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Mittenchops
Asked: 2020-03-16 20:23:42 +0800 CST

Why is there an uninstallable wifi driver where my video driver should be?

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I'm following How to install the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine Linux - LinuxConfig.org, and trying to install nvidia drivers on my machine, and somehow a WiFi driver seems to be in the way?

[last:s][20200315231820][user@local:~] $ ubuntu-drivers devices
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.3 ==
modalias : pci:v00008086d0000A370sv00008086sd00000030bc02sc80i00
vendor   : Intel Corporation
model    : Wireless-AC 9560 [Jefferson Peak]
manual_install: True
driver   : backport-iwlwifi-dkms - distro free

Gross but fine. So delete it!

$ sudo apt purge backport-iwlwifi-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'backport-iwlwifi-dkms' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.

What!? It just said it was installed! cf Intel Backport driver crashes the system completely

I don't understand:

  • What does a wireless driver have to do with my video card?
  • Why can't I remove it?

Although my WiFi itself works fine, the driver does not seem to be correct according to this:

broker wifi driver

$ lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display' 
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Lenovo GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile]
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

And

$ dkms status
bbswitch, 0.8, 5.3.0-40-generic, x86_64: installedError! Could not locate dkms.conf file.
File: /var/lib/dkms/evdi/5.2.14/source/dkms.conf does not exist.

bbswitch, 0.8, 5.3.0-42-generic, x86_64: installed
drivers nvidia graphics intel-graphics iwlwifi

2 Answers

  1. Please consult ubuntu-drivers --help. The utility, using the command 'devices', lists devices that it thinks need drivers, not devices that have drivers installed. In your case, it believes, mistakenly, that your wireless device needs backports-iwlwifi-dkms. It obviously doesn't; as you said, your wireless is working fine.

    backports-iwlwifi-dkms is available, not installed. That's why you can't remove it; it isn't installed. Both this and the graphical version, Additional Drivers, report the same thing. It is a bug. My laptop also runs an Intel wireless device and I have the same result. I won't take a chance and install backports because, first of all, there is nothing wrong that I need to fix, and second of all, we have seen this several times before and know it's a bug.

    I suggest that you look for and add to a bug report here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/

    In the case of your graphics card, the utility correctly reports that no additional driver is needed because it's apparently already installed:

    Kernel driver in use: nvidia

    You can verify the version that's installed with:

    dpkg -l *nvidia* | grep ii
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  2. I have a Lenovo IdeaPad that now has an Intel Wireless 7260. I have the iwlwifi working okay. My system dual-boots Kubuntu 18.04.3 LTS and Windows 10 Home. Graphic is AMD.

    Based on issues I had when I put in that wireless card, I'm leaning toward Secure Boot (SB) problem(s). You're talking proprietary drivers which need MOK key updates to the UEFI to avoid SB troubles.

    Do you normally have your system with SB enabled or disabled?

    What is your current SB status? Is it what you expected?

    Did you disable SB to manually install the wifi driver then re-enable.

    Was the wifi MOK key properly added to the system UEFI if using SB?

    If the wifi MOK key was properly added with SB enabled, did you update your system UEFI (BIOS) after? Lenovo UEFI updates do not respect user settings. Those updates reset the UEFI to Lenovo defaults which includes enabling SB and may include obliterating user added signature(s).

    Anyway, enough speculating. Check your UEFI setting and disable SB. That alone may get you to your happy place. F2 or FnF2 depending on your UEFI function key setting, while booting, usually gets the Lenovo system setup. Or if your system has the Novo button, just press that with the system off.

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