New headers and NVIDIA drivers

[Don]

I have two desktops. Both run the latest version of the NVIDIA drivers. But on one machine, whenever there is a header update, I have to do <Ctrl><Alt><F1>, log in on the command line, and then reinstall the current NVIDIA driver. On the other machine I don't have to; the correct driver functions automatically after a header update.
I strongly suspect there is some simple setting in a file that I need to change so that both machines use the correct driver automatically. The problem is that I am simpler than the solution is; I don't even know what file(s) to look at on the two machines.
Thanks in advance.

[oshunluvr]

Are you using the drivers from the Kubuntu repository?

[Don]

No, I've been using the proprietary NVIDIA drivers on both machines. Some years ago I tried the repository drivers, but they did not seem to work as well for me.

[oshunluvr]

Well, I can't say for sure since I stopped using the nVidia blob about 6 years ago because I got tired of rebuilding at every update, but you might make sure you have dkms installed on the errant machine.

I'm using nvidia-331 via the repo with my GTX780 and have no issues at all.

[Don]

Hi, oshunluvr,
Thanks for getting back so quickly. I did not have dkms on the errant machine. At least, when I did apt-get install, it purported to install. I'd never heard about dkms before your post. It may be installed on the other machine, but it's not something I did deliberately. I'll check the other machine when I get to it. Thanks for the teaching. Enjoy your evening.

[schnelle]

If you install nvidia drivers manually from nvidia site, you'll have to reinstall it after every kernel update (and that sucks).

If you install nvidia driver from official repositories or xorg-edgers ppa, then dkms will be also installed and it will automatically rebuild nvidia kernel modules after kernel updates. You just need to sit and enjoy

Second option for installing nvidia driver is far better than first.