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A while back I set up an installation of Ubuntu 14.04.1. Part of this process, I installed Nvidia drivers from the Ubuntu Software Center. Everything went ok and I never thought anything about it until recently when I've noticed that I wasn't receiving kernel updates when running apt-get dist-upgrade.

After carrying out some investigation it seemed that I didn't have the linux-generic meta package installed. When I looked into the logs to see when it was removed, it was removed when the Nvidia drivers were installed.

Start-Date: 2014-09-21  11:56:30
Commandline: aptdaemon role='role-commit-packages' sender=':1.63'
Install: fakeroot:amd64 (1.20-3ubuntu2, automatic), screen-resolution-
extra:amd64 (0.17.1, automatic), lib32gcc1:amd64 (4.9.1-0ubuntu1, 
automatic), dkms:amd64 (2.2.0.3-1.1ubuntu5, automatic), 
libcuda1-331:amd64 (331.38-0ubuntu7.1, automatic), nvidia-settings:amd64 
(331.20-0ubuntu8, automatic), nvidia-331:amd64 (331.38-0ubuntu7.1), 
nvidia-libopencl1-331:amd64 (331.38-0ubuntu7.1, automatic), bbswitch-
dkms:amd64 (0.7-2ubuntu1, automatic), nvidia-opencl-icd-331:amd64 
(331.38-0ubuntu7.1, automatic), libfakeroot:amd64 (1.20-3ubuntu2, 
automatic), nvidia-prime:amd64 (0.6.2, automatic), libc6-i386:amd64 
(2.19-0ubuntu6.3, automatic), libvdpau1:amd64 (0.7-1, automatic)
Remove: linux-generic:amd64 (3.13.0.35.42)
End-Date: 2014-09-21  11:57:24

On my work's computer with an almost identical setup the same thing occurred. I was missing the linux-generic package as it was uninstalled when the Nvidia drivers were installed and I couldn't update the kernal. The only difference regarding installing the drivers between the two was on my work's machine I installed the drivers manually through apt.

Is it normal for this package to be removed when installing Nvidia drivers and can I simply install it again or will it have any negative side effects?

Regards, Ian

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6
  • 1
    can you show the outputs of uname -a and lsb_release -d please.
    – JoKeR
    May 5, 2015 at 9:47
  • 1
    you could also run dpkg -l | grep linux-image to see your installed kernel(s) you should have version 3.13.0.51.58 listed
    – mchid
    May 5, 2015 at 9:58
  • @JoKeR On my work's PC Linux desktop 3.13.0-36-generic #63-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 3 21:30:07 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux and Description: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS. My home PC has the up to date kernals installed as I have already manually reinstalled linux-generic.
    – IanCaunce
    May 5, 2015 at 10:07
  • @mchid Again on my work's pc linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic linux-image-3.13.0-36-generic linux-image-extra-3.13.0-32-generic linux-image-extra-3.13.0-36-generic
    – IanCaunce
    May 5, 2015 at 10:10
  • you seem to be running an old version of kernel on 14.04.2 by default it ships with 3.16.0.30 what does apt-cache policy linux-image-`uname -r`` tell you? remove one upper coma (apostr) at the end of uname -r
    – JoKeR
    May 5, 2015 at 10:22

1 Answer 1

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That's probably just an older version of linux-generic that was updated then. The newest version is 3.13.0.51.58 and the one that was uninstalled was 3.13.0.35.42.

Run the following commands in an open terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic

It will probably say something like "newest version is already installed". If not, you will see a list of what will install and what will uninstall if you install the package. Review this list before accepting the changes.

ALSO

You can always check to see what is installed by running the following command:

dpkg -l | grep linux-image

or

dpkg -l | grep generic

and so on.

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6
  • After running those commands it wants to install the latest version of the kernal as expected. It seems that both sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic were removed previously when i run apt-get autoremove. Why would it remove these packages if the system relies on them to upgrade its kernal?
    – IanCaunce
    May 5, 2015 at 10:36
  • @IanCaunce IDK, it really shouldn't have but that doesn't even necessarily even mean they are not installed or uninstalled . . . really, how would you even be running right now without a kernel? Are you aware that you must run sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to do kernel updates? Running sudo apt-get upgrade does not do kernel updates.
    – mchid
    May 5, 2015 at 13:17
  • Yeah, I am aware and as far as I know the packages listed above are meta packages which always depend on the latest kernel so if they are missing/uninstalled I wont receive updates and the kernel will be locked at its current version.
    – IanCaunce
    May 5, 2015 at 13:47
  • @IanCaunce you're correct. Also, I checked into the linux-generic meta package and it depends on the two packages here (linux-image-generic & linux-headers-generic) which are both also metapackages. I could be wrong but I believe it is safe to install linux-generic as linux-image-generic and linux-headers-generic will remain installed which probably why autoremove would remove it. As long as those two other meta packages are installed, you should still get your kernel updates. Now, if those two got uninstalled that would be an issue and I believe that is not normally supposed to happen.
    – mchid
    May 5, 2015 at 16:04
  • Yeah not sure what is happening to be honest. On both my work & dev machines, linux-generic were removed when installing the nvidia drivers via the software center and the linux-image-generic and linux-headers-generic where removed when running apt-get autoremove
    – IanCaunce
    May 5, 2015 at 17:09

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