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I am running Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 (upgraded a few months ago from 20.04) on a circa-2011 MacBook Pro. (CLARIFICATION: The problem seems unrelated to the upgrade from 20.04 to 22.04 ... I've been on 22.04 for several months now before the problem came up...)

An automatic update over this past weekend seems to be the proximate cause for the boot issue. With the default boot sequence, I see the usual graphical Ubuntu logo for a bit followed by the list of services loading. After a few seconds, I end up on a black screen with only a blinking cursor and no login prompt. If I press Ctrl+Alt+F3, I get a VT where I can login.

I did some investigating from this terminal, and the key issue seems to be this:

sudo systemctl status gdm

...

modprobe: FATAL: Module nvidia not found in directory /lib/modules/6.5.0-21-generic

This thread seems to be about a similar issue:

Syslog error: "modprobe: FATAL: Module nvidia not found in directory /lib/modules/5.15.0-37-generic"

The Nvidia driver that has been working for the past 2 years (since I first installed Ubuntu on this machine) is 390. However, when I tried to run:

apt install linux-modules-nvidia-390-6.5.0-21-generic

I get this:

E: Unable to locate package linux-modules-nvidia-390-6.5.0-21-generic

One thing of importance: I can use the GRUB menu to boot using a 5.15.xxx Kernel, and there are no issues. I'm able to boot into the graphical UI normally, and it recognizes the external monitors normally (they are connected via a multi-hub that connects to the MacBook Pro with MiniDisplayport). The GRUB "Advanced" menu currently offers 5.15.0-97-generic (which based on the logs, was also installed with the updates this past weekend) and 5.15.0-91-generic. Either of these options seems to boot without issue.

Using kernel 5.15.xxx seems like a decent temporary work-around. But I'm concerned if Nvidia won't be providing a 390 driver for the Linux kernel 6.x ... will I be running up against planned obsolescence of the proprietary Nvidia driver? Without access to the source code, I don't suppose there is any way to port the driver for the 5.15 linux kernel to a 6.5+ kernel?

billyjoepiano
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    Your details to me are a little unclear; the 5.15 kernel stack is the GA kernel stack for 22.04 and HWE stack for 20.04. Were you booting the 5.15 when using 20.04 (focal) or 22.04 (jammy)? as if it was with 22.04 the fix will be just to remain on the GA kernel stack. You mention upgrade was months ago (where 20.04 GA was 5.4 would upgrade to 22.04 GA which is 5.15, but 20.04 HWE would have been 5.15 so would have upgraded to 22.04 HWE 6.2 and not 5.15) so what upgraded? You can use the GA kernel stack on 22.04 - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack – guiverc Feb 26 '24 at 21:28
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    I have read that the 390 drivers won't work with 6.0 and above. If your Nvidia is a older gpu, you will have to upgrade it, or downgrade the driver and kernel. https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/390-154-driver-no-longer-works-with-kernel-6-0/230959/5 – Nishnabe Feb 26 '24 at 22:12
  • The 5.15 kernel will be supported for the life of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, as it's the GA kernel stack. It was provided on Ubuntu Server, and all Ubuntu Desktop flavor media (22.04 & 22.04.1) too, though all Ubuntu Desktop ISOs & flavors of .2 & higher default to the HWE kernel stack. Both stacks can also co-exist (some nvidia closed-source kernel modules will prevent this however) with the stack changeable post-install as per prior link I provided. – guiverc Feb 26 '24 at 22:32
  • To clarify -- the upgrade from 20.04 to 22.04 was several months ago, and probably unrelated to the current problem. The system worked fine until the automatic updates this past weekend. I only mentioned this wasn't a fresh install of 22.04 on the off-chance that fact may have some bearing on the kernel driver versions. – billyjoepiano Feb 26 '24 at 23:53
  • Your question of "I don't suppose there is any way to port the driver for the 5.15 linux kernel to a 6.5+ kernel" makes little sense to me... All kernel modules are automatically upgraded to later kernels UNLESS there is a reason why they cannot be (the developer/maintainer writes about this when it happens; if its open source code someone can fork & create a new module if they're capable of that doing that, their product may work on the newer kernels) – guiverc Feb 26 '24 at 23:57
  • Based on the comments/links here, it sounds like nvidia won't be supporting 390 drivers for the Linux kernel version 6+? So I'll be good as long as 22.04 is in LTS, but I won't be able to upgrade past 22.04? And after 22.04 is out of support I'll basically be forced to retire this computer...? :-/

    That's unfortunate, but also par for the course. Apple itself stopped supporting the computer years ago, and I originally installed Linux specifically so I could keep running modern software on it, since the hardware is still very good even by current standards. Bummer. Planned obsolescence...

     – billyjoepiano Feb 27 '24 at 00:07
  • guiverc -- The nvidia drivers are proprietary, not open-source. And based on what other commenters are saying and linking-to, it sounds like nvidia doesn't intend to update these drivers for the Linux kernel past version 5.15 :-( – billyjoepiano Feb 27 '24 at 00:10

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