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fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

Every time I upgrade the kernel with a pacman -Syu it breaks the nvidia module

The error is along the lines of The kernel module is nvidia 295.3 but the software is 295.4

The nvidia pacman module installed is updated to nvidia 295.4 so I don't understand what is happening.

I have to go to single user mode, rmmod nvidia, go back to init 5 and the pc starts in graphics mode with the 295.4 nvidia module loaded.

I can see from various posts that this is a known problem, but I cannot see the solution.

Please help

Andrew

mrunion

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From: Jonesborough, TN

Registered: 2007-01-26

Posts: 1,938

Website

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

Have you ever installed the nVidia drivers WITHOUT using pacman? I assume your Kernel is not custom-built or something, right?

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Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

No, I ALWAYS use pacman

Andrew

jasonwryan

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From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

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Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

Do you reboot after kernel upgrades?

FWIW: I have no issues on x64...

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Blµb

Member

Registered: 2008-02-10

Posts: 224

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

I(...)
The error is along the lines of The kernel module is nvidia 295.3 but the software is 295.4

The nvidia pacman module installed is updated to nvidia 295.4 so I don't understand what is happening.

I have to go to single user mode, rmmod nvidia, go back to init 5 and the pc starts in graphics mode with the 295.4 nvidia module loaded.
(...)

The nvidia driver is split into 2 packages: The kernel module (`nvidia' package), and the libraries (xorg modules, vdpau, libGL, libGLX, in the `nvidia-utils' package).
The libraries from `nvidia-utils' always expect their version of the kernel-module to be loaded.
So when both `nvidia' and `nvidia-utils' are updated, both the new libraries, and the new module will be in place.
So when you start a program, the new libraries are used, but the kernel module will not be reloaded.

The kernel module cannot be reloaded for example while you are in X, since X is using it.
So yes, you have to close X, then `rmmod nvidia; modprobe nvidia', then start X again.

In newer windows versions when you update the driver, and you don't have to reboot, the screen at least goes black for a second or two while the graphical components are being restarted. This is essentially the same, except windows now seems to store and reload the graphical state of programs. (Except for openGL programs I suppose - haven't tried).
X however doesn't have this feature - though there are screen/tmux-like tools for X available which would allow you to reattach to a previously running X client...
I think it's called `xpra' (google for: xpra screen for x11)

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fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

Thanks for the explanation, but it does not seem to get me any further. The exact error is:

ERROR: API mismatch: the NVIDIA kernel module has version 295.33, but this NVIDIA driver component has version 295.40. Please make sure that the kernel module and all NVIDIA driver components have the same version.

Installed through pacman are:

nvidia                   295.40-2
nvidia-utils           295.40-1
lib32-nvidia-utils   295.40-1

so I have no idea why I get the mismatch error

Andrew

fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

I have downgraded to 295.33 for the moment, but it would be nice to have an answer

Andrew

skunktrader

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-02-14

Posts: 1,680

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

Did you try rebuilding the initramfs image after rebooting after updating?

Last edited by skunktrader (2012-04-20 10:53:38)

fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

No, I could try that, I will let you know

Andrew

fdservices

Member

From: France

Registered: 2012-02-06

Posts: 413

Re: Kernel upgrade breaks Nividia

That was the problem then, rebuilding the initramfs images built in the new nvidia drivers. I have the line MODULES="nvidia" in my mkinitcpio.conf.

Now I thought that the initramfs images were rebuilt after each kernel upgrade automatically. I suppose I must be wrong. No, I checked, may be it is the order that the updates were applied.

Andrew