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https://github.com/ssokolow/update_nvidia

Helper to defer updates of nVidia binary drivers on APT-based Linux distros until the next reboot to keep libGL and the kernel module in sync
https://github.com/ssokolow/update_nvidia

apt apt-get defer helper kubuntu nvidia nvidia-driver nvidia-drivers ubuntu update utilities utility utility-application

Last synced: 2 months ago
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Helper to defer updates of nVidia binary drivers on APT-based Linux distros until the next reboot to keep libGL and the kernel module in sync

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README 

        
## Purpose



nVidia binary driver updates on Debian-family Linux systems cause GPU

acceleration to break whenever they temporarily force the kernel module and

libGL versions out of sync.



This helper fixes that.



## Approach



Run it as part of your startup tasks before X.org starts and it'll do the

following:



1. Use `apt-mark unhold` to enable updates of packages with "nvidia" in their

   name.

2. Use `apt-get update` and `apt-get dist-upgrade` to apply any pending updates.

3. Reload the kernel modules in case they got updated.

4. Use `apt-mark hold` to prevent your usual update process from updating

   packages with "nvidia" in their name during normal operation.



This is handled as part of system startup rather than shutdown for two reasons:



1. It avoids needing to try to find a way to special-case "UPS-initiated

   shutdown".

2. It still works the same if you're one of those people who only ever reboots

   when your computer suffers a power outage without a working UPS.



As something that must run as `root` and isn't exactly practical to sandbox due

to how it interacts with apt-get, I chose to write it with no dependencies

beyond the Rust standard library and the system APT binaries for maximum

protection against supply-chain attacks.



# Installation and Dependencies



This is basically a self itch-scratch that I posted in case it helps anyone

else, so you'll need a working [Rust toolchain](https://www.rust-lang.org/) to

build this.



(Technically, as of this writing, there _is_ a pre-built binary in

[ssokolow/profile](http://github.com/ssokolow/profile) at

`files/usr/local/sbin/update_nvidia` which, as a musl-libc static build, should

work on any x86_64 Linux platform, but I make **absolutely** no guarantees about

it and may forget to update this message if it moves. It's just something I

built for my own use.)



It depends on having an APT-based distro and has only been tested on Kubuntu

Linux 20.04 with Rust 1.63.0, but, at its simplest, it should just be a matter

of:



```sh

    cargo build --release

    sudo cp target/release/update_nvidia /usr/local/sbin/update_nvidia

    sudo cp update_nvidia.service /etc/systemd/system/update_nvidia.service

    sudo systemctl enable update_nvidia.service

    sudo ./update_nvidia --mark-only

```



There _is_ a [`justfile`](https://github.com/casey/just/) with an `install`

task, but it's optimized for my own use-case, so, if you want to use

`just install`, you'll need to do two things:



1. `rustup target install x86_64-unknown-linux-musl` so it can build a binary

   that has no external dependencies beyond the Linux kernel ABI.

2. Delete the two `cp` lines that update the copy in my "set up a new system"

   ansible scripting under `~/.profile_repo`.



For security, it hard-codes all the paths to the APT binaries it uses. You can

see the paths it expects in its `-h`/`--help` output and, if you need to change

them, they're just some `const` strings at the top of `src/main.rs`.