Score:1

Nvidia drivers disappeared after kernel upgrade

cn flag

I recently did sudo apt upgrade and I think this upgraded my kernel to 5.13.0-27-generic. (I think I also ran sudo apt autoremove.) Since then my graphics have been worse, e.g. windows 'split' when dragging them across the screen, or when scrolling through text, and the cursor is slow to catch up if I have fractional scaling enabled.

I went to check settings in the Nvidia GUI which I'd used previously (I had it set to "High performance mode" or something like that before), but it doesn't come up in Activities. In Software & Updates it is still there with "Continue using a manually installed driver" selected, which I think is the same as before, though underneath it says "No proprietary drivers are in use".

If I run lsmod I don't see anything with Nvidia in the name, but I'm not sure that's relevant; I just read it on another post.

In Synaptic there are hundreds of entries for Nvidia, including ones described as "Linux kernel nvidia modules for version 5.13.0-27".

So where is the GUI and why have the graphics got worse?

Specs: Dell XPS 15 (9510), i7-11800, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050-Ti

Terrance avatar
id flag
That happens when you install the NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA themselves instead of using the Ubuntu NVIDIA drivers that you can get from Additional Drivers in the Settings. NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA lack the DKMS settings to carry over into new Kernel updates.
Judderman88 avatar
cn flag
Thanks @Terrance. They were originally automatically installed when I installed Ubuntu; I didn't install any graphics drivers separately after that, as far as I recall. Anyway, how do I (re-)install the ones from Ubuntu? Under Additional Drivers everything but "Continue using manually installed driver" is greyed out.
Terrance avatar
id flag
I have never tried it before, but if there is something in the `/usr/src/` folder for the NVIDIA drivers that are installed, you could possibly create a `dkms.conf` file and turn the driver into a DKMS version. You will also have to make sure that `dkms` is installed. `sudo apt install dkms` It is the Dynamic Kernel Module Support application. You can always check the status by running `dkms status` and it will show you the non-kernel drivers installed that are using `dkms`
Terrance avatar
id flag
If the `/usr/src/` NVIDIA folder does exist, you could follow these https://askubuntu.com/questions/1333542/realtek-r8168-driver-compile-errors-on-kernel-5-8-0-50-on-20-04-1-lts/1334101#1334101 instructions that are for a RealTek NIC, but the setup would be the same.
Terrance avatar
id flag
If that folder does not exist, then you would have to remove the installed NVIDIA drivers and then install the ones from the Ubuntu repos by running `sudo apt install nvidia-driver-495`
Judderman88 avatar
cn flag
Thanks. I removed it (it was the 460 not 495) and installed the 495, and all seems to be well after rebooting.
Score:2
cn flag

This was answered in the following comment by @Terrance:

Remove the installed NVIDIA drivers and then install the ones from the Ubuntu repos by running sudo apt install nvidia-driver-495.

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