Every reboot alternatives for x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf and i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf are dropped to mesa

Question

That is.

I've removed nvidia drivers with running nvidia-installer.run --uninstall, rebooted, installed fglrx, rebooted again and found that amdconfig is not found. I've googled the solution and tried to do

sudo update-alternatives --auto i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf
sudo update-alternatives --auto x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf

Then I checked the result with update-alternatives --get-selections | grep gl_conf and everything was fine. But after reboot I see again that both alternatives are set to mesa again:

i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf         manual   /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf
x86_64-linux-gnu_egl_conf      auto     /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa-egl/ld.so.conf
x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf       manual   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf

I've found the /var/log/alternatives.log and see that something explicitly sets these links during the boot:

update-alternatives 2014-06-09 18:37:50: run with --auto i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 18:37:57: run with --auto i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:28: run with --set x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:28: status of link group /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu_GL.conf set to manual
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:28: link group x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf updated to point to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:38: run with --set i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:38: status of link group /etc/ld.so.conf.d/i386-linux-gnu_GL.conf set to manual
update-alternatives 2014-06-09 22:39:38: link group i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf updated to point to /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf

How can I determine what does that? Maybe some part of nvidia driver was not correctly removed with --uninstall ?

Solution

Check here regarding uninstalling nvidia drivers, it is about "installing" but also contains how to remove what is present before that - might be you have missed something.

Comments

[Grief]

I've installed drivers not from the repository but from the official site, so they were not under package control

[Hannu]

'dpkg --list | grep nvidia' to check if there is something remaining. I did never succeed in installing just the "official" *.run archive, I always had to add something from the repositories too.

[Grief]

You were right... apt-get purge "nvidia*" solved the issue. Thanks!

[Mina Michael]

the link is broken, can anyone remember what was in it?

[Hannu]

It was obsolete info.