Cannot install proprietary Broadcom WiFi drivers on Ubuntu Studio Jammy 22.04.2 and Kinetic

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1993370

This is the same crash as in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/+bug/1969460 just in the qt frontend instead of the gtk one.

This bug was fixed in the package software-properties - 0.99.27.1

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software-properties (0.99.27.1) kinetic; urgency=medium

  * softwareproperties/qt/SoftwarePropertiesQt.py: Don't crash if the driver
    package does not have a matching modules package (LP: #1993370)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Wed, 19 Oct 2022 07:38:40 -0700

This bug also affects the latest Jammy daily ISO.

As https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-driver-manager/+bug/1994035 is marked a duplicate and just affected me twice in a month, last time just now, from updates being installed in the last 24 hours, I believe this to be still open. In my case, it was the VirtualBox extensions and Nvidia drivers that got trashed by an automatic system kernel update.

What happened?
• System installed updates, including a new kernel.
• After updates, on the next boot with an Nvidia eGPU (Razer Core V2 w/ Geforce GTX 1070, in case it matters), X11 didn't load, and I got an error message during boot that the VirtualBox kernel extensions couldn't be loaded.
• When booting without eGPU on Intel Graphics, and going to the Driver manager, I get the same error message from the Python script in the background as the OP.

What workaround helped?
• Disconnect eGPU
• Ctrl+F2, login from terminal
• sudo service sddm restart
Now X11 started on Intel drivers on the laptop display
• Reconnect eGPU
• uname -a to check the kernel version
• sudo apt-get install linux-headers-… matching the kernel version
• sudo service sddm restart
Now X11 is running with Nvidia drivers again

If the system has network access while in a text terminal, the following steps should be sufficient:
• Ctrl+F2, login from terminal
• uname -a to check the kernel version
• sudo apt-get install linux-headers-… matching the kernel version
• sudo service sddm restart

Here's what I think happens.
Somehow, it appears, that when updating the kernel to a newer version, the updater "forgets" that the previous kernel had headers installed as well, for additional drivers like Nvidia or VirtualBox. When the headers are missing, the recompilation of those kernel modules for the new kernel version will not run, and with the Nvidia modules missing, X11 won't start on Nvidia hardware.

Here's what I think would fix it: Ensure that when updating the kernel, if the headers for the previous kernel were installed, also install the headers for the current kernel. I don't know if the current dependency system is capable of that. And I don't know if that suggested fix has other unintended side-effects.

System information about the system on which this happened:
• Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
• Nvidia Drivers
• VirtualBox Drivers
• Intel GPU (Intel Core i7-8550U built-in graphics)
• eGPU (Razer Core V2 w/ Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070)
• Kernel: 6.1.0-1015-oem
• The system update was performed while _not_ connected to the eGPU (and thus the Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 wouldn't show up).

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu) has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that specific release.

I was able to recreate this with the following installation medium:

bdmurray@bdmurray-standardpcq35ich92009:~$ cat /var/log/installer/media-info
Ubuntu-Studio 22.04.3 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64 (20230807)

Hello Aaron, or anyone else affected,

Accepted software-properties into jammy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-properties/0.99.22.8 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-jammy to verification-done-jammy. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-jammy. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

arraybolt3: This has been in proposed for nearly three months now, please verify it ASAP. It's blocking other fixes

Will do. You'll have to forgive me, I was on a six-month hiatus from Ubuntu development and wasn't around to verify it at that time. I have the needed hardware though.

Followed the test plan using the latest daily image of Ubuntu Studio Jammy. Everything worked as expected (no error in terminal when selecting "Using Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver from bcmwl-kernel-source (proprietary)"), driver installed properly and allowed me to connect to WiFi. Driver also continued to work after a reboot. I verified that the version of software-properties on my system is the one in Proposed.

This bug was fixed in the package software-properties - 0.99.22.8

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software-properties (0.99.22.8) jammy; urgency=medium

  * softwareproperties/qt/SoftwarePropertiesQt.py: Don't crash if the driver
    package does not have a matching modules package (LP: #1993370)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Thu, 10 Aug 2023 15:08:33 -0700

The verification of the Stable Release Update for software-properties has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.