Ubuntu removing driver problems

You can have the driver version with cat /proc/sound4exp/version

General

If you are stuck with the message "Disconnecting sound4exp1 driver..." or "Unloading sound4exp1 driver...", you should try the followings:

1. Remove the driver, so it won't be loaded at next boot : sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms/sound4exp1.ko If the kernel has also been updated, the next reboot will be on a different kernel, so you will have to redo this and reboot, or you may delete all installed versions with sudo rm /lib/modules/*/updates/dkms/sound4exp1.ko
2. Try to stop all processes using the driver
   1. Pulse audio pulseaudio -k or sudo killall pulseaudio
   2. SOUND4 services : do ps aux | grep sound4 to see them, or systemctl | grep sound4
   3. Find other process using sound with ps aux | grep snd.
3. If the upgrade is still stuck, then you have to reboot. Be aware that the shutdown may lock for a long time (forever ?) so do this while you have access to the PC.
4. After reboot, do lsmod | grep sound4exp1 to check the module is not loaded. If it is, redo step 1 and reboot.
5. You can resume the upgrade with sudo apt upgrade. As the driver is not loaded, it will not block.

If there is no upgrade, check that the sound4 repository is still active (in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sound4.list). A dist-upgrade disables third party repositories.

For driver < 2.2

If you experience problems while wanting to upgrade or remove the SOUND4 driver, follow this procedure.

First, to avoid reload at reboot:

sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/dkms/sound4exp1.ko

Then, try to remove current from dkms.

sudo dkms remove -m sound4exp1 -v $(cat /proc/sound4exp/version) --all

For more recent ubuntu, it might be this command instead:

sudo dkms remove sound4exp1/$(cat /proc/sound4exp/version)

If this freeze on unloading driver, you have to reboot the PC and retry.

For driver < 2.8

For all versions before 2.8, the package removal script try to disconnect the driver, which freeze with most recent enough kernels. So

nano /var/lib/dpkg/info/sound4exp1.prerm

and comment line

echo "1" > /proc/sound4exp/disconnect

Then you can update the driver:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sound4exp1

If asked to dpkg-reconfigure -a, do it and retry.