DKMS Nvidia errors during update

[Foempatrol]

I was updating my system today when I saw these messages pop up. I stopped the update as soon as I saw them, and they appear to be dkms warnings.

This is the output of dkms status:

broadcom-wl/6.30.223.271: added
nvidia/545.29.06: broken

Error! nvidia/545.29.06: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/550.54.14: broken

Error! nvidia/550.54.14: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/550.67: broken

Error! nvidia/550.67: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/550.76: broken

Error! nvidia/550.76: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/550.78: broken

Error! nvidia/550.78: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/550.90.07: broken

Error! nvidia/550.90.07: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/555.58: broken

Error! nvidia/555.58: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/555.58.02: broken

Error! nvidia/555.58.02: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/560.35.03: broken

Error! nvidia/560.35.03: Missing the module source directory or the symbolic link pointing to it.
Manual intervention is required!
nvidia/565.57.01: added

Any idea what is causing these, or if they can be safely ignored? I haven’t made any changes to my system which could have caused them I think. My actual nvidia driver version seems to be added okay, it’s all these other driver versions that appear broken.

My system:
linux 6.11.9-arch1-1
KDE Plasma 6.2.4 (EOS)
Nvidia driver 565.57.01

[jul.cgn]

This is what I do and might not be the best way to do this.

cd /var/lib/dkms

and delete all files & directories to kernel module versions or kernel versions that you don’t have installed anymore. Then check dkms status again.

e.g. according to your log, in directory /var/lib/dkms/nvidia there should be a directory called 545.29.06, as your current nvidia-dkms version is 565.57.01, this directory (545.29.06) is safe to delete.

same thing with kernel versions. In directory /var/lib/dkms/nvidia there might be files like this kernel-6.11.5-arch1-1-x86_64@ , as you have kernel version 6.11.9-arch1-1, this file (kernel-6.11.5-arch1-1-x86_64@), too, is safe to delete.

It’s quite tedious work and I’m actually surprised that there isn’t a cleanup tool available for this, at least I haven’t found one, yet.

But be careful, if you mess up, you have to reinstall the appropriate dkms module.