Kubuntu 22.04 cannot upgrade/install nvidia driver after kernel update

[Alfredo Gemma]

After the automatic upgrade of the kernel to 5.17.0-1020-oem, the nvidia driver became unavailable:
$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

Trying to install any nvidia drivers using kubuntu-driver-manager throws the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/qt/SoftwarePropertiesQt.py", line 1065, in on_driver_selection_changed
    modules_package_obj = self.apt_cache[modules_package]
TypeError: Expected a string or a pair of strings
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/qt/SoftwarePropertiesQt.py", line 1065, in on_driver_selection_changed
    modules_package_obj = self.apt_cache[modules_package]
TypeError: Expected a string or a pair of strings

Trying to manually install any nvidia drivers from command line doesn't produce any changes (no Nvidia driver detected) and it requires /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UbuntuDrivers/detect.py to be fixed in advanced ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-drivers-common/+bug/1993019/comments/5 )

Trying to revert back to a previous Kernel version doesn't fix the issue.

KDE Plasma version: 5.25.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.98.0
QT Version: 5.15.3
Kernel Version: 5.17.0-1020-oem (64 bit)
-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GA103M [GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Mobile]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller cap_list fb
       configuration: depth=32 latency=0 mode=2560x1440 visual=truecolor xres=2560 yres=1440
       resources: iomemory:600-5ff iomemory:640-63f memory:83000000-83ffffff memory:6000000000-63ffffffff memory:6400000000-6401ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memory:84000000-8407ffff

[Mateusz Chrusciel (nerthosperioton)]

I also ran into this very same issue. Same kernel, same error messages.
KDE Plasma version: 5.24.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.92.0
QT Version: 5.15.3
Kernel Version: 5.17.0-1020-oem (64 bit)
VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070]
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 158
 Memory at 52000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
 Memory at 40000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 Memory at 50000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
 I/O ports at 4000 [size=128]
 Expansion ROM at 53000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
 Kernel driver in use: nouveau
 Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Erik Hofman (ermarch)]

The problem seems to be that the kernel header files are not installed. At least that fixed it for me (and reinstalling the NVidia drivers)

[Alfredo Gemma (alfredo-gemma)]

Just tried to install the kernel header files, but after rebooting the system hangs on:

[FAILED] Failed to start Detect the available GPUs and deal with any system changes.

It doesn't load KDE anymore.

[Erik Hofman (ermarch)]

Odd, it did the trick for me.
Maybe you should remove all NVidia related and reinstall the NVidia drivers again?

[Alfredo Gemma (alfredo-gemma)]

I got it working after switching to the previous kernel and installing the 515 nvidia driver instead of the 520 from the command line (kubuntu-driver-manager keeps having the same issue as above)

Then switching back to the current kernel (5.17.0-1020-oem) did the trick.
I'm using the Nvidia driver 515.65.01 and I won't upgrade to the 520 until this bug is fixed.

[marco (mark8989)]

I'm on the second clean installation of Kubuntu 22.04 and I keep getting the same.
Everything works fine for a while, and then at the first firmware update the kubuntu-driver-manager gets broken in the same way and the nvidia drivers won't load anymore.

myuser@mypc:~$ sudo nvidia-smi
[sudo] password for myuser:
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

Kernel version: 6.2.0-1009-lowlatency
KDE plasma version: 5.24.7

EDIT: The nvidia drivers were fixed by running:
sudo apt -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

However I keep facing the same issue described by the original poster with the driver manager.