I've never got nvidia to install even by following the instructions above. The msg I get is:

Install linux headers:

sudo apt install linux-headers-amd64

Then install nvidia driver (for newer video cards) with command:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends nvidia-driver

Or if you using older video card:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends nvidia-tesla-470-driver

then, if needed, install nvidia-settings

sudo apt install nvidia-settings-tesla-470

I'm not sure if persistenced can cause the kind of problem you're having, but removing it definitely won't prevent you from using the graphics driver. Other users (including myself) have experienced the same error. It was discussed here in the Beowulf beta thread. It seems the init script may try to start the persistenced service without checking first to see if it's already running. One user in the above thread modified the script to address this issue, while another fixed it by removing and reinstalling the service. I chose to simply purge it from my system.

ERRORS were encountered while processing:
nvidia-persistenced
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1).

If I reboot I will get a login screen but when I enter my password it just blinks and comes right back to the login screen.

I'm not sure what to do. I would love to run Devuan but without the nvidia-driver I get way too much screen tearing in my browsers.

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

Another easy way to identify your chip is to install nvidia-detect then run that in terminal, it will also attempt to suggest what packages you might need to install for your chip.

Prerequisites:

- make a backup with Timeshift (safety first)

- check graphics card compatibility
  (if your graphics card does not appear in the list, it is not necessary to install the latest driver, the one installed by default will suffice)

- command line as root to check which GPU is installed:
 

lshw -numeric -C display

Output

If the prerequisites are satisfied, you can continue with the tutorial below.

First step add non-free-firmware sources befor install Linux Headers and compilation dependencies:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the lines below behind each debian source and enabling the backports:

non-free-firmware

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged daedalus-backports main non-free-firmware

Then update and install Linux Headers and compilation dependencies:

apt update && apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential libglvnd-dev pkg-config dkms -y

Second step blacklist the nouveau driver, create a blacklist file:

nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

In the file add the following lines and save the file:

blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Then regenerate the kernel initramfs:

update-initramfs -u

Third step install the latests NvidiaGraphicsDrivers:

apt install -t daedalus-backports firmware-misc-nonfree nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-driver nvidia-cuda-toolkit nvidia-cuda-dev nvidia-settings nvidia-smi nvidia-xconfig nvidia-opencl-icd nvidia-opencl-common nvidia-detect -y

Reboot.

To view how version you have installed, just open an terminal and enter follow:

nvidia-smi

Enjoy!

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