Why would Linux Mint do this ???

[Deadjasper]

Computer in question is a Shuttle DH370. It does not have, never has had and never will have anything Nvidia in it but yet update has loaded a shit pot load of Nvidia garbage on it, like 3 full pages of Nvidia garbage. Why would it do that?

 

[pendragon1]

so other people with nvidia cards can use them?

 

[Shoganai]

From Claude:

The Shuttle DH370 uses an Intel Coffee Lake CPU with integrated UHD 630 graphics ... no discrete GPU. But Linux Mint (being Ubuntu-based) ships with a tool called ubuntu-drivers and the nvidia-prime infrastructure that are designed to handle Nvidia Optimus setups. The problem is that these tools cast a wide net. When the package manager runs its dependency resolution or when certain meta-packages are recommended, it can pull in a large stack of Nvidia support libraries, DKMS modules, and driver packages ... even on hardware that has zero Nvidia silicon. It's essentially the distro hedging its bets, and it's a known annoyance on Intel-only machines.

The packages themselves aren't "active" — they're not doing anything since there's no GPU to attach to — but they're dead weight, waste disk space, and clutter your update manager.

How to remove them cleanly

First, see exactly what's installed:

dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia

Then remove the whole pile:

sudo apt purge "*nvidia*"
sudo apt autoremove

One important caveat: Linux Mint installs its own package called nvidia-prime-applet which is part of the Mint system infrastructure (even on non-Nvidia machines). The wildcard command above will nuke it. Reinstall it immediately after:

sudo apt install nvidia-prime-applet

Then reboot and verify:

dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia

You should be left with just nvidia-prime-applet and nothing else.

Preventing it from coming back

In Update Manager, you can set the "Level 4/5" (recommended/dangerous) updates to be shown but not auto-applied. The Nvidia packages tend to sneak in through those recommendation chains. If you see them reappear in future updates, just decline them.

The machine will run perfectly fine with just the Intel i915 kernel driver — it needs nothing else.

 

[CrimsonKnight13]

Any reason why you're always having issues with Linux Mint?

 

[Vermillion]

Any reason why you're always having issues with Linux Mint?

With the all the issues why keep using Mint? I guess he likes the abuse.

 

[Deadjasper]

Thanks for the help guys. Be seein' ya.

 

[ChadD]

Thanks for the help guys. Be seein' ya.

Their package manager pulling in a bunch of NV stuff is silly... I guess I can understand it.
I guess Mint erring on the side of you might need this makes sense for a distro like Mint.
I imagine your annoyance might save some other poor optimus user a ton of headache. (probably easier for someone with a working system to remove a few packages, then have someone with a borked system try and find the right ones)
Sounds like you can at least remove it manually.

 

[Vermillion]

Thanks for the help guys. Be seein' ya.

Oh come on. This is is the [H]. If we don't joke it isn't the [H].

Shoganai gave you the answer as well. It's Mint being Mint and including packages that aren't needed for the sake of including packages that may cover some strange use case. Just purge them and move on. Or better yet move on to a better distro.

 

[ChadD]

Oh come on. This is is the [H]. If we don't joke it isn't the [H].

Shoganai gave you the answer as well. It's Mint being Mint and including packages that aren't needed for the sake of including packages that may cover some strange use case. Just purge them and move on. Or better yet move on to a better distro.

TO be fair their are a ton of laptops with Intel + NV dGPUs. Not including the drivers for them would be a huge PITA for a lot of people.
On the other hand... their are distros that do run a proper hardware check.

 

[pendragon1]

TO be fair

 

[Vermillion]

TO be fair their are a ton of laptops with Intel + NV dGPUs. Not including the drivers for them would be a huge PITA for a lot of people.
On the other hand... their are distros that do run a proper hardware check.

Agreed. Hardware checks matter.

 

[jardows]

If you want a lean system, you need to avoid "user friendly" distributions like Ubuntu and Mint. To make it easier to adopt, these distributions take a "kitchen sink" approach, and unfortunately tie in a lot of unnecessary cruft to the base system. This may be an easier approach, but it does not lend itself to good efficiency. Even Windows doesn't install a bunch of Nvidia stuff unless you have nVidia hardware installed!
If you want lean, pick a more specialized distro, or go for one of the bare bones builder distros like void.