nvidia-173 kernel driver failed to build: Unable to determine the target kernel version

[Bryce Harrington]

Fresh install of Precise on an Intel box that had oneiric installed previously. I left '3rd party sources' checked, completed the install, rebooted, and found myself at the console rather than in a graphical session.

Logging into the console and poking around, it appears dkms failed to build the nvidia drivers for some reason. I rebooted in case it was just a race condition, but got the same failure, then filed this bug report from the console.

make.txt just says:

*** Unable to determine the target kernel version. ***

So presumably the nvidia driver never got built.

Note, -173 should not have been selected for this hardware (nvidia-current should have), but this is covered in bug #876499.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: nvidia-current (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.1.0-2.3-generic-pae 3.1.0
Uname: Linux 3.1.0-2-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.26-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
Date: Tue Nov 22 12:50:06 2011
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: nvidia-173, 173.14.30: added
GraphicsCard:
 Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0504]
 nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GX2] [10de:0604] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0504]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha i386 (20111121)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-2-generic-pae root=UUID=ef816a4c-ffd1-4f49-8e13-b4b96bccdda1 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 05/07/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: SOX5810J.86A.0604.2008.0507.1808
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: DX58SO
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAE29331-202
dmi.chassis.type: 2
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrSOX5810J.86A.0604.2008.0507.1808:bd05/07/2008:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDX58SO:rvrAAE29331-202:cvn:ct2:cvr:
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu7
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.27-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu4
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I'm marking this critical just because bug #876499 causes -173 to be the default nvidia driver installed, which makes this breakage pretty noticeable when selecting '3rd party sources'. If that bug is resolved, this bug can be reduced in importance.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 576648, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

@Bryce, sorry in advance if it's not a duplicate. But I'll leave it for you to decide...