Updates Destroyed my Desktop ... again

[pwlinwin]

I'm still a fairly new user to linux. I'm trying, and have succeeded several times to get Kubuntu set up the way I like it and working well. Unfortunately, Discover has updates for me almost every day. I'm getting more inclined to procrastinate on them more and more because they periodically break my system and I have to spend hours trying to figure out what went wrong each time it does. Great fun if your a hobbyist, but when you just want to use your computer for something productive, its getting to be a hassle.

Today's update roulette wheel landed on a broken update for the Nvidia-550 drivers and supporting dependencies. Following a reboot, it fell back onto XOrg drive (Kubuntu seems to REALLY REALLY REALLY like the XOrg driver and will randomly periodically just throw me back onto it for no apparent reason). Unfortunately, the only proprietary nvidia driver available is an older one. The 550 driver isn't available.

I tried all of the following in the order below.

sudo apt remove nvidia-driver-550 -f
​sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt upgrade -y sudo
dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550

The final command failed, so I run

dpkg --configure -a

again, and get the following output:

Setting up nvidia-dkms-550 (550.67-0ubuntu1.23.10.2) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
INFO:Enable nvidia
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
Removing old nvidia-550.67 DKMS files...
Loading new nvidia-550.67 DKMS files...
Error! DKMS tree already contains: nvidia-550.67
You cannot add the same module/version combo more than once.
dpkg: error processing package nvidia-dkms-550 (--configure):
installed nvidia-dkms-550 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 3
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of nvidia-driver-550:
nvidia-driver-550 depends on nvidia-dkms-550 (<= 550.67-1); however:
 Package nvidia-dkms-550 is not configured yet.
nvidia-driver-550 depends on nvidia-dkms-550 (>= 550.67); however:
 Package nvidia-dkms-550 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package nvidia-driver-550 (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142ubuntu15.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-28-generic
I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/dm-2
I: (/dev/mapper/vgkubuntu-swap_1)
I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.
Errors were encountered while processing:
nvidia-dkms-550
nvidia-driver-550

I really am only throwing s**t at a wall to see what sticks here. Its a guessing game. It seems like "DKMS tree already contains: nvidia-550.67" is telling me the package is already installed, but bunged up somehow. Not sure where to go from here.

Any ideas?

-PW

[Schwarzer Kater]

I would sudo apt remove --purge nvidia* or sudo apt purge nvidia* (the shorter version) first.
Then try to sudo apt autoremove --purge or sudo apt autopurge (also the shorter version) to additionally remove the config files like in the first command and see if these changes help for the installation.
sudo apt autoclean afterwards.

reboot and why not follow the "official" Ubuntu way and use sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:550 for the installation?

PS:
For your productivity's sake I suggest to disable automatic updates and do all updates when it is suitable for you, e.g. after or before work or every Saturday evening.
-> sudo software-properties-qt -> Updates tab -> select Only notify about available updates
-> check that System Settings -> Software Update is also set to Manually
But be aware that with these settings you will have to manually get rid of old kernels and headers, too -> you will have to regularly sudo apt autoremove to do this!
You can always add the --dry-run flag to apt if you want to test first what will happen, by the way.

Oh - and don't use sudo apt upgrade in *Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions (this command is for updating Debian stable only!)
-> always use sudo apt full-upgrade to update your *Ubuntu system in CLI!

[pwlinwin]

Hello. Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, those commands left me in the same position I was following a reboot and reinstall.

sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:550

returned the following:

udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
All the available drivers are already installed.

But the 550 driver does not appear in the driver manager. 545 is there though.

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550

Appears to install a number of the prerequisite libraries successfully, but fails on the nvidia-driver-550 package. As per below, the part of the output following the first error message. Seems the same as before.

INFO:Enable nvidia
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
Removing old nvidia-550.67 DKMS files...
Loading new nvidia-550.67 DKMS files...
Error! DKMS tree already contains: nvidia-550.67
You cannot add the same module/version combo more than once.
dpkg: error processing package nvidia-dkms-550 (--configure):
installed nvidia-dkms-550 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 3
Setting up libnvidia-encode-550:amd64 (550.67-0ubuntu1.23.10.2) ...
Setting up libnvidia-encode-550:i386 (550.67-0ubuntu1.23.10.2) ...
Setting up pkgconf:amd64 (1.8.1-2) ...
Setting up pkg-config:amd64 (1.8.1-2) ...
Setting up nvidia-settings (510.47.03-0ubuntu1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of nvidia-driver-550:
nvidia-driver-550 depends on nvidia-dkms-550 (<= 550.67-1); however:
 Package nvidia-dkms-550 is not configured yet.
nvidia-driver-550 depends on nvidia-dkms-550 (>= 550.67); however:
 Package nvidia-dkms-550 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package nvidia-driver-550 (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                         Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142ubuntu15.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-28-generic
I: The initramfs will attempt to resume from /dev/dm-2
I: (/dev/mapper/vgkubuntu-swap_1)
I: Set the RESUME variable to override this.
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.38-1ubuntu6.2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.11.2-3) ...
Processing triggers for mailcap (3.70+nmu1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.26-1ubuntu5) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
nvidia-dkms-550
nvidia-driver-550
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

For the moment I'm running 545 which works with everything except games.

[pwlinwin]

I fixed the problem with apt-get.

I did the apt purge nvidia as per above. While it was removed, I deleted /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/ as per the advice in another thread. This allowed me to reinstall nvidia-driver-550 successfully.

I still have no idea why ubuntu-drivers method doesn't work. I still get the hwdb is depreciated error above, and 550 still doesn't show up in the drivers list (even through it should be available in kubuntu by now). I've always just had to use the apt-get method.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Did you sudo apt purge nvidia or sudo apt purge nvidia* (with the "*")?

The "udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead." message is no real error, but a note that in the future someday udevadm hwdb will not be supported anymore.

I just looked it up: both nvidia-driver-550 and nvidia-dkms-550 are in the Ubuntu 23.10 repositories and are the correct versions.
No idea why the 550 driver is not shown with ubuntu-drivers list or ubuntu drivers devices… Did you install the Nvidia driver from somewhere else before (like with the .run installer) instead of the officially supported one from the Ubuntu repositories?

But it seems to work for you now, doesn't it? Perhaps buy e.g. AMD instead in the future to avoid the usual hassle with Nvidia if possible…

[pwlinwin]

Did you sudo apt purge nvidia or sudo apt purge nvidia* (with the "*")?

I used the * (wildcard). It uninstalled a bunch of stuff.

The "udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead." message is no real error, but a note that in the future someday udevadm hwdb will not be supported anymore.

I just looked it up: both nvidia-driver-550 and nvidia-dkms-550 are in the Ubuntu 23.10 repositories and are the correct versions.
No idea why the 550 driver is not shown with ubuntu-drivers list or ubuntu drivers devices… Did you install the Nvidia driver from somewhere else before (like with the .run installer) instead of the officially supported one from the Ubuntu repositories?

But it seems to work for you now, doesn't it? Perhaps buy e.g. AMD instead in the future to avoid the usual hassle with Nvidia if possible…

Ubuntu-Drivers broke a while back and keeps pushing me over to the xorg driver on reboot. No errors that I could find. I was able to change to earlier versions, but it never stuck and 550 never appeared on the list at all. The only way I was able to get 550 and preserve it was to add the nvidia ppa and use apt.

I use a laptop as I'm frequently on the road. AMD options are thin pickings in my part of the world. Nvidia works fine....when it works. Its definitely made of glass and shatters easily though.