Deleting s/w on update

[geezer]

I am using a System76 Gazelle laptop with Nvidia gpu and running Kubuntu.

The update last week(?) that updated the kernel, deleted all of the System76 drivers installed from their PPA. It didn't replace them, just deleted them. It also deleted the directive to give their repository preference. I had to run

'apt-add-repository -y ppa:system76-dev/stable'

and recreate the file giving their repository preference. That had been deleted by the update also.

We are trying to understand why the update did that. I think Discover is used for the update? True?

Any idea why the update deleted the System76 file and drivers?

The System76 s/w people don't know why either. They and I would like to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Thanks for any insight into.
geezer

[claydoh]

Hard to say, without knowing what packages specifically were removed, but perhaps the Ubuntu version of these were updated and are newer than what is in that PPA. Updated kernels often bring updated drivers, they are sort of connected to each other. System76's might not have been rebuilt for any new kernel version, though these are not often more than minor kernel fixes, not new major versions, and don't require driver rebuilds.

Discover is like apt or muon, as they all determine what is installed/updated/removed using the same tool under the hood.

heck, it could be a 'simple' dependency mismatch between their PPA, something from Ubuntu's stock repos, or any PPA or source you have added.

I don't know how or by what method any update could actually remove an added repository, so I cannot say how that happened. though all PPAs are disabled when upgrading to a new *buntu release. I am sure it can be done via a pre- or post-install script from an individual package, but targeting a single PPA and editing/removing the preferences file would be very specific, unless System76 have such a thing in one of their packages' post-removal scripting.

You can poke around log files in /var/log/apt and see what was installed and removed, you can post the results to a pastebin somewhere and link to it here if you want people to look at it.


And looking at things, the latest System76 kernel is 5.3.0-42 , dated march 17.the latest Ubuntu one is 5.3.0-45 or higher
so my initial guess is that the PPA was removed/disabled/etc at some point before your recent kernel update, else the PPAs one would have taken precedence

[geezer]

Here is the entry in the apt history file from 3-17-2020 where it specifically states that the system76 drivers are to be removed. Then on 3-18, I re-installed the system76 PPA, did an update and then installed their Nvidia driver.

I can read what happened, but have no clue as to why. Hoping that there is a clue or clues in the history file.

The file:
/etc/apt/preferences.d/system76-apt-preferences

which System76 specifies is:

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-system76-dev-stable
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-system76-dev-pre-stable
Pin-Priority: 1001

I received the computer on March 9, 2020 and installed Kubuntu 19.10 March 12. I installed the /etc/apt/preferences.d/system76-apt-preferences March 12 and I never removed it. In reading the apt history file it appears that on March 16 linux-system76:amd64 was upgraded. I assume that the preferences file had to be present on the 16th for that upgrade to happen.

Start-Date: 2020-03-17 20:57:01
Commandline: packagekit role='update-packages'
Requested-By: terry (1000)
Install: linux-image-5.3.0-42-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-42.34, automatic), linux-headers-5.3.0-42-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-42.34, automatic), linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-42-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-42.34, automatic), linux-headers-5.3.0-42:amd64 (5.3.0-42.34, automatic), linux-modules-5.3.0-42-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-42.34, automatic)
Upgrade: linux-headers-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0.42.36), linux-image-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0.42.36), linux-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0.42.36)
Remove: system76-driver:amd64 (20.04.1~1584035465~19.10~5d0b939~dev), system76-driver-nvidia:amd64 (20.04.1~1584035465~19.10~5d0b939~dev), linux-system76:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev)
End-Date: 2020-03-17 20:58:16

Start-Date: 2020-03-18 00:07:04
Commandline: packagekit role='update-packages'
Requested-By: terry (1000)
Upgrade: linux-image-5.3.0-7642-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), linux-libc-dev:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), linux-modules-extra-5.3.0-7642-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), apport:amd64 (2.20.11-0ubuntu8.5, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6), python3-apport:amd64 (2.20.11-0ubuntu8.5, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6), linux-headers-5.3.0-7642:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), apport-kde:amd64 (2.20.11-0ubuntu8.5, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6), linux-headers-5.3.0-7642-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), python3-problem-report:amd64 (2.20.11-0ubuntu8.5, 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.6), linux-modules-5.3.0-7642-generic:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584134558~19.10~2c304de~dev, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev)
Downgrade: linux-headers-generic:amd64 (5.3.0.42.36, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), linux-image-generic:amd64 (5.3.0.42.36, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev), linux-generic:amd64 (5.3.0.42.36, 5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev)
End-Date: 2020-03-18 00:07:42

Start-Date: 2020-03-18 00:08:52
Commandline: apt install system76-driver
Requested-By: terry (1000)
Install: system76-driver:amd64 (20.04.1~1584035465~19.10~5d0b939~dev), linux-system76:amd64 (5.3.0-7642.34~1584408018~19.10~21df4b1~dev, automatic)
End-Date: 2020-03-18 00:08:54

Start-Date: 2020-03-18 00:09:10
Commandline: apt install system76-driver-nvidia
Requested-By: terry (1000)
Install: system76-driver-nvidia:amd64 (20.04.1~1584035465~19.10~5d0b939~dev)
End-Date: 2020-03-18 00:09:11

Sent the history file to System76 s/w developers, but they didn't understand why either. They want to understand why so that they can prevent the deletion in the future.

If the PPA was offline for whatever reason would the updating s/w get a return that the PPA didn't exist and then proceed to delete the preference file and the drivers?

Thanks,
geezer