Fix NVIDIA Dpkg File Conflict Quickly | Generated by AI

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Question: How do I fix the dpkg error “trying to overwrite /lib/firmware/nvidia/535.288.01/gsp_ga10x.bin” caused by a conflict between nvidia-kernel-common-535 and nvidia-firmware-535-535.288.01 packages on Ubuntu?

Answer:

Root Cause

This is a known conflict: when the nvidia-kernel-common-535 and nvidia-firmware-535-535.288.01 packages happen to be at an identical upstream version, they both ship identical firmware files at the same path on disk. When a user attempts to install both, this results in a dpkg file conflict.

The two packages from different sources (Ubuntu repo vs. NVIDIA’s own repo) both try to own the same file: /lib/firmware/nvidia/535.288.01/gsp_ga10x.bin.

Fix Options (in order of preference)

The cleanest approach is to remove the standalone firmware package that conflicts, then let nvidia-kernel-common-535 own those firmware files:

sudo apt remove nvidia-firmware-535-535.288.01
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt upgrade

Option 2: Force overwrite with dpkg --force-overwrite

This tells dpkg to proceed and overwrite the conflicting file. Note that the --force-overwrite command is only recommended for experienced Linux users and may further break your system if done incorrectly.

# Force-overwrite the two conflicting packages
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-wlv4CV/07-nvidia-kernel-common-535_535.288.01-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-wlv4CV/01-libnvidia-extra-535_535.288.01-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

# Then fix broken dependencies
sudo apt --fix-broken install

Or using the apt cache path if the files are there:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/nvidia-kernel-common-535_535.288.01-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install

Option 3: Full clean reinstall of NVIDIA drivers

If the above don’t work, do a full purge and reinstall:

# Remove all NVIDIA packages
sudo apt purge nvidia-* libnvidia-* cuda-drivers* --autoremove
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

# Update and reinstall
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535

After Any Fix

Always run these cleanup commands at the end:

sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo apt upgrade
sudo reboot

After reboot, verify the driver is loaded:

nvidia-smi

Why This Happens

You likely have packages from two different sources installed simultaneously:

The version suffix difference (0ubuntu1 vs 0ubuntu0.22.04.1) indicates different package origins. The safest long-term fix is to pin to one source only — either Ubuntu’s ubuntu repo or NVIDIA’s official repo, but not both mixed together.

References:

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