5.15.0-113-generic and 6.5.0-41-generic kernels with NVIDIA card lost video

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

Jeffrey Walton wrote:

>After recent kernel updates, I lost video. The machine is dead when
>sitting at the keyboard. I see two or three boot messages and then
>screen output freezes. I cannot switch to a virtual terminal.
>However, I can SSH into the machine.

When you're offered a new kernel and a new NVIDIA driver at the same
time, if the kernel isn't installed before the NVIDIA driver, initrd
doesn't get updated for the latest kernel and that can cause cause a
botched NVIDIA driver installation.

I did a bit of research to see if there's a team that can be
contacted with a suggestion to control the update order when a kernel
and an NVIDIA driver are offered together, but it seems that the
update order can't be controlled at Ubuntu's end.

That means it's up to us. We have two options:

Option 1: 
You can manually uncheck the boxes for the NVIDIA driver in the
update window and do the kernel installation first followed by
checking the boxes for the NVIDIA driver and then doing the NVIDIA
driver installation. The possible drawback to choosing this option is
that if you ignore a prompt to update, Ubuntu will automatically do
the update in the background for you after a period of time, so
unless you're very good about following the prompts, this won't be a
sure thing. Automatic updates are a setting that's on by default, but
can be turned off if you'd prefer to use this option risk-free.

Option 2:
You can live dangerously (like I do) and let the updates install as
they may and when/if the dreaded freeze-on-boot happens, follow these
steps in this order:

1. Manually reboot the computer, occasionally pressing and releasing
the Escape key (or the Shift key for folks who still use BIOS instead
of UEFI) until GRUB opens.

2. Choose the "Advanced" option.

3. Choose either of the safe mode options for making repairs on the
command line or choose the older kernel (not the safe mode) to boot
into the kernel you were using before this happened.

4. Fetch and update the local list of packages from the Ubuntu
repositories:
	sudo apt update

5. Upgrade all packages, intelligently handling dependencies:
	sudo apt full-upgrade

6. Check for broken packages and fix them:
	sudo apt install --fix-broken

7. Update initrd for only the latest kernel, leaving the older
kernel(s) untouched as fall-backs:
	sudo update-initramfs -u

8. Reboot the computer:
	sudo shutdown -r now

I've got those steps on a 3x5 card in a little box on my desk and I
fetch it as a reference whenever this happens.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.