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lir3000

Member

Registered: 2026-07-22

Posts: 3  

nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

There is an nvidia-persistenced daemon issue after NVIDIA Drivers installation. It appears after each apt upgrade operation, very inconvenient.

Steps:
1. Install NVIDIA Drivers:
  sudo apt install -y build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) dkms
  sudo reboot
  sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver firmware-misc-nonfree nvidia-settings nvidia-kernel-dkms
>> Errors:
nvidia-persistenced
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
  sudo reboot

2. Do upgrade packets:
  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
>>  nvidia-persistenced
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Desktop Environment became unavailable during next reboot!
Steps for a temporary fix:
  ps -ef | grep -E '[n]vidia-persistenced' || true
  sudo kill -TERM xxxx
  sudo chown -R nvpd:nvpd /run/nvidia-persistenced
  sudo chmod 0755 /run/nvidia-persistenced
  sudo rm -f /run/nvidia-persistenced/*
  sudo /etc/init.d/nvidia-persistenced start
If Desktop Environment became unavailable:
  sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Logs:
$  sudo tail -n 80 /var/log/syslog
2026-07-23T02:38:02.231733+03:00 devuan nvidia-persistenced: Failed to lock PID file: Resource temporarily unavailable
2026-07-23T02:38:02.231741+03:00 devuan nvidia-persistenced: Shutdown (18241)
$  ps -ef | grep -E '[n]vidia-persistenced' || true
nvpd      1618     1  0 jul22 ?     00:00:00 /usr/bin/nvidia-persistenced --user nvpd
$ ls -ld /etc/init.d/nvidia-persistenced
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2670 may 23  2025 /etc/init.d/nvidia-persistenced
$ ls -ld /run/nvidia-persistenced
drwxr-xr-x 2 nvpd nvpd 80 jul 22 22:29 /run/nvidia-persistenced
$ groups
... video ...
$ uname -r
6.12.95+deb13-amd64

I'm using last Devuan with SysVinit. Standart NVIDIA 1060 card (530 driver).
p.s. All other things are doing well, I'm very happy with Devuan guys, thank you a lot! :-)

Last edited by lir3000 (2026-07-23 09:32:48)

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 2,069  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

Hello:

See: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=24694#p24694 and the rest of the thread.

I seem to recall that nvidia-persistenced is a *suggested* package, not sure.

Best,

A.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,950  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

Yeah, it's only a Recommends, not a Depends. You don't need it. If I remember correctly, it stores some settings or data between reboots.

sudo apt --no-install-recommends install <whatever>

lir3000

Member

Registered: 2026-07-22

Posts: 3  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

Cool, thanks!
Is there any way I can remove only nvidia-persistenced without a driver being removed? Or I need to remove all and then reinstall it without recommended things?

Marjorie

Member

From: Teignmouth, UK

Registered: 2019-06-09

Posts: 229  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

nvidia-persistenced is helpful, but not required, if you have a nvidia graphics but only if you are using CUDA.
Otherwise it is has not purpose and  you can simply delete it.

It used to be that the problem with it was it fell over if you already had it running already, because it didn't clean up after itself.
This was a bug that has been there since it was originally written, back in 2014, and never officially cured.

If deleting doesn't work and you actually need it for CUDA then back back in 2020 I did create a patched version that sorted this out. See
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=20903#p20903

Marjorie

Member

From: Teignmouth, UK

Registered: 2019-06-09

Posts: 229  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

nvidia-persistenced is helpful, but not required, if you have a nvidia graphics but only if you are using CUDA.
Otherwise it is has not purpose and  you can simply delete it.

It used to be that the problem with it was it fell over if you already had it running already, because it didn't clean up after itself.
This was a bug that has been there since it was originally written, back in 2014, and never officially cured.

If deleting doesn't work and you actually need it for CUDA then back back in 2020 I did create a patched version that sorted this out. See
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=20903#p20903

lir3000

Member

Registered: 2026-07-22

Posts: 3  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

Ok, thanks, I appreciate that!
Maybe we need to reopen this bug again? But I don't feel comfortable with Devuan bug system... (that's why I've posted here)

Marjorie

Member

From: Teignmouth, UK

Registered: 2019-06-09

Posts: 229  

Re: nvidia-persistenced daemon issue (sysvinit)

Well the bug I found is not really a bug in Devuan  (these only relate to errors to Devuan-only packages). It's there in Debian and it's ultimately upstream to Nvidia and dates back to its original release in 2014. I just suppose I'm too lazy to try and find out how to get them to fix it. Though I'm rather surprised it hasn't been picked up and sorted by someone who is more fluent in bug reporting than I am.