@duhaime No, not really. But do ask, maybe someone might answer.

@duhaime I was assuming you have already tried but have you executed this command: sudo apt-get --fix-broken install

Amen, I appreciate the follow up

I did ask in StackOverflow: stackoverflow.com/questions/61130830/…

I think these make for bad questions as they're so system specific

I did try to fix the broken install but there was evidently nothing to fix

@duhaime In my experience that is usually the problem when installing packages from Debian in Ubuntu, especially when the package is the video driver. I've had baaaaad experiences with such problems.

I'm ready to go nuclear and reinstall the os

@duhaime SO is a programming site. If you need specific Ubuntu help, you might want to search the askubuntu.com site.

Amen I searched askubuntu as well but haven't been able to resolve this just yet

Are you programming on GPU?

well I'm just trying to run other programmers' work on a gpu

basic question: how can I list all the nvidia drivers on a host?

lsmod

lsmod | grep ...

assuming you know their names

okay that's what I thought

I get i2c_nvidia_gpu 16384 0

how can I uninstall that little driver?

@Tim I would personally set up one of the laptops as an NFS server, export the /home directory and NFS mount it on the other. This is what I do at home (but with five systems sharing /home).

With two copies on different laptops, I also have backup, and I don't have to manually perform backup. With NFS, there is only one copy

Ah, you want a copy on each. Syncing will be an issue.

Is syncing slow too?

Which strategy is better, yours or mine?

Not slow, but you'll risk running into issue with a file being updated on both systems and the sync overriding the changes on one of them.

@duhaime man modprobe

@Kusalananda That is correct. Race condition

But if you always use one or the other (never both at the same time), then that problem might not occur.

... at least not often.

And you want the sync to be automatic?

yes

continuously in background

This could be a good question for the site, yes. But I haven't looked for existing questions.

But I am not sure which strategy is better. Yours or mine

This is something that I can't answer. I mean, my setup works perfectly for me. I just need to backup /home on the machine acting as file server, not on the other.

Yours is simpler, is it?

I can't answer that either. I don't know what solution allows you to reliable sync two directories continuously between two machines, so I can't say that such a solution exists, and if it does, whether it's simple. I think NFS is simple. This does not mean that someone that haven't worked with NFS will find it simple to set up.

@tim The best approach is to use lvm snapshot and sync from that. Get an snapshot every15 minutes, sync (I'll assume to the backup system), done.

@Kusalananda No, an NFS server is almost never simple to setup. Mounting NFS directories is simple, but the server is another thing.

@Isaac Hrm? I edit one file and give two commands to set it up. On OpenBSD that is.

@Kusalananda Once you know exactly what to do. Question: do the NFS munted directory restart if the server computer turns off ?

They do.

Hold on. Turns off? You mean reboot?

Yes, reboot.

Yes, the mounts are reestablished.

@Isaac Everything is simple when you know how to do it. This is what I alluded to in a comment to Tim just moments ago.

@Kusalananda And, after the reboot without re-mounting, you can keep copying to/from the mounted directory?

Without remounting? Remounting is happening automatically. While the NFS server is down, access to things within the NFS mounted directory will block.

How do you remount automatically?

It's just something an NFS client does. NFS is stateless, so if a low-level NFS instruction does not reach the server, it just blocks and resends until it succeeds. The server can jo-jo up and down however much it wants.

@Kusalananda Ok.

@Kusalananda Do you know about LVM snapshots?

The only thing that NFS is known for not handling very well is certain types of file locking.

@Isaac No. I'm not a Linux user, and the last time I ran a private Linux machine "for real", LVM did not exist.

@Kusalananda Ok. Is there no LVM in OpenBSD (I assume that is your OS) ?

@Kusalananda No, there is no LVM, but you can use rsnapshot: serverfault.com/questions/43120/…

There is no LVM in OpenBSD.

(sorry I got distracted)

@Kusalananda No, sorry rsnapshot doesn't do what LVM snapshot does.

No, you might just as well just run periodic rsyncs

Or, run in a VM and take VM snapshots ;-)

@Kusalananda The problem with periodic rsyncs is that the next file to rsync (by the list that rsync builds when called) might get erased (or, worse, modified in the middle of the rsync).

Yup

Yes, a VM snapshot migh work.

But then you would rsync the whole VM machine to then extract the filesystem?

Doesn't sound efficient.

Basically move the machine to where you do your work, more or less.

No, not efficient.

Clunky.

so here's a question. I tried removing all nvidia drivers then running an installer for a new driver. However, the installer tells me: "There appears to already be a driver installed on your system (version: 410.48)"

In any case, It is Tim who should make a decision. It is up to him.

But how would LVM snapshots help?

do you know how I can find that driver?

@Isaac Wouldn't you still have to somehow transfer the snapshot to Tim's other laptop?

The LVM snapshots are: "the filesystem as was at some point in time", frozen. All changes go to some other copy on write place. After you rsync that specific point in time copy, you remove the snapshot, all changes are updated, No trace left.

@Kusalananda You rsync against the snapshot. That makes the copy correct at the point in time the snapshot was started.

There is nothing anyone could do (edit, erase, move a file) that could break the "perfect copy".

I am learning from the discussions from you two. :)

I still think setting up an NFS server would be easier :-P :-)

@duhaime Don't worry. Post a question on the main sites

If the backup system could keep timed copies (every 15 minutes) you even get a backup for any point in time that might be needed, Erased files are not completelly gone. Modified files still retain the original file.

I posted a question here: stackoverflow.com/questions/61130830/…

on U&L or AskUbuntu

Oh, @Tim, the NFS approach might not suite you if you need to use the laptops apart over any kind of distance over which you can't perform an NFS mount, like through a restrictive firewall.

@Kusalananda If a file gets erased on the NFS server is it completely gone, correct? I suppose you can live with that, not a big issue.

@Isaac So it is.

NFS works best on a local network. (that was connected to my comment to Tim)

@Kusalananda Yes, it does.

@duhaime Post again on U&L or AskUbuntu.

@Isaac I take hourly backups though.

I posted my question on U+L as well: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/579070/…

@duhaime We close cross posts... Delete other posts first.

will do

@Kusalananda What is wrong here unix.stackexchange.com/a/579059/232326 ? Two down votes already.

okay there shall be only one post

@Isaac I dunno (I did not vote), but possibly that you suggest editing a file on a system that is inaccessible?

@duhaime I did not check, but good.

@Kusalananda The OP question is: "Is there a way the root user of the computer could access that file in my directory and change it?" Whether he has access or not seems to be outside his question.

@Isaac It's a bit funny, that. So they're basically asking is someone else can fix their issue?

Yeah. There's nothing technically wrong about your answer then. Just that the person that you give the answer to can't do anything with it :-)

The other answer goes a bit further, but then dumps them at the same point, basically.

I need some sleep. Be well, behave, and remember to double quote all expansions!

... unless you're in zsh in which case: stop touching that prompt setup, a simple $ will do!

@duhaime I don't feel qualified to answer your question, but to able to remove all traces of a video driver you must stop X, that means to drop down to one of the Ctrl-Alt-F1 to F6 consoles and use root to stop X. Or boot to a root console. Then, you can erase anything you want.

@Kusalananda Isn't it a simple %

@Kusalananda Good night ...