Yeah, these are a noob questions about LTS

[TheSupremeVizier]

I just tried the nvidia-driver-575-open driver. I used to have two displays. Now I only have one. Furthermore, the one display is set to 1024 resolution, which is too, too low. So I switched back to the nvidia-driver-570-open driver. Guess what? My display is stuck at one monitor with 1024 resolution. I don't know how to fix this. The area in System Settings for adjusting Display Resolution is not allowing changes. I am not a happy camper.

[TheSupremeVizier]

It is apparent that no NVIDIA driver is currently installed.

$ lsmod | grep nvidia

$ modinfo nvidia | grep ^version
modinfo: ERROR: Module nvidia not found.

$ modinfo nvidia | grep filename
modinfo: ERROR: Module nvidia not found.

$ nvidia-smi --query-gpu=driver_version --format=csv,noheader
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the
latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f04] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:5323]
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau
--
13:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device [1002:13
c0] (rev c2)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:7e18]
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu

Maybe I need to reinstall the driver using "sudo apt install nvidia-driver-570-open"?

[TheSupremeVizier]

Reinstalling the driver using "sudo apt install nvidia-driver-570-open" failed to work.
Driver Manager claims I am using nvidia-driver-570-open, but "lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 vga" and all the other commands listed in the previous post replicate the outputs written in the previous post. Note that nouveau is apparently being used.
I NEED HELP.

[TheSupremeVizier]

I have just killed nouveau by entering the following into /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

I then executed "sudo update-initramfs -u".

I then rebooted and saw no improvement.
I have just performed "sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall" and saw a lot of spew to stdout.
It appears to be removing the 570 driver and installing the "recommended" and "tested" 575 driver.
It looks like I never really installed the 575 driver using the Driver Manager even though I saw a significantly large burst of internet activity when I performed that act.
I will reboot now and report on the results.

[TheSupremeVizier]

I do not believe this garbage. Even after blacklisting nouveau...

$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f04]
(rev a1)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:5323]
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau
--
13:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
Device [1002:13c0] (rev c2)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:7e18]
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu

The Driver Manager claims that the 575-open driver is installed, but it sure isn't running.
I am giving up for the night. I will consider performing a complete reinstallation from scratch tomorrow. Hopefully I will learn something useful from this experience...like...leave good enough alone.

[TheSupremeVizier]

Oh, here's a good one. I've been running "sudo update-initramfs -u" to update the init file for the kernel I am currently running.
It outputs an init file for the MOST RECENTLY INSTALLED kernel and NOT the kernel I am running.

$ uname -r
6.11.0-29-generic
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.14.0-24-generic

Now this likely has something to do with wrong the driver being loaded in 6.11.0-29-generic. Timestamps show that /boot/initrd.img-6.11.0-29-generic is NOT being updated.

How do I get around this? Why isn't update-initramfs updating the init file for the current kernel?
Read the manpage! By default, update-initramfs updates the init file for the MOST RECENT kernel, NOT the running kernel.
So I need to do something like "sudo update-initramfs -u -k `uname -r`".
I did just that.

$ sudo update-initramfs -u -k `uname -r`
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.11.0-29-generic

Time to reboot and see what happens.

[TheSupremeVizier]

There is no joy in Mudville. :-(

$ lspci -vnn | grep -i VGA -A 12
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f04]
(rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:5323]
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 255, IOMMU group 12
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
Memory at c00000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16G]
Memory at a10000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at f4000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f80] (rev a1)
Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:0000]
--
13:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
Device [1002:13c0] (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:7e18]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 94, IOMMU group 28
Memory at fc10000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at f4200000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Memory at f4700000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
Kernel modules: amdgpu

13:00.1 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Ra
deon High Definition Audio Controller [1002:1640]
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Rembrandt Radeon Hig
h Definition Audio Controller [1462:7e18]

Unless someone can help me within the next couple of hours, I will perform a fresh install and hopefully, after a whole lot of work, return to a system that works as well as it did before moving to the 6.14.0-24-generic kernel.

[TheSupremeVizier]

OK, I know this is going to sound insane, but I'm going to say it.
I just booted into the 6.14.0-24-generic kernel and I have my desired resolution back. I do not understand why or how.
This is magick. Dark magick. Daemon in the machine magick.

$ lspci -vnn | grep -i VGA -A 12
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f04] (rev a1) (prog-i
f 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:5323]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 114, IOMMU group 13
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
Memory at c00000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16G]
Memory at a10000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at f4000000 [virtual] [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:2f80] (rev a1)
--
13:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Device [1002:13
c0] (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device [1462:7e18]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 66, IOMMU group 29
Memory at fc10000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at f4200000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
Memory at f4700000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
Kernel modules: amdgpu

13:00.1 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt Radeon High Defini
tion Audio Controller [1002:1640]
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Aud
io Controller [1462:7e18]

Note that both the nvidia and nouveau drivers are loaded. This is just nuts. But I have both monitors running at high resolution now and everything looks normal.
I am going to hold my breath and hope that I don't see any more plasma crashes or any other nasty issues.
I'll let you know if there are any more issues, but for now...I'm not going to reinstall from scratch. And that makes me smile. :-)

Thank you all for your patience with me. Seriously. Reading this thread must be tedious for you all.
Have a good day.

[Snowhog]

Well, magic or no, glad it is now working as expected for you.

I haven't read through this entire post; too long (for me); but I'll impart what wisdom I have.

To keep your working system fresh and up to date, do not use any of the graphical applications (Plasma Discover, et al). Use the command line, i.e., open Konsole. Then, run the following commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

sudo apt autoremove

Complete manpage for apt: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages...an8/apt.8.html

[TheSupremeVizier]

Thank you, Snowhog. It is a huge relief that my system is back to acceptable.
I will stop using the Plasma Discover Updates GUI and instead use these three lines in this order on a daily basis:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

Is there some reason why you don't use the "-y" switch for the latter two commands?

[Snowhog]

Is there some reason why you don't use the "-y" switch for the latter two commands?

Because I want the opportunity to see and approve what is going to be upgraded (full-upgrade) and removed (autoremove). Using the -y switch you don't get that; you are telling apt that your answer is going to be yes.

[TheSupremeVizier]

Thanks, Snowhog. If you ever get the time to explain what I was doing wrong while trying to upgrade the nvidia driver, I would appreciate it. I'd make a record of it, because I *never* want to repeat that again! ;-)