How to never update nvidia driver

I saw this similar question with no definitive answer.

What I think that I need

What I want to do is to prevent any update of my Nvidia graphical card. I tried to put it on hold, but I couldn't find the name of Nvidia driver package.

My problem:

When I run sudo apt upgrade and there is a driver of nvidia on the list, usually some problem occurs later:

  1. My PC doesn't recognize second screen;
  2. When I try to turn on my PC it gets stuck on Ubuntu logo screen. When it happens, I need to force to shutdown via power button, turn on again via power button, and then appears to me the GNU GRUB black/white screen:

enter image description here

I then select advanced options for Ubuntu and try the different kernel versions. Like the screen below (this is an old photo):

enter image description here

  1. Last week this alternative didnot work, and I had to do a fresh install on Ubuntu.

My temporary solutions so far:

  • Once I am able to log in on my PC, I try to use a different version of nvidia card via Software & Updates -> Additional Drivers. Right now, I am using nvidia-driver-390. This is my current list:

enter image description here

  • Avoid using sudo apt upgrade for a while. But it never works well, because I usually need to install a new software, and the nvidia update comes together.

Configurations:

UBUNTU 20.04.2 LTS, DELL G3 3590

Graphics Card: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] / Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile)

Thanks in advance


First, to find out what NVIDIA driver package you have installed, run dpkg -l | grep nvidia-driver. You'll see output like this:

$ dpkg -l | grep nvidia-driver
ii  nvidia-driver-465                             465.19.01-0ubuntu1                                      amd64        NVIDIA driver metapackage

In my case, I have nvidia-driver-465 installed, and based on your screenshots, I'm guessing you'll have nvidia-driver-390. You can prevent apt from automatically upgrading a package by using hold on it:

sudo apt-mark hold nvidia-driver-390

However, as mentioned, it's worth noting that the 390 series is very old, and nvidia-driver-460 should work for your card. If updates to the driver package are causing problems that are not solved by a reboot, you may have something else wrong with your system.