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Picture of trying to update

I tried to update my Debian system like normal, and one of the updates was for the kernel, from 6.1.0-17 to 6.1.0-18. However, it seems like there is some incompatibility with the most recent nvidia driver for my card (GTX 1050 (mobile ver.), driver ver. 535) and the most recent kernel.

So, what I tried to do was hold the update by

sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-6.1.0-18 linux-headers-6.1.0-18

By then though, it had already done a somewhat complete install. But, from what I understood, it did so by doing something to the nvidia drivers to make them stop working. I confirmed this by putting down:

nvidia-smi

and got nothing back. So, I went to the Debian repository and installed an earlier version of the driver:525 (doing so automatically deleted 535). This seemed to fix things for a while, as I used:

sudo apt update

and it showed no further problems. Until I tried to install something, and it popped up a new error with something called dracut. I know dracut is some part of the kernel, but I can't make heads or tails of this error. I do know it relates to the nvidia drivers, as it said so in the error. What do I do about this, I am afraid to restart my computer?

AdminBee
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Yellow Elite
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  • https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/linux-6-7-3-545-29-06-550-40-07-error-modpost-gpl-incompatible-module-nvidia-ko-uses-gpl-only-symbol-rcu-read-lock/280908 – Artem S. Tashkinov Feb 19 '24 at 20:48
  • Is this your issue? The answer there may help... – eyoung100 Feb 19 '24 at 22:31
  • eyoung100: thank you for putting down that link, as it was related to my issue. The reason dracut was throwing an error was that there was leftovers from kernel 6.1.0-17, as I fixed it by removing that leftover kernel with: sudo apt-get remove linux-image-6.1.0-17-amd64. I think this happened due to both the incompatibility and my holding of the update meant that it didn't tidy up the new kernel install, and dracut was still detecting that there was kernel 6.1.0-17, and then threw an error when it couldn't find the rest. – Yellow Elite Feb 19 '24 at 23:19
  • @YellowElite I thought that might be the case. Glad I could help. Would you mind writing your own answer because I saw your comment late. You'll gain experience in writing correct answers, and learn what this site is about. Be sure to document what you did (commands etc) in that answer. Welcome to the Exchange! – eyoung100 Feb 29 '24 at 18:45

1 Answers1

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The reason dracut was having a problem with the previous Linux kernel 6.1.0-17 was because there were remnants of that kernel still left in the OS. What I believed to happen was that the incompatibility of the new kernel 6.1.0-18 with the NVIDIA graphics driver that I had installed caused it to throw errors about it. I also think that my holding of the update with the command:

sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-6.1.0-18 linux-headers-6.1.0-18

actually stopped the system from deleting the remaining pieces of the previous kernel. And because of that, dracut would still detect the previous kernel, and it would throw an error when it couldn't find the rest.

The command used to delete the remaining kernel was

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-6.1.0-17-amd64

TLDR: the incompatibilities of the latest kernel available to Debian with NVIDIA drivers caused it to throw errors, and those errors left remnants of the old kernel. So, whenever trying to update the system, dracut detected the old kernel and threw errors. The solution is to delete those remnants of that old kernel.

BlueManCZ
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Yellow Elite
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