modprobe nvidia throws error: could not insert 'off'

Question

I am trying to configure bumblebee to switch my nvidia discrete card. As well bumblebee crashes when tries to modprobe nvidia. When i try to do it manually, i face the same error:

$ modprobe nvidia

modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:832 kmod_module_insert_module() could not find module by name='off'
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'off': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

Nvidia driver version is 410, when using 390 i face the same error.

Solution

So, IMHO, nvidia did some changes to their install. For everyone trying to get bumblebee work with their nvidia driver, you have to know that:

1. Now nvidia library is located in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

2. blacklist-nvidia.conf file is located in /lib/modprobe.d/

The answer was in blacklist-nvidia.conf, which still had alias nvidia off uncommented.

Comments

[Admin]

Shouldn't you be using nvidia-prime? And then switch cards using the Nvidia X Server Settings? Bumblebee is outdated, I think.

[V. Dalechyn]

@GabrielaGarcia I would use it, but it doesn't turn my discrete card off. Earlier I used bumblebee to shut down discrete card, and had success, but I've tried to update my nvidia drivers which broke everyhting. So my only choice is to use bumblebee.

[Admin]

You're supposed to reboot after setting a different card. Did you? (I know, we don't have to in Windows, but I'm telling you how it is in Ubuntu/Linux)

[V. Dalechyn]

@GabrielaGarcia Yes, of course I did. I also had problems with that (login screen freeze), but there was a problem with ACPI tables. Now i can prime-select but my discrete card stays ON always, which doubles up my power discharge.

[nesuribe]

Confirmed to work in 18.04 after upgrade to nvidia 390.77. Bumblebee works for me now.

[Epimetheus]

I'm not using bumblebee but my Ubuntu 18.04 laptop stopped loading the nvidia driver and sudo modprobe -v nvidia had the same error message as in this question. Commenting out the alias nvidia off in blacklist-nvidia.conf fixed it for me.