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I recently got an XPS 13 DE that comes with Ubuntu 14.04 and kernel 3.13. There are some issues with the touchpad and some other components that can be resolved by upgrading your kernel and moving to 15.04 so that is what I am trying to do.

I followed the standard procedure for dist-upgrade:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
do-release-upgrade

The first three steps completed successfully but the do-release-upgrade step failed with some errors I am not sure how to resolve: 

Error!  The dkms.conf for this module includes a BUILD_EXCLUSIVE directive which
does not match this kernel/arch.  This indicates that it should not be built.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.16.0-37-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-37-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-37-generic
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/casper-memdisk failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-37-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic.postinst line 1025.
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-extra-3.16.0-37-generic:
 linux-image-extra-3.16.0-37-generic depends on linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-extra-3.16.0-37-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.16.0.37.38); however:
  Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu8) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-52-generic
E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/casper-memdisk failed with return 1.
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-52-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-image-extra-3.16.0-37-generic
 linux-generic
 initramfs-tools

Upgrade complete 

The upgrade has completed but there were errors during the upgrade 
process. 

To continue please press [ENTER]

How can I resolve this? Would it be easier to just make a 15.04 live usb?

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  • What is the output of dkms status?
    – s3lph
    May 16, 2015 at 15:16
  • @the_Seppi bcmwl, 6.30.223.248+bdcom, 3.13.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed bcmwl, 6.30.223.248+bdcom, 3.16.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed oem-audio-hda-daily, 0.1, 3.13.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed oem-audio-hda-daily, 0.1, 3.13.0-52-generic, x86_64: installed
    – Hunter McMillen
    May 16, 2015 at 15:17
  • What module failed to build ? You can try editing dkms.conf and comment out (add a # at the start of the line) "BUILD_EXCLUSIVE" and run sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
    – Panther
    May 16, 2015 at 15:17
  • also dist-upgrade is not an upgrade to a new version of ubuntu, see man apt-get
    – Panther
    May 16, 2015 at 15:19
  • @bodhi.zazen It looks like the process failed when the update-initramfs step was executing
    – Hunter McMillen
    May 16, 2015 at 15:19

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

While the statement that 14.04 -> 15.04 is not directly possible is of course true, it does not help with the specific case:

Dell's XPS 13 and M3800 cannot be upgraded from 14.04 -> 14.10 either. The reason seems to be that some dpkg.conf files of the factory-installed version have a build exclusive flag: e.g. var/lib/dkms/oem-audio-hda-daily/0.201408221216~ubuntu14.04.1/build/dkms.conf -> BUILD_EXCLUSIVE_KERNEL="^3.13.*"

Update: The follwing works - remove the problematic dkms packages, then reinstall the kernel: 

sudo dpkg -P oem-audio-hda-daily-dkms
sudo dpkg -P casper-memdisk
sudo apt-get install -f linux-image-3.19.0-20-generic
sudo update-grub
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3
  • I just did a fresh install of 15.04 and upgraded to kernel 4.0rc1. After that everything works for the most part. Still have occasional kernel panics. Planning to move to Debian or Fedora in the near future however.
    – Hunter McMillen
    Jun 12, 2015 at 17:30
  • 2
    @Bachi Sir, you saved my day!
    – Arush Salil
    Dec 14, 2016 at 20:25
  • 1
    This is the solution I was needing! Man, I'm so glad to see this answer and to see my problem just being solved right now!
    – tdmsoares
    Feb 24, 2019 at 4:05
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It is not possible to upgrade directly from 14.04 to 15.04. These days a lot of people think that 15.04 is LTS.

And it looks like the system does something wrong on these attempts.

You can upgrade from 14.04 to 14.10, then to 15.04. Or just make a fresh install.

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3
  • well I didn't choose to release to upgrade to, so this is probably trying to go to 14.10 then. I didn't know there was another release between them.
    – Hunter McMillen
    May 16, 2015 at 15:14
  • It is not a good idea to upgrade from LTS to non-LTS, if there is no a special reason for that.
    – Pilot6
    May 16, 2015 at 15:15
  • fair enough, Ill make a live usb and fresh install. Thanks for the help
    – Hunter McMillen
    May 16, 2015 at 15:16

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