When I started the upgrade process, in the second step of the upgrade (“setting new software channels”), I received a message:
“Foreign package installed” with a list of files
It then asked for confirmation before actually doing the upgrade. I did not confirm the upgrade and returned to my 25.04 environment, which was not modified.
The graphic card is a NVIDIA GeForce MX250
I reinstalled the files in the list, using Synaptic, but I still got the same message.
Any idea what to do ? I do not remember installing strange (“foreign”) packages, and within Synaptic, I have the following information, for example for nvidia-kernel-common-570:
Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com
Section: Libraries (restricted)
The installed version corresponds to the latest version mentioned by Synaptic.
I would be happy to receive hints on how to fix this. Thanks
If at any point you added additional, third-party, repositories, namely a famous Graphics Drivers PPA, those will be considered as unknown/foreign for the purposes of release upgrade. Also if you installed the Nvidia drivers by any other means (not recommended).
And yes, any software source you add will be reflected in any frontend like Synaptic or the apt command.
Hi,
I think I’ve seen this before. Let’s verify.
First, update the package lists and perform any upgrades including any packages that are currently phasing.
Hey Alain, that “foreign package” warning usually happens when Ubuntu sees packages installed outside its standard repos, even if they’re actually from Ubuntu PPAs or official sources. Since your NVIDIA packages are maintained by Ubuntu Core Developers, it’s likely a false positive.
To move forward safely:
Ensure all NVIDIA packages are from official sources:
I tried you approach, and got the following results from the
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-driver-570 libnvidia-*-570 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-570
commands:
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-common-570’ for glob ‘libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-fbc1-570’ for glob 'libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-gl-570’ for glob ‘libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-extra-570’ for glob 'libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-encode-570’ for glob ‘libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-nscq-570’ for glob 'libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-decode-570’ for glob ‘libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-cfg1-570’ for glob 'libnvidia--570’
Note, selecting ‘libnvidia-compute-570’ for glob ‘libnvidia-*-570’
Solving dependencies… Error!
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
Unsatisfied dependencies:
libnvidia-nscq-570 : Depends: nvidia-kernel-common-570-server (= 570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.2) but it is not installable
Error: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
Error: The following information from --solver 3.0 may provide additional context:
Unable to satisfy dependencies. Reached two conflicting decisions:
nvidia-kernel-common-570:amd64 is selected for install because:
nvidia-driver-570:amd64 is selected for install
nvidia-driver-570:amd64 is available in versions 570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.1, 570.133.07-0ubuntu2
[selected nvidia-driver-570:amd64=570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.1 for install]
nvidia-driver-570:amd64=570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.1 Depends nvidia-kernel-common-570 (<= 570.195.03-1)
For context, additional choices that could not be installed:
In nvidia-driver-570:amd64 is available in versions 570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.1, 570.133.07-0ubuntu2:
nvidia-driver-570:amd64=570.133.07-0ubuntu2 is not selected for install
nvidia-kernel-common-570:amd64 is selected for removal because:
libnvidia-nscq-570:amd64=570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.2 is selected for install
Ok, that confirms my suspicion. The most up-to-date version for nvidia 570 packages in 25.04 is 570.195.03-0ubuntu0.25.04.1. However, the most-up-to-date version for nvidia 570 packages in 25.10 is 570.172.08-0ubuntu3. Obviously 570.195 is a higher version than 570.172 so technically going from plucky’s to questing’s nvidia packages is a downgrade and that’s why it’s flagging it. I don’t know why it’s flagging them as foreign because the origin (ubuntu) is the same for all the packages.
Now before you upgrade you should be aware that the nvidia driver 570 packages in 25.10 are transitional dummy packages that are dependent on the 580 driver version. So upgrading from 25.04 to 25.10 will mean that instead of the 570 version that you have installed now, the 580 version will be installed during the upgrade.
So you can proceed with the the upgrade despite the warning, but just know that you’ll be running the 580 version after the upgrade is complete.
With that in mind and if your gpu is supported, you may want to consider installing the 580 version on 25.04 prior to upgrading to 25.10 and that way you won’t have to deal with any “foreign package” warnings.
As a side issue, I would uninstall the extraneous nvidia-firmware packages you have. The 133.07 and 172.08 packages aren’t being used. Also, though it wasn’t in your list, I believe that nvidia-dkms-570 should be installed. I have it installed on my machine. Without it, the nvidia kernel module doesn’t get built with a new kernel update.
Do not perform any upgrades involving the 580 version of NVIDIA drivers until you have reviewed the postings related to issues encountered with that version, to determine whether the circumstances (hardware, distro/flavour, kernel version) you are working with or anticipating to update/upgrade to.
The following post and the associated discussions/URLs should be reviewed to get as clear a picture of what you might be facing if you attempt to move away from the 570 driver.
(The “550” reference was from a situation where the 580 was installed, created major issues, and the User had difficulties to locate a non-LTS driver from NVIDIA.)
Thanks for your advice. I wonder if the safest route would be to return to the default X.org X server, uninstall the nvidia-driver-570, do the upgrade and then re-install whatever driver the system proposes (or stick with the default driver, I don’t run software that are graphic-intensive).
I encountered the same problem as you. Actual foreign packages can be put out of the way, since I’m very strict about the package system containing only official sources, to avoid polluting the namespace ; non Ubuntu-approved software will stick to /usr/local & outside of dpkg namespace as well. At some point in Plucky, the recommended driver switched to 580, but it was 570 initially.
Maybe you could start software-properties-gtk, go to the Additional drivers tab and check. Most likely, you will be told that you’re using a non-recommended alternative driver ; it’s then up to you to decide to switch to the tested one (likely proprietary 580). That’s what I did, and I’m pretty confident I won’t get this “foreign” package warning any more once I decide to upgrade.
I have shifted to driver 580, which installed some packages and worked fine on 25.04. I then upgraded to 25.10, which worked fine, except that it froze at the very end of the process (removal fo files, it stuck on a ‘fonts’ file. Next time I rebooted, I was running 25.10, I thus assume that it worked fine.
