DKMS: Install Failed

Question

Every time I upgrade the system and there is an update to the kernel I see the following error in the APT logs:

run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.13.0-55-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-55-generic
Error! Problems with depmod detected.  Automatically uninstalling this module.
DKMS: Install Failed (depmod problems).  Module rolled back to built state.

What causes this? What does this mean? Do I need to fix this? How do I fix this?

Edit:

Here's the output of dkms status:

$ dkms status
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-52-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-53-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-54-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.13.0-55-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-34-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-36-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-39-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-41-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.13.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.13.0-52-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.13.0-53-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.13.0-54-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.13.0-55-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-34-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-36-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-39-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-349, 349.16, 3.16.0-41-generic, x86_64: installed
virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-54-generic, x86_64: installed
virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.13.0-55-generic, x86_64: installed
virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.16.0-34-generic, x86_64: installed
virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.16.0-39-generic, x86_64: built
virtualbox, 4.3.10, 3.16.0-41-generic, x86_64: installed

Solution

It looks like you use Ubuntu 14.04 with kernel 3.16.

But you have still 3.13 kernel meta packages that download and install these kernels.

Some DKMS modules do not build with those kernels. To be more precise they build but do not install correctly.

I suggest removing 3.13 meta packages by

 sudo apt-get remove linux-generic linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic

And also you can install Synaptic and remove unneeded 3.13 linux images and headers.

Comments

[Pilot6]

Please edit your question and add output of dkms status terminal command.

[SnakE]

Thank you, I removed everything related to the kernel 3.13 and the error is gone.

[Goddard]

How did you remove everything?

[Pdksock]

@Goddard sudo apt-get autoremove