Score:0

Ethernet disappears after NVIDIA driver installation

cn flag

I have made a fresh new installation of Ubuntu 20.04.3 on a desktop computer (with an RTX 3080 Ti GPU), and would like to install NVIDIA drivers and CUDA. I have had this working earlier on this machine, but now I encounter some odd issues.

I have installed NVIDIA drivers via "Software & Updates" -> Additional drivers, and used the driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-470 (proprietary, tested) and also the -495 ditto. I have also tried running sudo apt install nvidia-driver-495 (as per this thread) from the terminal. Each of these attempts was done on a fresh re-installation of Ubuntu.

In all these cases, the driver installation itself worked fine. However, upon reboot, Ethernet was no longer available. There was not even any option for it in Settings; in the Network tab, there was only VPN, but no Intel Ethernet and Realtek Ethernet that I had before the NVIDIA installation. Also, some of the applications (e.g. Timeshift, Redshift) that I had installed prior to installing the NVIDIA driver disappeared. Reverting to the Noveau driver did not help with ethernet.

I don't know if something more went wrong; since I only have a wired internet connection, I simply quickly reinstalled Ubuntu. I was so frustrated I did not even check if the NVIDIA drivers were working properly... But on one of these occasions, nvidia-smi did work correctly right after install, before reboot.

What can I do to get CUDA working on this machine? In case Ethernet disappears again during an installation, how can it be brought back (without internet access?)?

Score:0
ca flag

( Hit the Super key (Win logo), type driver and click on the Additional Drivers icon. )

In the dialog; I expect there to be more than one NVidia driver...
... you might wish to try (select) something else than 495.

Add cuda e.g by typing sudo apt install cuda in a shell
followed by at least one hit on TAB, which should show you the available options.

For me (Laptop w 1660 Ti) the 470-version works perfectly.

The "gain" with the very latest may well also show up idiosyncrasies as the one you experienced.

Rermoval: Boot in recovery mode and use apt to remove all nvidia related drivers.

Rerun avatar
cn flag
Thanks, but I did try the 470 version too, via "Additional Drivers" as you suggest, and that caused the same problems. I've used the 470 before, including on this particular machine, but now it messes it up. Uninstalling the drivers didn't bring ethernet back either, unfortunately. 470 and 495 are the ones I have in "Additional Drivers", plus the default X.Org.X Nouveau.
Hannu avatar
ca flag
`dmesg | less` - look for failures, errors, ...
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