NVidia Driver and CUDA on Debian

Install NVidia driver to play games. Install CUDA to run local AI and crack passwords. In just 4 commands.

Debian Wiki now recommends the approach used here: install NVidia drivers from NVidia.

Updated for Debian 13-Trixie.

Install NVidia driver # ↑

Make sure you have non-free and contrib in your sources.list.

Add NVidia repository, creates a new trust relationship.

$ wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/debian13/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
$ sudo apt-get update

Install the packages. NVidia "open" driver, for some small values of open. CUDA toolkit for calculations. And the packages to make it all work trough system updates.

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-open cuda-toolkit linux-headers-amd64 dkms 

Reboot.

Optionally, you can see your driver version with 'nvidia-smi'.

That's it. If you just want to play games, you can now buy KCDII from Gog and start Heroic Launcher... Or see Tricks for NVidia and CUDA on Debian.

Sources # ↑

NVidia 2025: CUDA Installation Guide for Linux

NVidia 2025: NVIDIA Driver Installation Guide

Debian Wiki: Nvidia Proprietary GPU Drivers

Karvinen 2025: NVidia Driver and CUDA on Debian - Debian 12-bookworm 2025 (archived)