Regarding (1) the issue of list and list --gpgpu being the same, it has been addressed in LP: #2081970 by sorting the drivers based on priority
(1a) install --gpgpu installing only a headless package is a bug that is addressed in LP: #2083709 (2) a new switch is being designed. (3) Apparently --gpgpu has been chosen by Mark himself so it stays. It is supposed to install minimal set of drivers needed for ML. What we may want to add is another switch like --server where not only a -server grade drivers are installed but also a graphical libs with it. (3a) since 560 NVIDIA suggests to install -open variants first for all cards that support it. This has been addressed in: LP: #2081967 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to ubuntu-drivers-common in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2081881 Title: nvidia driver installation modes are unclear and in conflict w/ the server guide Status in ubuntu-drivers-common package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: The intended behavior of `ubuntu-drivers` has always been mysterious to me. Here are a few examples: (1) It is not clear to me what --gpgpu is intended to do. The help output simply says: Options: --gpgpu gpgpu drivers According to https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/nvidia-drivers- installation: > Check the available drivers for your hardware > For desktop: > > sudo ubuntu-drivers list > or, for servers: > > sudo ubuntu-drivers list --gpgpu ``` But both commands list the same set of packages - just in a different order: $ sudo ubuntu-drivers list nvidia-driver-550-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-550-open-generic) nvidia-driver-470-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-server-generic) nvidia-driver-535-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-open-generic) nvidia-driver-535-server-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-open-generic) nvidia-driver-550, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-550-generic) nvidia-driver-535-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-generic) nvidia-driver-470, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-generic) nvidia-driver-535, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-generic) $ sudo ubuntu-drivers list --gpgpu nvidia-driver-470-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-server-generic) nvidia-driver-535-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-open-generic) nvidia-driver-550, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-550-generic) nvidia-driver-535-server, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-generic) nvidia-driver-470, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-470-generic) nvidia-driver-550-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-550-open-generic) nvidia-driver-535, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-generic) nvidia-driver-535-server-open, (kernel modules provided by linux-modules-nvidia-535-server-open-generic) But there's no indication that the order means anything. `sudo ubuntu-drivers install --gpgpu` on this system will install nvidia-headless-no-dkms-535-server. Which, notably, installs no kernel drivers (neither DKMS nor signed) on my system. `sudo ubuntu-drivers install`, OTOH, will install nvidia-driver-550 linux-modules-nvidia-550-generic. (2) According to https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/nvidia-drivers- installation, ubuntu-drivers "always tries to install signed drivers which are known to work with Secure Boot." But, if there isn't an l-r-m package available for the current kernel, it will fall back to a -dkms package. It seems like that would be the case in the window between pushing out a new nvidia-graphics-drivers package and l-r-m's having been built against it. Maybe that archive state "shouldn't happen" - but if this mode is documented to install signed drivers, then unavailable signed drivers should be an error. (3) There's no option to automatically install the best "-open" variant. There is a `--free-only` option, but that filters out all nvidia drivers. Suggestions: From what I can tell, the `--gpgpu` actually intends to install drivers for a headless system. (Maybe it is just a bug that it installs no driver on my system?) Assuming that is the intent, then `--headless` seems like a better option name. Perhaps we could add `--headless` as an alias for `--gpgpu`... and maybe deprecate --gpgpu? Could we add a `--server|--desktop` flag so a user can explicitly choose the server variant? I realize that `--server` and `--headless` seem similar - but we do provide the full graphics stack for the -server variant drivers, and that does make sense on some systems (DGX A100 Station, for example). Again, documentation could clarify the difference. Could we allow the -open variants to be installed with --free-only? Or could we add a flag to select the -open variant, and document the difference between that and --free-only? 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