'ubuntu-drivers --gpgpu install' installs a lot of unnecessary packages, including a full desktop environment on Ubuntu Server

gdm3 is being pulled in via a "Recommends" chain. Disabling recommends will avoid it[*].
On my groovy system it reduced new packages installed from 452/291MB of archives to 56/165MB of archives. Seems like the right thing to do for at least --gpgpu installs - but maybe for all?

[*]
--- /usr/bin/ubuntu-drivers.orig 2020-07-29 15:24:08.000000000 +0000
+++ /usr/bin/ubuntu-drivers 2020-10-06 19:18:53.208559657 +0000
@@ -155,7 +155,8 @@
         return

     ret = subprocess.call(['apt-get', 'install', '-o',
- 'DPkg::options::=--force-confnew', '-y'] + to_install)
+ 'DPkg::options::=--force-confnew', '-y',
+ '--no-install-recommends'] + to_install)

     oem_meta_to_install = fnmatch.filter(to_install, 'oem-*-meta')

+1 Dann's suggestion works great when manually installing the packages via apt.

I am fine with Dann's suggestion, but that should be applied to the install_gpgpu() function.

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-drivers-common - 1:0.8.7

---------------
ubuntu-drivers-common (1:0.8.7) hirsute; urgency=medium

  * ubuntu-drivers:
    - Do not install recommended dependencies when calling
      "install --gpgpu" (LP: #1898601). The whole point of
      having --gpgpu was to reduce the amount of the
      installed dependencies.

 -- Alberto Milone <email address hidden> Tue, 23 Mar 2021 16:14:36 +0100

When can this be finally pulled back at least as far as Focal? We are not going to be doing nVidia testing on Bionic, so that task can be dropped I think, unless it's worthwhile, but for Focal - Hirsute, this would be very helpful to cut down on the amount of stuff being installed, as well as speed up installation time.

dpuble post

SRU team, please accept ubuntu-drivers-common 0.9.0~0.21.04.1, 0.9.0~0.20.10.1, 0.9.0~0.20.04.1, and 0.9.0~0.18.04.1 into -proposed.

Hello Jeff, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-drivers-common into groovy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-drivers-common/1:0.9.0~0.20.10.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-groovy to verification-done-groovy. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-groovy. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

Hello Jeff, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-drivers-common into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-drivers-common/1:0.9.0~0.20.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

Hello Jeff, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-drivers-common into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-drivers-common/1:0.9.0~0.18.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

Hello Jeff, or anyone else affected,

Accepted ubuntu-drivers-common into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-drivers-common/1:0.9.0~0.18.04.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

The verification of the Stable Release Update for ubuntu-drivers-common has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-drivers-common - 1:0.9.0~0.20.04.1

---------------
ubuntu-drivers-common (1:0.9.0~0.20.04.1) focal; urgency=medium

  [ Alberto Milone ]
  * gpu-manager.c:
    - Make sure to also search the signed modules (LP: #1931514).
      Credit goes to Bin Li for the first version of this patch.
  * debian/tests/control:
    - Add dependency on alsa-utils, since the autopkgtest requires it
      for the sl-modem detection plugin.
  * ubuntu-drivers:
    - Do not install recommended dependencies when calling
      "install --gpgpu" (LP: #1898601). The whole point of
      having --gpgpu was to reduce the amount of the
      installed dependencies.

  [ Michael Hudson-Doyle ]
  * debian/control:
    - Drop dependency on alsa-utils as we want to start using ubuntu-drivers in
      the server installer but do not want alsa-utils there. The code using
      aplay to detect certain kinds of modem will fail to detect them if aplay
      is not installed but will not crash. As alsa-utils is in the
      desktop-common seed there should be no loss of functionality anywhere
      ubuntu-drivers is used today.

 -- Alberto Milone <email address hidden> Thu, 24 Jun 2021 16:22:54 +0200

Tested Bionic, and the spirit of this bug is resolved, I think? However, it couldn't be completely verified since ubuntu-drivers doesn't install the -server package when --gpgpu is being called:

This is gpgpu mode
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libfontenc1 libice6 libjansson4 libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-common-460
  libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460 libnvidia-encode-460
  libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460 libnvidia-ifr1-460
  libsm6 libvdpau1 libxaw7 libxfont2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxnvctrl0 libxpm4
  libxt6 mesa-vdpau-drivers nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460
  nvidia-kernel-source-460 nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-460
  pkg-config policykit-1-gnome screen-resolution-extra vdpau-driver-all
  x11-xkb-utils xfonts-base xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils xserver-common
  xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
Suggested packages:
  libvdpau-va-gl1 nvidia-vdpau-driver nvidia-legacy-340xx-vdpau-driver xfs
  | xserver xfonts-100dpi | xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable
Recommended packages:
  libnvidia-compute-460:i386 libnvidia-decode-460:i386
  libnvidia-encode-460:i386 libnvidia-ifr1-460:i386 libnvidia-fbc1-460:i386
  libnvidia-gl-460:i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libfontenc1 libice6 libjansson4 libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-common-460
  libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460 libnvidia-encode-460
  libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460 libnvidia-ifr1-460
  libsm6 libvdpau1 libxaw7 libxfont2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxnvctrl0 libxpm4
  libxt6 mesa-vdpau-drivers nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-dkms-460
  nvidia-driver-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460 nvidia-kernel-source-460
  nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-460 pkg-config policykit-1-gnome
  screen-resolution-extra vdpau-driver-all x11-xkb-utils xfonts-base
  xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils xserver-common xserver-xorg-core-hwe-18.04
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
0 upgraded, 41 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

I'm not sure if that is correct. When I install manually, I look for these:
linux-modules-nvidia-$NVDRV_MJR_VER-server-generic nvidia-kernel-common-$NVDRV_MJR_VER-server datacenter-gpu-manager libnvidia-nscq-$NVDRV_MJR_VER ca-certificates curl software-properties-common nvidia-container-toolkit nvidia-docker2 unzip libgfortran4 swig autotools-dev bison gfortran automake libnl-route-3-200 quilt tcl tk libnl-route-3-dev chrpath m4 debhelper dpatch libltdl-dev libnl-3-dev graphviz flex autoconf sosreport nvidia-utils-$NVDRV_MJR_VER-server nvidia-compute-utils-$NVDRV_MJR_VER-server libnvidia-cfg1-$NVDRV_MJR_VER-server

which is the minimal set to run the nVidia GPGPU tests. What I don't see being installed on Bionic when I run 'ubuntu-drivers --gpgpu install' is the -server package. I haven't run this on Bionic in ages, but ISTR previously it DID install the -server package. I'm not sure if the *compute* packages installed are being pulled in due to a -server package, or because --gpgpu was called.

Groovy:
$ ubuntu-drivers --gpgpu list
This is gpgpu mode
ERROR:root:could not open aplay -l
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/detect/sl-modem.py", line 35, in detect
    aplay = subprocess.Popen(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'aplay'
nvidia-driver-460-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-460-server-generic)
nvidia-driver-460, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-460-generic)
nvidia-driver-450-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-450-server-generic)

This is gpgpu mode
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libfontenc1 libice6 libjansson4 libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-common-460
  libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460 libnvidia-encode-460
  libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460 libnvidia-ifr1-460
  libsm6 libvdpau1 libxaw7 libxfont2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxpm4 libxt6
  linux-image-5.8.0-61-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-61-generic
  linux-modules-nvidia-460-5.8.0-61-generic
  linux-objects-nvidia-460-5.8.0-61-generic
  linux-signatures-nvidia-5.8.0-61-generic mesa-vdpau-drivers
  nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460 nvidia-kernel-source-460
  nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-460 pkg-config policykit-1-gnome
  screen-resolution-extra vdpau-driver-all x11-xkb-utils xfonts-base
  xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils xserver-common xserver-xorg-core
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
Suggested packages:
  fdutils linux-doc | linux-source-5.8.0 linux-tools
  linux-headers-5.8.0-61-generic libvdpau-va-gl1 xfs | xserver xfonts-100dpi
  | xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable
Recommended packages:
  libnvidia-compute-460:i386 libnvidia-decode-460:i386
  libnvidia-encode-460:i386 libnvidia-ifr1-460:i386 libnvidia-fbc1-460:i386
  libnvidia-gl-460:i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libfontenc1 libice6 libjansson4 libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-common-460
  libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460 libnvidia-encode-460
  libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460 libnvidia-ifr1-460
  libsm6 libvdpau1 libxaw7 libxfont2 libxkbfile1 libxmu6 libxpm4 libxt6
  linux-image-5.8.0-61-generic linux-modules-5.8.0-61-generic
  linux-modules-nvidia-460-5.8.0-61-generic linux-modules-nvidia-460-generic
  linux-objects-nvidia-460-5.8.0-61-generic
  linux-signatures-nvidia-5.8.0-61-generic mesa-vdpau-drivers
  nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-driver-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460
  nvidia-kernel-source-460 nvidia-prime nvidia-settings nvidia-utils-460
  pkg-config policykit-1-gnome screen-resolution-extra vdpau-driver-all
  x11-xkb-utils xfonts-base xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils xserver-common
  xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
0 upgraded, 45 newly installed, 0 to remove and 38 not upgraded.

Also on Groovy, trying to install the -server package fails:
$ ubuntu-drivers --gpgpu list
This is gpgpu mode
ERROR:root:could not open aplay -l
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/detect/sl-modem.py", line 35, in detect
    aplay = subprocess.Popen(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'aplay'
nvidia-driver-460-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-460-server-generic)
nvidia-driver-460, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-460-generic)
nvidia-driver-450-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-450-server-generic)
ubuntu@torchtusk:~$ sudo ubuntu-drivers --gpgpu install nvidia-driver-460-server |tee -a install-server.log
This is gpgpu mode
ERROR:root:could not open aplay -l
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/detect/sl-modem.py", line 35, in detect
    aplay = subprocess.Popen(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 854, in __init__
    self._execute_child(args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/subprocess.py", line 1702, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'aplay'
No drivers found for installation.

@Jeff

The error that you see in groovy, which you can safely ignore, is because of the missing aplay.

What's the output of the following command for both bionic and groovy, please?

ubuntu-drivers debug

The Groovy Gorilla has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release

The version of ubuntu-drivers-common in the proposed pocket of Bionic that was purported to fix this bug report has been removed because the bugs that were to be fixed by the upload were not verified in a timely (105 days) fashion.

Added Hirsute before I realized it is fixed in Hirsute:

 ubuntu-drivers-common | 1:0.9.0~0.21.04.1 | hirsute-updates | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x

So I just set it to fix-released for H as well, ignore me.

I see there is a new upload of ubuntu-drivers-common fixing this bug in bionic-unapproved. The last version sat in bionic-proposed for 105 days without being verified for release into bionic-updates.

The package in bionic-unapproved looks fine to accept, but is there someone in charge of organising testing for it?

An upload of ubuntu-drivers-common to bionic-proposed has been rejected from the upload queue for the following reason: "It doesn't seem like there is any interested in testing or organizing testing of this update. If someone turns up we can always accept the package from the rejected queue.".