Get missing drivers [1]

Linux operating system include lots of drivers for present hardware, though it might occur that certain (proprietary) drivers need to be installed manually. This guide shows how to do so.

Screen stays black

After an installation of Linux on a system that previously ran Windows, it might happen that the screen stays black on the start of the Linux installer. On Ubuntu-like distribution the GRUB boot menu first shows after starting from an installer media device.

When continuing with the normal start and the screen stays black try:

  1. Start Linux in safe-mode / compatibility-mode

  2. Start with additional boot parameters

    1. Select a boot option in the GRUB boot menu, then hit E.

    2. In the opened text list, navigate with the cursor buttons and add one or more option into the line starting with linux (add them before the --). These options might help:

      • xforcevesa: kernel will only use the VESA-mode for display which runs on most graphic chips

      • nomodeset: prevents the system to switch into graphical mode (stays in text mode). Some Nvidia cards have troubles here.

      Linux Mint only (compatibility-mode)

      • acpi=off or noacpi: ACPI is ignored which causes the GPU & CPU to launch without power saving, hyperthreading or fan control.

      • acpi=ht: only hyperthreading and CPU are working, rest is ignored

      • acpi=strict: forces ACPI-support of the kernel to only consider ACPI attributes of hardware that follows the exact standard

      • acpi_osi=linux: skips the validation if ACPI of the computer is compatible

      • noapic: prevents APIC is used for the interrupt layer

      A useful combination is found to be: acpi=off noapic nolapic

After Linux has been successfully installed, in case of video errors persist, try to boot with the same options as in the last step, then make the parameters permanent (until a proper driver is installed).

Open

$ sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub

and edit this line with your parameters:

LINUX="[parameter_1]=[value_1] [parameter_2]=[value_2]"

To persist those in the GRUB, run

$ sudo update-grub

After a restart, the changes are set.

Determine the hardware specifics & get driver

Before getting the proper driver, the exact specifics of the hardware piece must be determined. Each device owns a unique ID, which determines the device and its manufacturer. Save all your hardware IDs into files:

$ sudo lshw -numeric -html > lshw.html
$ sudo lspci -nn > lspci.txt
$ sudo lsusb -v > lsusb.txt

The lshw.html shows general machine information, while the lspci.txt and lsusb.txt list information about PCI and USB devices.

Hint

An example ID for a PCI device might be 0bda:b812, in which the 0bda determines the manufacturer and b812 determines the device.

After determining the devices ID go to https://linux-hardware.org/?view=search and enter the manufacturer ID (Vendor ID) and device ID into the respective fields. The result entry should list the respective driver. Another way is to probe your device

$ sudo apt get hw-probe
$ sudo -E hw-probe -all -upload

which reveals a URL to open in the browser.

In any way, the listed driver should state works or detected to work and must be compatible with the kernel version your distribution uses. To determine that run

$ uname -a

If there is no match, it’s best to switch to matching Linux distribution.

Compile driver & install

If the driver’s source code is available, it can be compiled locally. It is crucial that it is compatible with the kernel. The steps differ from driver to driver, so an attached manual should be read carefully.

Example for a Wifi stick RT88x2bu:

  1. Install binary packages needed:

    $ sudo apt get git build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

  2. Go to the drivers repository (here: https://github.com/morrownr/88x2bu-20210702)

  3. Sync the repository

    $ mkdir -p ~/src
$ cd ~/src
$ git clone [URL]
$ cd 88x2bu-20210702

  4. Execute these commands:

    $ make clean
$ make
$ sudo insmod 88x2bu.ko

  5. Check the kernel output on the loading of the driver for issues:

    $ dmesg

  6. For most driver, this command needs to be executed next:

    $ sudo make install

    This puts the driver into /lib/modules/[kernel_version], which is loaded upon the next Linux build

Unsigned driver

For some drivers, they might not be loaded on startup due to secure boot, which forbid loading of unsigned drivers. Either secure boot needs to be deactivated or the driver must be signed.

To find out if the driver is signed run

$ modinfo [module_name]

If the module cannot be installed via DKMS, execute these lines to sign it manually (execute from directory where [MODULE] resides and adapt name):

$ export KERNEL_BUILD=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build
$ sudo -E $KERNEL_BUILD/scripts/sign-file sha256 /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.priv /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der [Modul].ko

For more info visit https://github.com/Myria-de/kernel-modules.