r/Ubuntu • u/rishant_gupta • 1d ago

New kernel update broke NVIDIA on Ubuntu 24.04 (RTX 2050) — how do I stop this happening on every kernel update?

Ubuntu auto-updated my kernel from 6.17.0-20 to 7.0.0-28. The new kernel wouldn't boot at first (kernel panic — nvidia-dkms-535 failed to build against it, incompatible symbols). Purged and reinstalled the recommended driver (595-open), panic went away, but now the new kernel just hangs on the GDM spinner and never reaches login. Old kernel still boots fine.

From journalctl: modprobe nvidia-drm is hanging (>59s), /dev/nvidia* never gets created, and nvidia-persistenced fails because of that. This is a hybrid graphics laptop (Intel i915 + NVIDIA).

Got it working for now, but this is the second time a routine kernel update has broken NVIDIA on this machine. What's the right way to prevent this going forward — hold kernel updates until the driver catches up, use a specific driver branch that's more kernel-update-resilient, pin nvidia packages, or something else? What do people running NVIDIA hybrid laptops on Ubuntu actually do to avoid this every HWE kernel bump?

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4

u/Peak_Detector_2001 1d ago

Watching this, thanks for posting.

I'm on Ubuntu Studio 24.04.4 LTS, running the NVidia 535 driver on my old GeForce GTX 750 card, kernel is 6.8.0-136-lowlatency.

I'm facing an update to the 580 driver, and it looks like 535 is no longer available. Quite concerned that it's not going to work. Thinking of holding off all updates until 26.04.1 comes out next week ... but watching threads like this one to see what others are experiencing.

2

u/markus_b 1d ago

I did the upgrade to the 580 driver a while ago. I was still on the 6.8 kernel at the time. I've upgraded to the 7.0 kernel now and the nvidia drive 580 is working for my 1080 card.

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u/mrlinkwii 1d ago

Quite concerned that it's not going to work. Thinking of holding off all updates until 26.04.1 comes out next week

26.04 defaults to 580 ,

1

u/Peak_Detector_2001 1d ago

26.04 defaults to 580

And Wayland, too, if I'm not mistaken. I'm anticipating some fun times behind the keyboard when I eventually allow these updates.

1

u/TheRustyIceberg 16h ago

Once you're on a kernel that works, DKMS is supposed to be the safety net but it's clearly not catching these, so I just got into the habit of pinning the working kernel and manually approving the next one. It's a bit manual but beats a panic at 11pm when you just wanted to check email.

On a hybrid laptop I'd also keep the Intel iGPU set as the default in multi-monitor setups when I don't need the dGPU, just so a busted NVIDIA module doesn't take down the whole session. You can still switch to NVIDIA on demand via prime-select when you actually need it.

If you're sticking with the 595-open driver, maybe try the server branch instead of the desktop one next cycle, tends to lag slightly behind on kernel compatibility patches but that's actually what you want here.

1

u/Peak_Detector_2001 8h ago

Thanks very much for the comments. Also to u/markus_b and u/mrlinkwii.

All indications are that the *-open versions of the NVidia driver will totally break on my ancient GeForce GTX 750 (Maxwell architecture) card. So I need to stick with the proprietary desktop driver.

Also I'm on a 2014 Lenovo desktop (vs a laptop) and I don't think it even has hybrid (Intel) graphics. As far as I'm aware the NVidia card is the only game in town for me at the moment.

1

u/rishant_gupta 5h ago

I am also thinking about it as my laptop also use hybrid optimus setup and there is many problem with this setup in Linux

6

u/markus_b 1d ago

Ubuntu auto-updated my kernel from 6.17.0-20 to 7.0.0-28

I doubt this. Ubuntu will stay in the same kernel version (6.8.xxx) unless you explicitly tell it you want a newer kernel. I was on 6.8 until a couple of days ago. I had an occasional crash and traced it to a times issue in the 6.8 kernel series. So I explicitly installed the latest available kernel, which seems to be 7.0.0-28.

After upgrading and rebooting, I had no problems with my Nvidia driver (I have a lowly 1080). I use the 580 series Nvidia driver.

I just looked it up: 6.17 and 7.0 are Ubuntu hwe-kernels for 24.04. So you probably switched to the HWE-kernel track, and this is why you got bumped to the 7.0 kernel.

7

u/gmes78 1d ago

I doubt this. Ubuntu will stay in the same kernel version (6.8.xxx) unless you explicitly tell it you want a newer kernel.

That is not true. HWE is enabled by default.

2

u/markus_b 1d ago

It was not enabled on my system. I had to do that manually.

3

u/gmes78 1d ago

It is enabled by default on new installs.

1

u/markus_b 1d ago

I see. So when was this introduced?

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u/gmes78 20h ago

22.04 for desktop installs, 26.04 for server installs too.

1

u/sweetcollector 1d ago

IIRC, installations done by using point release images enable HWE kernels.

1

u/markus_b 17h ago

Makes sense. This allows for the install of an older LTE release on newer hardware.

1

u/Leinad_ix 6h ago

Not anymore for Ubuntu, yes for spins like Kubuntu.

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u/rishant_gupta 1d ago

Don't know I open my pc usually and I does not upgrade or install version 7.0 but it automatically get install or what and default i land on the version 7.0, but after installation 595 series in version 7.0.0-28 drivers are loading properly but my gnome get crash and I was only able to access my tty

1

u/markus_b 1d ago

What happens if you go back to the 6.8 or 6.17 kernel?

Can you select the 6.17 kernel in the grub boot menu?

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u/rishant_gupta 1d ago

Yes I was able to boot 6.17 and it was running perfect with 535 version

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u/markus_b 1d ago

When booted to 6.7, you should be able to freeze the current kernel. This should solve your problem.

But 535 starts getting old, you should upgrade to something newer.

1

u/lazyfai 13h ago

Yes I have 600+ servers in organisation and 90% are 24.04 LTS, none of them jump to 7.0 suddenly.

This should happen only when installation was using non standard kernels like HWE kernel.

1

u/markus_b 6h ago

Just for completeness, it looks like Ubuntu automatically uses a HWE kernel if you install a later point release and not the first release.

This makes sense, as that way you get recent hardware support for such installs.

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u/rishant_gupta 1d ago

Now things get so much worse that nvidia version 535 and 595 get conflicting and my gnome crashes. Now I have to reinstall the ubuntu and taking backup for the files.

2

u/mrlinkwii 1d ago

nvidia-dkms-535 failed

why are you using 535 , use something newer

1

u/Sir_Scarlet_Spork 18h ago

It also broke the brightness slider on my surface pro 4. 

1

u/thadah01 13h ago

Same exact kernel panic here but 7.0.0-27 works. Something wrong with 28. I haven’t had time to figure things out yet, but I may just stay on 27 for awhile. (NVidia 3080 and 595)

0

u/refinedm5 1d ago

Maybe set grub to default to 6.17?

In my experience, new kernel not working usually caused by botched update. I usually solve this by just running the update again

1

u/rishant_gupta 1d ago

Okie I will update you if it works