Message: "Error! Arguments <module> and <module-version> are not specified." when upgrading

[Willem Hobers]

Running pre-release Xubuntu 22.04.

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish (development branch)
Release: 22.04
Codename: jammy

Linux willem-Aspire-A315-53 5.15.0-18-generic #18-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 21 14:57:54 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

After upgrading from 21.04 tot 22.04 I did:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

I saw this message in the output:

dkms: removing: (5.13.0-30-generic) (x86_64)
Error! Arguments <module> and <module-version> are not specified.
Usage: remove <module>/<module-version> or
       remove -m <module>/<module-version> or
       remove -m <module> -v <module-version>

All the output:

willem@willem-Aspire-A315-53:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
[sudo] wachtwoord voor willem:
Pakketlijsten worden ingelezen... Klaar
Boom van vereisten wordt opgebouwd... Klaar
De statusinformatie wordt gelezen... Klaar
Opwaardering wordt doorgerekend... Klaar
De volgende pakketten zijn automatisch geïnstalleerd en zijn niet langer nodig:
  libboost-regex1.74.0 libcmis-0.5-5v5 libdecor-0-0 libextutils-pkgconfig-perl
  libfftw3-double3 libfuse2 libgtksourceview-3.0-1 libgtksourceview-3.0-common
  libidn11 libigdgmm11 libneon27-gnutls libperl5.32 libpython3.9 libsdl2-2.0-0
  libsource-highlight-common libsource-highlight4v5 linux-headers-5.13.0-30
  linux-headers-5.13.0-30-generic linux-image-5.13.0-30-generic
  linux-modules-5.13.0-30-generic linux-modules-extra-5.13.0-30-generic
  perl-modules-5.32 pkg-config python3-certifi python3-requests
  python3-simplejson
Gebruik 'sudo apt autoremove' om ze te verwijderen.
0 opgewaardeerd, 0 nieuw geïnstalleerd, 0 te verwijderen en 0 niet opgewaardeerd.
Pakketlijsten worden ingelezen... Klaar
Boom van vereisten wordt opgebouwd... Klaar
De statusinformatie wordt gelezen... Klaar
Opwaardering wordt doorgerekend... Klaar
De volgende pakketten zijn automatisch geïnstalleerd en zijn niet langer nodig:
  libboost-regex1.74.0 libcmis-0.5-5v5 libdecor-0-0 libextutils-pkgconfig-perl
  libfftw3-double3 libfuse2 libgtksourceview-3.0-1 libgtksourceview-3.0-common
  libidn11 libigdgmm11 libneon27-gnutls libperl5.32 libpython3.9 libsdl2-2.0-0
  libsource-highlight-common libsource-highlight4v5 linux-headers-5.13.0-30
  perl-modules-5.32 pkg-config python3-certifi python3-requests
  python3-simplejson
Gebruik 'sudo apt autoremove' om ze te verwijderen.
De volgende pakketten zullen VERWIJDERD worden:
  linux-headers-5.13.0-30-generic linux-image-5.13.0-30-generic
  linux-modules-5.13.0-30-generic linux-modules-extra-5.13.0-30-generic
0 opgewaardeerd, 0 nieuw geïnstalleerd, 4 te verwijderen en 0 niet opgewaardeerd.
Na deze bewerking zal er 428 MB schijfruimte vrijkomen.
Wilt u doorgaan? [J/n]
(Database wordt ingelezen ... 402831 bestanden en mappen momenteel geïnstalleerd
.)
linux-headers-5.13.0-30-generic (5.13.0-30.33) wordt verwijderd ...
linux-modules-extra-5.13.0-30-generic (5.13.0-30.33) wordt verwijderd ...
linux-modules-5.13.0-30-generic (5.13.0-30.33) wordt verwijderd ...
linux-image-5.13.0-30-generic (5.13.0-30.33) wordt verwijderd ..............]
/etc/kernel/prerm.d/dkms:
dkms: removing: (5.13.0-30-generic) (x86_64)
Error! Arguments <module> and <module-version> are not specified.
Usage: remove <module>/<module-version> or
       remove -m <module>/<module-version> or
       remove -m <module> -v <module-version>
/etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools:
update-initramfs: Deleting /boot/initrd.img-5.13.0-30-generic
/etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub:
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-18-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.15.0-18-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.13.0-32-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.13.0-32-generic
Memtest86+ needs a 16-bit boot, that is not available on EFI, exiting
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Ubuntu 21.10 (21.10) on /dev/sda2
Found Zorin OS 16 (16) on /dev/sda5
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Libera.chat.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1963835/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I just hit this. The problem is in /etc/kernel/prerm.d/dkms:

Lines 16 and 17:

   name=`echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}' | sed 's/,$//'` | cut -d'/' -f1
   vers=`echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}' | sed 's/,$//'` | cut -d'/' -f2

In my case, $line is:

v4l2loopback/0.12.5, 5.13.0-30-generic, x86_64: installed

And so it's clear to me that those parsing lines are incorrect and the backticks should be at the end.

Looking upstream, I then found:

https://github.com/dell/dkms/commit/64a882a32fdf126ef20e6b6403b5cb158dad21f4

So this just needs cherry-picking.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package dkms - 2.8.7-2ubuntu1

---------------
dkms (2.8.7-2ubuntu1) jammy; urgency=medium

  * d/p/prerm-hook-parsing: fix parsing of module name and version during
    kernel removal so that DKMS modules actually get removed when kernels are
    removed. LP: #1963835.

 -- Robie Basak <email address hidden> Fri, 01 Apr 2022 13:54:42 +0100