I was able to revert to a working state of cuda 6.5, by using dpkg -i and the packges in /var/cache/apt/archives. Below are the output of nvidia-smi and the gpuinfo test program.
The package list is attached in "pkglist.nvidia.working.txt". Configuration of glx-alternative-nvidia failed with this message. -- begin -- Processing triggers for glx-alternative-nvidia (0.7.1) ... update-alternatives: error: alternative link /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf is already managed by nvidia dpkg: error processing package glx-alternative-nvidia (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2 Errors were encountered while processing: glx-alternative-nvidia E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) -- end -- So, this issue is affected by #801952 [1], as well. When upgrading to testing or backports, nvidia-driver 352.79-3 and some other cuda dependancies are pulled in, which break cuda (package list ist attached). Now, when looking at the package list, it seems more a problem of nvidia-driver and not cuda. However, [2] says that 352.79 supports gtx980. Currently, I'm suspecting a problem with the kernel module nvidia-uvm [3]. [1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=801952 [2] http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/97645/en-us [3] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-New-Build-System ----- output of test programs ----- nvidia-smi shows this: +------------------------------------------------------+ | NVIDIA-SMI 352.41 Driver Version: 352.41 | |-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC | | Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. | |===============================+======================+======================| | 0 GeForce GTX 980 Off | 0000:02:00.0 Off | N/A | | 26% 28C P0 46W / 180W | 15MiB / 4095MiB | 0% Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1 GeForce GTX 980 Off | 0000:03:00.0 Off | N/A | | 26% 29C P0 45W / 180W | 15MiB / 4095MiB | 0% Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 2 GeForce GTX 980 Off | 0000:82:00.0 Off | N/A | | 26% 28C P0 42W / 180W | 15MiB / 4095MiB | 0% Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 3 GeForce GTX 980 Off | 0000:83:00.0 Off | N/A | | 0% 30C P0 33W / 180W | 15MiB / 4095MiB | 0% Default | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Processes: GPU Memory | | GPU PID Type Process name Usage | |=============================================================================| | No running processes found | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ and "../bin/gpuinfo" gives: Simple GPU info query. You have 4 nVidia GPGPU. DeviceID Name Version Memory(Mb) #0 GeForce GTX 980 5.2 4095 #1 GeForce GTX 980 5.2 4095 #2 GeForce GTX 980 5.2 4095 #3 GeForce GTX 980 5.2 4095 Wrote by Xueming Li @ Yifan Cheng Lab, UCSF
ii glx-alternative-nvidia 0.7.1 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider ii libcublas6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuBLAS Library rc libcuda1:amd64 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Driver Library ii libcudart6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Runtime Library ii libcufft6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuFFT Library ii libcufftw6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuFFTW Library ii libcurand6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuRAND Library ii libcusparse6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuSPARSE Library ii libegl1-nvidia:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary EGL libraries ii libgl1-nvidia-glx:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL libraries ii libgles1-nvidia:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL|ES 1.x libraries ii libgles2-nvidia:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL|ES 2.x libraries ii libnppc6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives core runtime library ii libnppi6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives for image processing runtime library ii libnpps6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives for signal processing runtime library ii libnvidia-eglcore:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary EGL core libraries ii libnvidia-ml1:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA Management Library (NVML) runtime library ii libnvtoolsext1:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Tools Extension Library ii libnvvm2:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA NVVM Library ii nvidia-alternative 352.79-3 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider ii nvidia-cuda-doc 6.5.19-3 all NVIDIA CUDA and OpenCL documentation ii nvidia-cuda-gdb 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Debugger (GDB) ii nvidia-cuda-mps 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Multi Process Service (MPS) rc nvidia-cuda-toolkit 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA development toolkit ii nvidia-detect 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA GPU detection utility ii nvidia-driver 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA metapackage ii nvidia-driver-bin 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA driver support binaries ii nvidia-installer-cleanup 20151021+4 amd64 cleanup after driver installation with the nvidia-installer ii nvidia-kernel-common 20151021+3 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files ii nvidia-kernel-dkms 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module DKMS source ii nvidia-kernel-support 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files ii nvidia-legacy-check 352.79-3 amd64 check for NVIDIA GPUs requiring a legacy driver ii nvidia-modprobe 361.28-1 amd64 utility to load NVIDIA kernel modules and create device nodes ii nvidia-opencl-common 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL driver ii nvidia-persistenced 361.28-1 amd64 daemon to maintain persistent software state in the NVIDIA driver rc nvidia-settings 340.93-1 amd64 tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver ii nvidia-smi 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA System Management Interface ii nvidia-support 20151021+4 amd64 NVIDIA binary graphics driver support files ii nvidia-vdpau-driver:amd64 352.79-3 amd64 Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix - NVIDIA driver ii xserver-xorg-video-nvidia 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
iF glx-alternative-nvidia 0.7.1 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider ii libcublas6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuBLAS Library ii libcuda1:amd64 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Driver Library ii libcudart6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA Runtime Library ii libcufft6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuFFT Library ii libcufftw6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuFFTW Library ii libcuinj64-6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUINJ Library (64-bit) ii libcurand6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuRAND Library ii libcusparse6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA cuSPARSE Library ii libgl1-nvidia-glx:amd64 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA binary OpenGL libraries ii libnppc6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives core runtime library ii libnppi6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives for image processing runtime library ii libnpps6.5:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Performance Primitives for signal processing runtime library ii libnvidia-ml1:amd64 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA Management Library (NVML) runtime library ii libnvtoolsext1:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Tools Extension Library ii libnvvm2:amd64 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA NVVM Library ii nvidia-alternative 352.41-1 amd64 allows the selection of NVIDIA as GLX provider ii nvidia-cuda-dev 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA development files ii nvidia-cuda-toolkit 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA CUDA development toolkit ii nvidia-installer-cleanup 20151021+4 amd64 cleanup after driver installation with the nvidia-installer ii nvidia-kernel-common 20151021+1~bpo8+1 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files ii nvidia-kernel-dkms 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module DKMS source rc nvidia-kernel-support 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA binary kernel module support files rc nvidia-legacy-check 352.79-3 amd64 check for NVIDIA GPUs requiring a legacy driver ii nvidia-modprobe 358.09-1~bpo8+1 amd64 utility to load NVIDIA kernel modules and create device nodes rc nvidia-opencl-common 352.79-3 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL driver ii nvidia-profiler 6.5.19-3 amd64 NVIDIA Profiler for CUDA and OpenCL rc nvidia-settings 340.93-1 amd64 tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver ii nvidia-smi 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA System Management Interface ii nvidia-support 20151021+4 amd64 NVIDIA binary graphics driver support files ii xserver-xorg-video-nvidia 352.41-1 amd64 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver