software-properties-gtk prompts me to install the nVidia proprietary drivers on a system using Xen, leading to no video on the next boot

[Adam Novak]

nVidia's proprietary drivers don't work when the kernel is running under the Xen hypervisor; nVidia knows this and has chosen not to implement Xen support. However, I did not know this.

On my Ubuntu Xen dom0 system, I went into Ubuntu's "Software & Updates", on the "Additional Drivers" tab, and selected "Using NVIDIA driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-390" as my GPU driver. The driver was available, with no warning associated with it, and it seemed to install correctly. However, upon rebooting, I had no video output. I had to mess about in Grub to boot the system without Xen, and now I'm going to have to uninstall the nVidia proprietary drivers.

The "Additional Drivers" UI should not present the option to install the proprietary nVidia drivers if the system is running under Xen, because doing so renders the system unusable in that configuration until the drivers are removed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: software-properties-gtk 0.96.24.32.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-34.37-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-34-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Sep 22 15:09:38 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-08-06 (412 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-properties
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-05-29 (116 days ago)