[SOLVED] Can't Install Updates

[Todd Sauve]

I'm running Mint 20.2 with Cinnamon. Several weeks to a month ago Mint installed the 5.11.0-36 kernel and things have been problematic since then. It told me I have no video driver and to check Driver Manager. So I rebooted and it does the same thing all the time. Driver manager tells me I have Nvidia driver 460 installed. Prior to that I got frustrated and downloaded Nvidia's 470 driver, which it now offers from Driver Manager, but every time I reboot I get the same video driver is not loaded message, even though it is.

Now I can't even get the updates from Mint to install. I get this message:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

I don't have a clue what that means so I copy and pasted the command into a terminal but it demands a super user password. I give it the password and it tells me the password is wrong.

I have hit a dead end and hope you folks can help me get out of this endless loop of nonsense. I think that last kernel update was the problem but I can't even uninstall it and don't know how to from a terminal or command line. It gives me the same error message:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Is it the Nvidia video driver causing part of the problem?

Have other people had big troubles with the 5.11.0-36 kernel?

Any help is much appreciated!

BTW, I have an Asus Tuf Gaming Plus mb, Ryzen 3700x, RTX 3060Ti, and various SSDs and HDDs. None of them are broken or gimped in any way. This is all new a year ago.

[mikeflan]

Please run this in a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Hopefully that will fix part of your problem.

I don't know the answer to your other questions.

[Todd Sauve]

Thank you for your help! Here is what happened, copied from the terminal:

todd@todd-System-Product-Name:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
[sudo] password for todd:
Setting up nvidia-dkms-460 (460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
INFO:Enable nvidia
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
Removing old nvidia-460.91.03 DKMS files...

-------- Uninstall Beginning --------
Module: nvidia
Version: 460.91.03
Kernel: 5.11.0-36-generic (x86_64)
-------------------------------------

Status: This module version was INACTIVE for this kernel.
depmod...

DKMS: uninstall completed.

------------------------------
Deleting module version: 460.91.03
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.
Loading new nvidia-460.91.03 DKMS files...
Building for 5.11.0-36-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 5.11.0-36-generic
Secure Boot not enabled on this system.
Done.

nvidia.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

nvidia-modeset.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

nvidia-drm.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

nvidia-uvm.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/5.11.0-36-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

depmod...

DKMS: install completed.
Setting up libnvidia-encode-460:amd64 (460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Setting up libnvidia-encode-460:i386 (460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Setting up nvidia-driver-460 (460.91.03-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.136ubuntu6.6) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-36-generic
todd@todd-System-Product-Name:~$

[Todd Sauve]

Thank you! That command line seemed to really crack the whip and get everything working properly again!

Everything seems back to normal again. I think that the -36 kernel did not install correctly and messed up the video driver. It is all working properly now. It upgraded the kernel to version -37 now.

I'm glad there are gurus like you to help us out of these bad problems!