Missing /proc/version_signature file

David Baucum

12/15/23, 8:18 PM

I have a System76 Gazelle laptop running Ubuntu 22.04. I tried to setup Ubuntu Pro, but it always shows the error, An error occurred when checking for Livepatch updates. While troubleshooting this I noticed that the pro command was giving me the error WARNING:root:failed to process /proc/version_signature.

➜  ~ sudo pro status
WARNING:root:failed to process /proc/version_signature.
SERVICE          ENTITLED  STATUS    DESCRIPTION
esm-infra        yes       enabled   Expanded Security Maintenance for Infrastructure
livepatch        yes       enabled   Canonical Livepatch service
realtime-kernel  yes       disabled  Ubuntu kernel with PREEMPT_RT patches integrated

Enable services with: pro enable <service>

     Account: ___@___.___
Subscription: Ubuntu Pro - free personal subscription

Sure enough, this file is missing.

➜  ~ cat /proc/version_signature
cat: /proc/version_signature: No such file or directory

I haven't done any real extreme customization on this machine, like trying to use a custom kernel, so I'm not sure why this file would be missing. Any thoughts on how I can recover this file?

Edit:

uname -r shows that I was running kernel 6.0.6. I switched to 5.15.0 in the grub menu, and now /proc/version_signature is available.

➜  ~ cat /proc/version_signature 
Ubuntu 5.15.0-56.62-generic 5.15.64

I'm not certain why the 6.0 kernel is installed. An identical laptop has kernel 5.15. Attempts to uninstall the 6.0.x kernel wants to uninstall important packages.

➜  ~ sudo apt remove linux-image-6.0.6-76060006-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  amd-ppt-bin at dfu-programmer firmware-manager firmware-manager-notify firmware-manager-shared gnome-shell-extension-system76-power hidpi-daemon linux-headers-6.0.2-76060002
  linux-headers-6.0.2-76060002-generic linux-image-6.0.2-76060002-generic linux-modules-6.0.2-76060002-generic python3-evdev python3-pydbus system76-acpi-dkms system76-dkms system76-firmware-daemon
  system76-io-dkms system76-oled system76-power system76-wallpapers xbacklight
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-generic linux-image-6.0.6-76060006-generic linux-image-generic linux-system76 system76-driver system76-driver-nvidia
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 12.6 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

558

0 + 5

kernel

system76

steeldriver

12/15/23, 8:47 PM

`/proc` is a pseudo-filesystem that exposes kernel parameters so AFAIK `/proc/version_signature` isn't an actual file that you could "recover" - what is the output of command `uname -rvs`?

mook765

12/15/23, 9:03 PM

Please provide the exact command which produced that error. Just `pro` is not helpful here. `pro` gives `usage: pro <command> [flags] Try 'pro --help' for more information.`.

David Baucum

12/15/23, 9:17 PM

@steeldriver ``` ➜ ~ uname -rvs Linux 6.0.6-76060006-generic #202210290932~1669062050~22.04~d94609a~dev-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DY ```

David Baucum

12/15/23, 9:18 PM

@mook765, I have updated my question with an example.

steeldriver

12/15/23, 9:27 PM

@DavidBaucum so I guess system76 uses a non-Ubuntu kernel that doesn't set `CONFIG_VERSION_SIGNATURE` ?

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Missing /proc/version_signature file

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.