Ubuntu removing driver problems

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

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.