This is a stupid uninitialized variable error in the postinstall script: case "$1" in configure) # Added manually, since we mangled the arguments, and dpkg-maintscript-helper # won't work if [ -n "$2" ] && `dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt "340.106-0ubuntu5"`; then rm -f /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-340.conf fi CURRENT_KERNEL=$(uname -r) NEWEST_KERNEL=$(get_newest_kernel "$KERNELS")
Variable "KERNELS" is not defined, so when get_newest_kernel tries to use dpkg to look up the kernel version it fails. Defining "KERNELS" to be CURRENT_KERNEL allows the configure to work: case "$1" in configure) # Added manually, since we mangled the arguments, and dpkg-maintscript-helper # won't work if [ -n "$2" ] && `dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt "340.106-0ubuntu5"`; then rm -f /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-340.conf fi CURRENT_KERNEL=$(uname -r) KERNELS=$CURRENT_KERNEL NEWEST_KERNEL=$(get_newest_kernel "$KERNELS") Seriously - this has been an issue for over a year, and nobody bothered to look into it? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1853977 Title: nvidia-340 dpkg: error: version '-' has bad syntax: revision number is empty Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Status in nvidia-graphics-drivers package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Hello, When installing `nvidia-340` there is an error is the postinst script: philippe@pv-desktop:~$ sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-340 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 7 not to upgrade. Need to get 0 B/51.9 MB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. (Reading database ... 309892 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../nvidia-340_340.107-0ubuntu0.18.04.4_amd64.deb ... Stopping nvidia-persistenced nvidia-persistenced: no process found Done. (snip) Setting up nvidia-340 (340.107-0ubuntu0.18.04.4) ... dpkg: error: version '-' has bad syntax: revision number is empty dpkg: error: version '-' has bad syntax: revision number is empty update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) INFO:Enable nvidia-340 DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude Loading new nvidia-340-340.107 DKMS files... Building for 4.15.0-70-generic Building for architecture x86_64 Building initial module for 4.15.0-70-generic Done. The comment at https://askubuntu.com/questions/969352/uninstalling- and-then-reinstalling-nvidia-384-kills-colord tells us that /var/lib/dpkg/info/nvidia-340.postinst has a typo: replace $KERNELS with $CURRENT_KERNEL then `dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-340` works as expected. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1853977/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp