NVIDIA update 460.39 breaks system until reboot

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Unattended updates installs NVIDIA driver 460.39. Everything GPU related is instantly broken until reboot. This killed both desktop computers and AWS servers.

Feb 26 23:35:42 fuel kernel: [110104.342103] NVRM: API mismatch: the client has the version 460.39, but
Feb 26 23:35:42 fuel kernel: [110104.342103] NVRM: this kernel module has the version 460.32.03. Please
Feb 26 23:35:42 fuel kernel: [110104.342103] NVRM: make sure that this kernel module and all NVIDIA driver
Feb 26 23:35:42 fuel kernel: [110104.342103] NVRM: components have the same version.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:20.10.14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-43.49-generic 5.8.18
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-43-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu50.5
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CrashDB: ubuntu
Date: Fri Feb 26 23:36:03 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-10-28 (853 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RebootRequiredPkgs:
 linux-image-5.8.0-44-generic
 linux-base
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: release-upgrade
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to groovy on 2020-12-14 (75 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog: