All GPU functionality stops working whenever an updated Nvidia driver is installed and until the system is rebooted
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nvidia-graphics-drivers-525 (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
| nvidia-graphics-drivers-535 (Ubuntu) |
Triaged
|
High
|
Alberto Milone | ||
Bug Description
To reproduce:
1. Install Ubuntu
2. Switch to Nvidia driver
3. Wait
The default for Ubuntu is to install updates automatically in the background. Eventually an updated Nvidia driver will be installed, and then all graphics acceleration stops working for any new programs which are launched. Note that it continues working for anything that was already running.
This results in the following things happening:
1. Any program that requires OpenGL will crash on startup. For example glxgears:
```
X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
Major opcode of failed request: 152 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 3 (X_GLXCreateCon
Value in failed request: 0x0
Serial number of failed request: 36
Current serial number in output stream: 37
```
2. Any program that uses CUDA will fail in a similar way.
3. Programs that can fall back to software rendering will do so. For example, Firefox will start using software rendering, causing it to max out several CPU cores on heavy websites like Discord.
Expected Result:
One of the following:
1. Don't automatically install driver updates in the background.
2. Install them in a way that doesn't prevent them from working until a reboot.
3. Display a message informing the user that the drivers were updated and requesting a reboot.
User Impact
It can be difficult for the user to notice this has happened for the following reasons:
1. There is no notification that the driver has been updated.
2. Most software will fall back to software rendering and just run slowly for no obvious reason.
3. Any software that was already running before the update will continue working properly.
So then the user gets left with a system that runs really slowly until they notice there is a problem because a program won't run, or they happened to notice that Firefox is using 500% CPU. This may be some time after the driver was updated. It is difficult for the user to work out that they need to reboot.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.04
Package: nvidia-driver-525 525.116.
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 6.2.0-20-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelMo
ApportVersion: 2.26.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckR
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Jun 18 02:44:05 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-06-01 (16 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" - Release amd64 (20230414.2)
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: nvidia-
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
| Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton) wrote | #1 |
| Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton) wrote | #2 |
| Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote | #3 |
| Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton) wrote | #4 |
| Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote | #5 |
| Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton) wrote | #6 |
| Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote | #7 |
| Changed in nvidia-graphics-drivers-525 (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | New → Confirmed |
| Changed in nvidia-graphics-drivers-535 (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | New → Confirmed |
| Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote | #9 |
| Changed in nvidia-graphics-drivers-535 (Ubuntu): | |
| status: | Confirmed → Triaged |
| importance: | Undecided → High |
| assignee: | nobody → Alberto Milone (albertomilone) |
Note this is also a regression: it never used to happen on eg 18.04 and earlier, and started happening somewhere around 20.04.