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.

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.