How to prevent nvidia driver updates from Ubuntu software updater

dean-w-schulze-q · January 14, 2025, 7:48pm

$ ls ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d’
archive_uri-https_apt_releases_hashicorp_com-jammy.list docker.list ondrej-ubuntu-php-jammy.list syncthing.list
archive_uri-https_download_sublimetext_com_-jammy.list git-core-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list pgdg.list ubuntu-toolchain-r-ubuntu-test-jammy.list
brave-browser-release.list graphics-drivers-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list protonvpn-stable.list
cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list microsoft-edge.list slack.list
deadsnakes-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list neo4j.list sublime-text.list

ogra · January 14, 2025, 7:50pm

there are no “various ways” to install the official drivers (just several frontends) … the drivers you have installed are obviously broken though and we should fix that

1fallen · January 14, 2025, 7:51pm

@ogra is correct you have outside sources (3rd party):

 graphics-drivers-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list
cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list

This is not a Ubuntu issue, you need to speak with them directly.
Or remove them and stick to stock Repos.

eeickmeyer · January 14, 2025, 8:08pm

graphics-drivers-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list
cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list

PPAs are not Ubuntu repositories. (graphics-drivers-ubuntu-ppa-jammy.list)
One is from Nvidia: cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list

In a previous job of mine, we had a hard time making sure the Ubuntu drivers from the Ubuntu were used instead of the drivers from Nvidia because they were known to cause problems.

In other words, don’t use them. They are known to cause problems and conflict with Ubuntu’s repositories.

dean-w-schulze-q · January 14, 2025, 11:50pm

So nvidia’s drivers were causing problems? Does Ubuntu write better drivers for Nvidia’s gpus than nvidia does?

eeickmeyer · January 14, 2025, 11:54pm

Not necessarily. They’re the same drivers, it’s just that the package versioning is done in a way that the packages don’t get jumbled up and are compatible with other tools, such as the Software & Updates tool or the command line form, ubuntu-drivers.

Also, Ubuntu’s version of the drivers are pre-compiled so that, as long as you don’t need anything that requires dkms, they’ll work with the kernel. With dkms, you might want nvidia-dkms-{version} additionally, but that’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

1fallen · January 14, 2025, 11:54pm

Better is subjective so there’s that.
Ubuntu Drivers OOTB are far more stable.
Witch is the best of both worlds, and far less grief.

ogra · January 15, 2025, 12:12am

The drivers are not causing problems, their packaging does …

Nvidia is surely as great at creating drivers for the hardware they build, as Canonical is at creating packages for the distro they build

Would you call a carpenter when you have a broken water pipe in your house ?

monkeybrain · January 15, 2025, 2:38am

In my experience Nvidia’s cuda repo is known to break things because apparently it upgrades whenever a new driver is released without much testing. It would also a problem if you need cuda for some downstream applications because the latest cuda may not be supported. Also the driver installed from this repo doesn’t have 32 bit support (so some wine apps won’t work) The Nvidia driver does support 32 bit but somehow they remove this feature for the driver in the cuda repo.

If you want the latest driver the graphic driver ppa is good, you don’t need both. If you need the matching version of cuda, install it with the run file without the driver, It allows that, though some people think that if you install cuda from the run file you have to install the driver together, you could choose not to install driver. You can in fact use multiple versions of cuda with the same driver this way by changing environmental variables.

dean-w-schulze-q · January 15, 2025, 3:58pm

Should I replace these entries with something else or just delete them?

1fallen · January 15, 2025, 4:05pm

If it were me, I would just remove it or them from your sources.

I tend to agree with @monkeybrain on the Cuda source.

Forgot to add then remove the current nVidia driver and reinstall

vidtek99 · January 15, 2025, 5:15pm

Over the years I’ve had more failures than successes with the other driver update “feature”.
Most times I too do a purge and pick my driver from Nvidia download it and install manually using the cli.

I have to say when it did work it was pretty smooth, but it’s too hit and miss for me.

dean-w-schulze-q · January 15, 2025, 5:16pm

Thanks for all the help.

To sum this up here’s what I did. Getting rid of the cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list was the key.

apt policy nvidia-driver-535
Showed the nvidia repos below (at the bottom) with a higher priority than ubuntu repos.

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt remove --purge 'nvidia-*' 'libnvidia-*
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535

reboot

apt policy nvidia-driver-535
Showed only ubuntu repos. The driver was at an earlier version (535.183 versus 535.216)

$ apt policy nvidia-driver-535
nvidia-driver-535:
  Installed: 535.183.01-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
  Candidate: 535.183.01-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 535.183.01-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/restricted amd64 Packages
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Before removing /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cuda-ubuntu2204-x86_64.list

$ apt policy nvidia-driver-535
nvidia-driver-535:
  Installed: 535.216.03-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 535.216.03-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 535.216.03-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     535.216.01-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.183.06-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.183.01-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.183.01-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/restricted amd64 Packages
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
     535.161.08-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.161.07-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.154.05-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.129.03-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.104.12-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.104.05-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.86.10-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages
     535.54.03-0ubuntu1 600
        600 https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2204/x86_64  Packages

ogra · January 15, 2025, 5:19pm

I hope you filed bugs for all these issues you had, so they could be fixed for good and others don’t have to suffer from them anymore

vidtek99 · January 15, 2025, 5:25pm

@ogra I have been using linux since 1997 and I have never yet successfully submitted a bug report. I found it a really complicated rigmarole and never received any feedback so I no longer bother trying.