r/debian • u/dimitar2345 • 4h ago

General Debian Question Debian installer not working

Hi, I’m having a problem installing Debian 13. Whenever I select either Graphical Install or Install, the screen goes black and nothing else happens.

I’ve installed Linux many times before, but this is the first time I’ve encountered this issue. I’m using an NVIDIA GPU for the first time, so I suspect it might be related to the graphics card or its drivers.

Has anyone experienced this issue or knows how to fix it?

3 Upvotes

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1

u/alpha417 4h ago

which "an NVIDIA GPU" are you using?

0

u/dimitar2345 4h ago

Rtx 5060 ti 8gb

1

u/dkopgerpgdolfg 4h ago

Does a live boot work on this computer? What exact(!) installer (download link etc.) do you use?

1

u/CardOk755 3h ago

Tryba Debian live system.

0

u/dimitar2345 4h ago

Yes, I live booted Kali Linux, but it booted without a graphical interface. I went through the logs but didn’t find anything unusual.

1

u/dkopgerpgdolfg 3h ago

Then try a graphical live system please, and answer the other question too.

1

u/dimitar2345 3h ago

I’m using the Kali Linux 2025.3 Live AMD64 ISO: https://old.kali.org/kali-images/kali-2025.3/kali-linux-2025.3-live-amd64.iso

The system boots into a terminal, but I can’t get the graphical interface to start. When I try to start the display manager, I get the following error:

"Error opening directory '/var/lib/lightdm/data'"

1

u/dkopgerpgdolfg 3h ago

... more specifically:

Please use a graphical live system, that is meant to start graphically instead of just being able to run a DM when you want, and ideally not Kali but Debian.

And the link I asked for is for the installer (of Debian) that you use.

1

u/Kiore-NZ 3h ago

Laptop or desktop? The following might be difficult to achieve on a laptop.

I have a problem with my desktop when booting the already installed Debian, the screen goes blank. I fix it by switching the screen to a different input and back again. I guess it could also work by switching the screen off and on again, but I haven't tried.

3

u/dimitar2345 3h ago

It’s a desktop PC. I’ll try switching the monitor input or turning it off and back on to see if that helps. Thanks for the suggestion!

1

u/mok000 3h ago

Debian has a text based installer you can find it on the download page. Then you can get the system up and running, activate the non-free repo and install the proprietary NVIDIA driver.