Lefevre]

Post by Felix Miata

Post by Vincent Lefevre
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.
-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
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.
-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

Post by Vincent Lefevre
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.

Post by Felix Miata
while the bug fix should trim initrd size considerably before
too long.

What do you mean?

[Felix Miata]

Post by Vincent Lefevre

Post by Felix Miata
the bug fix should trim initrd size considerably before
too long.

What do you mean?

After package containing bug fix is installed, newly generated initrds will be
considerably smaller that they were or would have been before the fix arrived.

[Vincent Lefevre]

Post by Felix Miata

Post by Vincent Lefevre

Post by Felix Miata
the bug fix should trim initrd size considerably before
too long.

What do you mean?

After package containing bug fix is installed, newly generated
initrds will be considerably smaller that they were or would have
been before the fix arrived.

There are no fixes for the current increase. I think that you got
confused with another bug. Let me explain.

Post by Felix Miata

Post by Vincent Lefevre
-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

No, bug 1076561 is fixed. FYI, without this fix, the initrd file was
so big that the kernel package could not even be installed on this
machine. Now, I can install it, but the initrd file is nevertheless
much bigger.

If I understand correctly, firmware-nonfree got new drivers
for many Nvidia cards, hence the big increase; that's why
firmware-misc-nonfree was split:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1057786

But this is not helpful for users of Nvidia cards, despite the fact
is that in practice, one just needs a small part of these drivers.

[Franco Martelli]

Post by Vincent Lefevre

Post by Felix Miata

Post by Vincent Lefevre
-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

No, bug 1076561 is fixed. FYI, without this fix, the initrd file was
so big that the kernel package could not even be installed on this
machine. Now, I can install it, but the initrd file is nevertheless
much bigger.

However the issue you describe it was fixed in that bug report, consider
that if it wasn't be fixed you'd may expect an initrd file bigger than
200MB.
Sorry but have you read that bug report (#1076561)? Some users has
posted solutions to make smaller the initrd file:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1076561#10
and
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1076561#48

I suggest also to take a look at merged bug reports, usually submitters
propose workarounds to the issue, maybe it could help.

Cheers