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

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 12:44 PM Little Girl <littlergirl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.

Thanks. The steps were not helpful (Step 7 was something I did not try).

I think the kernel folks have things borked. I tried another graphics
card with no joy. The card is the onboard Intel UHD Graphics 630. I
verified the i915 driver is loaded. The problem actually got worse. I
no longer get any output -- just a black screen.

I ordered an AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT to test. If that does not work,
then I guess I will have to tread water until the kernel folks get
things fixed.

Jeff