Auto-update killed NVidia 640. Workarounds?

[nagle-animats]

Ubuntu Version:
“Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS”

Problem Description

Ubuntu dropped support for the NVidia 470 driver, which I’m using on an old machine with an NVidia 640. Auto-update ran and broke graphics support. There’s an explaination:

Action Required: Ubuntu to retire Legacy NVIDIA Graphics Drivers 470

NVIDIA Graphics Drivers 470 — End of Life Notice The Ubuntu Kernel team has a commitment to build, ship and sign secure, maintainable, and supported software. In line with this commitment, the Ubuntu Kernel Team will stop building, signing and shipping graphics driver versions that have been discontinued by NVIDIA. In this case, we will retire the NVIDIA Graphics Drivers 470 series. The last update that NVIDIA published for this driver was June 4th, 2024. Users will soon be automatically migr…

I didn’t notice that. Today, auto-update forced a kernel install that won’t run that driver. Even though I’m running an LTS version. Graphics were forced down to the Mesa software GPU. Max resolution 1024x768.

Relevant System Information:

ubuntu-drivers devices
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00000FC1sv00003842sd00002643bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : GK107 [GeForce GT 640]
manual_install: True
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free recommended
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

john@Nagle-LTS:~$ sudo dkms status
nvidia/535.309.01, 6.8.0-134-generic, x86_64: installed
john@Nagle-LTS:~$ uname -r
6.8.0-134-generic

Old NVidia 640 GPU.

Secure Boot is OFF. This machine has never run Windows.

What I’ve Tried:

The deprecation notice suggest downloading a driver from NVidia, but warns: “Note: The NVIDIA-provided legacy driver may break in the future with kernel updates.” How’s that old driver working out with this kernel? Anyone know?

Searching for workarounds on the web is just returning AI slop.

[celticwarrior]

@nagle-animats

How’s that old driver working out with this kernel

It isn’t.

From now on your only realistic option is nouveau for your 14 years old card.

[nagle-animats]

Actually, the driver downloaded from NVidia did work.

I’m annoyed with the “long term support” version breaking on auto-update. LTS versions should not have breaking changes like that.

[celticwarrior]

You’re barking at the wrong tree. Nvidia dropped support so complain TO them the same way you would do if you were in Windows. It’s not the Ubuntu devs job to maintain old drivers.