1

Ubuntu 16.04 nvidia-304 proprietary driver installed and updated via the Nvidia ppa (for GT 620)

The system was running fine for 6 months but recently broke (not possible to get past login screen) with an nvidia-304 update failing to build. any advice on how to fix this would be very much appreciated

apt purge nvidia* && apt install nvidia-304

.........
[output truncated for clarity]
Loading new nvidia-304-304.137 DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 4.15.0-24-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 4.15.0-24-generic
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.15.0-24-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/make.log for more information.
Setting up nvidia-opencl-icd-304 (304.137-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1) ...
Setting up nvidia-settings (396.24-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-24-generic


tail -20 /var/crash/nvidia-304.0.crash 
      nvl->rc_timer.data = (unsigned long) nv;
                   ^
 cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
 scripts/Makefile.build:332: recipe for target '/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.o' failed
 make[3]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.o] Error 1
 Makefile:1552: recipe for target '_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build' failed
 make[2]: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build] Error 2
 NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
 nvidia.ko failed to build!
 Makefile:261: recipe for target 'module' failed
 make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
 makefile:59: recipe for target 'module' failed
 make: *** [module] Error 2
DKMSKernelVersion: 4.15.0-24-generic
Date: Fri Jul  6 23:06:48 2018
DuplicateSignature: dkms:nvidia-304:304.137-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1:/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3032:5: error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
Package: nvidia-304 304.137-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1
PackageVersion: 304.137-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers-304
Title: nvidia-304 304.137-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1: nvidia-304 kernel module failed to build


tail -20 /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/make.log
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3032:5: error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
     init_timer(&nvl->rc_timer);
     ^
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3033:28: error: assignment from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
     nvl->rc_timer.function = nv_kern_rc_timer;
                            ^
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3034:18: error: ‘struct timer_list’ has no member named ‘data’
     nvl->rc_timer.data = (unsigned long) nv;
                  ^
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
scripts/Makefile.build:332: recipe for target '/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.o' failed
make[3]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.o] Error 1
Makefile:1552: recipe for target '_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build' failed
make[2]: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build] Error 2
NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
nvidia.ko failed to build!
Makefile:261: recipe for target 'module' failed
make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
makefile:59: recipe for target 'module' failed
make: *** [module] Error 2
ezekiel
  • 211

2 Answers2

0

Never did find an answer to this one except that it was a fairly wide-spread issue. Purging the nvidia drivers so as to fall back on the open source nouveau drivers got the system back up and running

ezekiel
  • 211
0

Had similar problems. You need patched drivers for Bionic.

It turns out that that driver is marked EOL for 20.04 fossa.

For NV4x and G7x GPUs use nvidia-304 (304.137) End-Of-Life!

So I recommend also for that if you have graphics card of that family to not to use latest Linux. The latest working for me was kernel 4.15 which comes with Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04. The default kernel if you install 18.04 is 5.4 so it must be downgraded.

Resources for further research was the most helpful here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-304/+bug/1737750

Links helped me a lot

to create my own patched binary. If you need it without going too much into details - it can be found here https://sites.google.com/view/tpanj/files/nvidia-legacy

TadejP
  • 418