rmmod: ERROR: Module nvidia is in use

Question

lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia              18833408  21
ipmi_msghandler       102400  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia

sudo rmmod nvidia
rmmod: ERROR: Module nvidia is in use

sudo rmmod -f nvidia
rmmod: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:793 kmod_module_remove_module() could not remove 'nvidia': Resource temporarily unavailable
rmmod: ERROR: could not remove module nvidia: Resource temporarily unavailable

modinfo nvidia
filename:       /lib/modules/5.3.0-28-generic/updates/dkms/nvidia.ko
alias:          char-major-195-*
version:        430.26
supported:      external
license:        NVIDIA
srcversion:     89BDA0F56877588EC9454C6
alias:          pci:v000010DEd00000E00sv*sd*bc04sc80i00*
alias:          pci:v000010DEd*sv*sd*bc03sc02i00*
alias:          pci:v000010DEd*sv*sd*bc03sc00i00*
depends:        ipmi_msghandler
retpoline:      Y
name:           nvidia
vermagic:       5.3.0-28-generic SMP mod_unload
signat:         PKCS#7
signer:
sig_key:
sig_hashalgo:   md4
parm:           NvSwitchRegDwords:NvSwitch regkey (charp)
parm:           NVreg_Mobile:int
parm:           NVreg_ResmanDebugLevel:int
parm:           NVreg_RmLogonRC:int
parm:           NVreg_ModifyDeviceFiles:int
parm:           NVreg_DeviceFileUID:int
parm:           NVreg_DeviceFileGID:int
parm:           NVreg_DeviceFileMode:int
parm:           NVreg_InitializeSystemMemoryAllocations:int
parm:           NVreg_UsePageAttributeTable:int
parm:           NVreg_MapRegistersEarly:int
parm:           NVreg_RegisterForACPIEvents:int
parm:           NVreg_EnablePCIeGen3:int
parm:           NVreg_EnableMSI:int
parm:           NVreg_TCEBypassMode:int
parm:           NVreg_EnableStreamMemOPs:int
parm:           NVreg_EnableBacklightHandler:int
parm:           NVreg_RestrictProfilingToAdminUsers:int
parm:           NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations:int
parm:           NVreg_DynamicPowerManagement:int
parm:           NVreg_EnableUserNUMAManagement:int
parm:           NVreg_MemoryPoolSize:int
parm:           NVreg_KMallocHeapMaxSize:int
parm:           NVreg_VMallocHeapMaxSize:int
parm:           NVreg_IgnoreMMIOCheck:int
parm:           NVreg_NvLinkDisable:int
parm:           NVreg_RegistryDwords:charp
parm:           NVreg_RegistryDwordsPerDevice:charp
parm:           NVreg_RmMsg:charp
parm:           NVreg_GpuBlacklist:charp
parm:           NVreg_TemporaryFilePath:charp
parm:           NVreg_AssignGpus:charp

How to unload nvidia from kernel?

UPDATE: I have tried to delete Nvidia driver, but it don't help:

sudo apt-get --purge remove "*nvidia*"
sudo /usr/bin/nvidia-uninstall

UPDATE: After reboot:

lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia_drm             49152  0
nvidia_modeset       1114112  1 nvidia_drm
nvidia              18833408  22 nvidia_modeset
drm_kms_helper        180224  1 nvidia_drm
drm                   483328  3 drm_kms_helper,nvidia_drm
ipmi_msghandler       102400  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia
i2c_nvidia_gpu         16384  0

Answer 1

Switch to the nouveau driver first, then purge the nvidia drivers.
To remove, run Software & Updates/Additional Drivers tab. at the bottom of the list of drivers, is the nouveau driver. Select it, click on the apply button, when done, a logout/in might work, but better to try a reboot to ensure everything is working. After a reboot, the nvidia driver should not be in use (lsmod |grep -i nvidia should produce nothing). Now if you really want, you may remove the nvidia packages, but leaving them around does not hurt, and will make it easier to switch back from the nouveau driver.

Answer 2

Since this module is currently in use by another module, you can't. If you don't need it anymore, you can remove the nvidia driver from your system. Another method would be to forcefully remove it with rmmod -f, but I would not recommend doing so.