warnings in terminal with software-properties-gtk

[Brian Murray]

When running software-properties-gtk and switching to the "Additional Drivers" tab I saw the following warnings in my terminal:

 $ software-properties-gtk
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
Package: software-properties-gtk 0.99.39
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-4.4-generic 6.5.0
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-4-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia zfs
ApportVersion: 2.27.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Sep 21 11:49:24 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-08-10 (1868 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
PackageArchitecture: all
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
SourcePackage: software-properties
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to mantic on 2023-09-06 (15 days ago)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This is from ubuntu-drivers-common:

UbuntuDrivers/detect.py
452: out = subprocess.check_output(['udevadm', 'hwdb', '--test=' + alias],
455: logging.debug('_get_db_name(%s, %s): udevadm hwdb failed: %s', syspath, alias, str(e))

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[mrvst (maravento)]

confirmed ubuntu 24.02

[Ubfan (ubfan1)]

Booting the just released ISO of Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop, ubuntu-drivers list and the Software & Updates/Additional Drivers tab are missing the Nvidia drivers 545 and 550, but the above warning(error?) is repeated 6 times. The apt pkgnames will list the 545 and 550 drivers. sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550 will have the lsmod show nvidia in the modules list, but nvidia-settings does not show the expected output for an nvidia driver. Software & updates/Additional will show nouveau running, no 545 or 550, and all the nvidia drivers greyed out.

[food-ray (food-ray)]

Initially, the warning/error "udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead." repeats 6 times (either as described above, or when running "ubuntu-drivers devices"). After adding ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa, the warning/error repeats 8 times. The number of repeats seems to correspond to the number of driver options (not counting nouveau). Also, nvidia-driver-545 appears after adding the ppa, but 550 does not.

$ ubuntu-drivers devices
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.

...

driver : nvidia-driver-545 - third-party non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-545-open - third-party non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

[Christof (tactikalkitty)]

As of 07/29/2024, still having this same bug. Tested on Fresh installs of both Linux Mint 22 and Ubuntu 24.04.

~$ ubuntu-drivers devices
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.

vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070 Lite Hash Rate]
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-545-open - third-party non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-545 - third-party non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

[Ubfan (ubfan1)]

With today's Nvidia 555.58.02 update for Ubuntu 24.04 (which had been previously directly installed) from the graphics-drivers PPA, the output of ubuntu-drivers now lists the 550, 550-open, 555, and 555-open drivers as it should for my RTX 3080 hardware. The Software&Updates/Additional Drivers tab also lists those drivers, and claims the 555 installation is manual (as it was). The choice buttons are active, not greyed out. The hwdb deprecated warnings are output 12 times, one for each listed driver.

[Dean Wheatley (dwhea)]

On an upgraded 23.10 to 24.04 system, I get similar errors:

$ ubuntu-drivers devices
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
udevadm hwdb is deprecated. Use systemd-hwdb instead.
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00002188sv00001043sd000088B8bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : TU116 [GeForce GTX 1650]
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

nvidia-driver-550 is not listed through ubuntu-drivers, but it is available through apt, but I want to use ubuntu-drivers tool per recommendations in https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/nvidia-drivers-installation .

[Davin (platinumlucario)]

After upgrading to 24.04.1 (from 22.04), I ran into the same issue. I really need to ask:

Is there any workaround to removing this error? It clearly indicates that ``udevadm hwdb`` is deprecated.

So how do I replace the configuration with ``systemd-hwdb`` instead of udevadm hwdb?

[Davin (platinumlucario)]

Okay, I fixed the issue by manually editing the lines in detect.py from this:

```py
def _get_db_name(syspath, alias):
    '''Return (vendor, model) names for given device.

    Values are None if unknown.
    '''
    try:
        out = subprocess.check_output(['udevadm', 'hwdb', '--test=' + alias],
                                      universal_newlines=True)
    except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError) as e:
        logging.debug('_get_db_name(%s, %s): udevadm hwdb failed: %s', syspath, alias, str(e))
        return (None, None)
```
To this:
```py
def _get_db_name(syspath, alias):
    '''Return (vendor, model) names for given device.

    Values are None if unknown.
    '''
    try:
        out = subprocess.check_output(['systemd-hwdb', 'query', alias],
                                      universal_newlines=True)
    except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError) as e:
        logging.debug('_get_db_name(%s, %s): systemd-hwdb failed: %s', syspath, alias, str(e))
        return (None, None)
```

The problem is, it still only lists nvidia-driver-470, nvidia-driver-470-server, nvidia-driver-535 and nvidia-driver-535-server.

So the question is, how do I make it show up in the drivers list without manually installing it or putting in the PPA?

[Ubfan (ubfan1)]

The above patch fixes things for me. I'm running with the graphics-drivers ppa for the 560 driver, but apt policy shows the 550 driver in the noble repos:
$ apt policy nvidia-driver-550-open
nvidia-driver-550-open:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 550.127.05-0ubuntu0~gpu24.04.1
  Version table:
     550.127.05-0ubuntu0~gpu24.04.1 500
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu noble/main amd64 Packages
     550.120-0ubuntu0.24.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security/multiverse amd64 Packages
     550.67-0ubuntu3 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/multiverse amd64 Packages