How to get Ubuntu to see my hardware correctly?

G'day Matt :)

I can't shed a lot of light on this matter, generally, and have to leave for my evening downunder, soon, but of concern to me is

Don't be put off by all the \\ characters. Those are required in order to allow sed to insert literal double-quotation marks into the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX string.


/etc/default/grub will have added the acpi_osi parameters to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX so it will look something like this (there may be other kernel options that were added on some previous occassion):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=! \"acpi_osi=Windows 2015\""



/boot/grub/grub.cfg will have these parameters added to every linux command-line, e.g.

linux /vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-lowlatency root=/dev/mapper/VG_OS-ubuntu_16.04_rootfs ro acpi_osi=! "acpi_osi=Windows 2015" splash $vt_handoff

Once rebooted the running kernel command-line will show something like:

$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-lowlatency root=/dev/mapper/VG_OS-ubuntu_16.04_rootfs ro acpi_osi=! "acpi_osi=Windows 2015" splash
Click to expand...

... which indicates the article is probably over 5 years old. Support for 16.04 which was an LTS release, ended last April. So it may not have been the best article to follow.

Cheers

Wizard

Edited - "5 years old" ... sticky keys :)
 
Last edited:


From what I am to understand, which I must confess is only a little - the ACPI consists of tables that the BIOS loads into RAM before the operating system starts. Some of them simply contain information about essential devices on the mainboard in a fixed format, but some like the DSDT table contain AML code.

I see - GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=! \"acpi_osi=Windows 2015\"" - IMHO this is incorrect

As many hardware vendors only test their products with the (at that time) latest version of Windows, the "regular" code paths without the workarounds are often buggy. Hence some things just don't work right - Because of this Linux usually answers yes when asked if it's Windows. So trying to set the ACPI to a specific Windows as in this case will not work.

Linux also used to answer yes when asked if it's "Linux", but that caused BIOS vendors to work around bugs or missing functionality in the (at that time) latest Linux kernel version instead of opening bug reports or providing patches. When these bugs were fixed the workarounds caused unnecessary performance penalities and other problems for all later Linux versions.

acpi_osi=Linux makes Linux answer yes again when asked if it's "Linux" by the ACPI code, thus allowing the ACPI code to enable workarounds for Linux and/or disable workarounds for Windows.

So I believe it should look like
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"
 
Ok, I'll try it but I am really coming to the end of my tether here.
 
But what specific commands do you think I should enter into the terminal?
 
If you are using the Xfce version then it would be
Code: 
sudo mousepad /etc/default/grub
or just substitute mousepad for whatever text editor you are using (i.e gedit)
now look for the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= and delete everything past the = sign
need to change it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"
save the file and reboot - see what happens
 
Can't see how to save it...Jesus jumping H christ...This is absolute murder! How to edit the file and save it. Everything is just so complex with linux! Everything!
 
Anyhow, after you’ve added that line, you can save the file. As we’re using nano, you save it by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and then ENTER.
Click to expand...

Just a quick copy/paste, as I'm headed out soon.
 
LOL Could be worse, you could be using VIM for the first time!
 
Ok, that hasn't worked. I've now spent 3 weeks trying to resolve this issue instead of working on my tracks. I haven't got time to spend the entire weekend reading every single time I have a small tech issue. I don't want to become a super geek. I am a musician and just want to record an album. Linux is just too complicated for the average person and this hardware incompatibility thing is the final straw. If I select autologin (because I hate typing a password every 5 minutes) I get an annoying popup about a keyring that I can't get rid of even using seahorse. Everytime I boot up there is a message about drivers but I am told I have all the drivers. An entire weeked just learn how to copy and paste a file into root (that was a while back). An entire weekend to figure out JACK. I can't afford to go out and get another laptop that works with linux. Plus all the pro music producers use pro tools which doesn't run on linux and all the pros use waves and kush plugins that also don't run on linux. I just want something that works. I can't see any other option at this point. If I want to use this laptop I will just have to load Windows on to it. I am bitterly dissapointed because I hate big tech and not being able to resolve a problem but we are all like dogs chasing our tails here and getting nowhere. No-one seems to really know how to fix this ACPI issue.
 
Well I have run out of ideas - Anyone else? Apparently, because of Microsoft's market dominance, the faulty ACPI implementation from Microsoft has become the de facto industry standard. As a result, Linux and other non-Microsoft operating systems have to reverse engineer the faulty ACPI implementation from MS. - You could try to update the BIOS and make sure intel-microcode is installed
Sorry I can't be of anymore help
 
This doesn't help, but I haven't bothered with suspend or hibernation in forever. I just let my screen go blank.

Even on my laptops. If I leave the house with 'em, I turn 'em off and turn them back on when I get to where I need the laptop again. They boot in mere seconds these days.

ACPI has been faulty, for exactly the reasons stated by @Lord Boltar, for quite some time.
 
Ok, slept on it. I can't go back to Windows now after all I've been through with Linux. I'll just have to accept that I have to shut the computer down when I go out. I've noticed that Zorin gives the best functionality with the brightness staying the same (instead of being dim after booting) and the brightness keys working and no popups about drivers being missing even when they aren't etc. Hopefully newer versions of linux will resolve this issue. Thanks everyone for all your kind help. I've learned a lot.
 
Matt73 said:
Ok, that hasn't worked
Click to expand...

We forget to say sometimes that when we alter /etc/default/grub and save it, we are saving the file but not updating the configuration.

We need to then perform from Terminal

Code: 
sudo update-grub

... and then reboot. Did you do that?

That works for Debian-based distros and Manjaro only, for other distros it may be different and we can tell you how.

Cheers

Wiz
 
Yeah, I did the update grub thing. It didn't work. I feel a bit silly really complaining about this. It's not exactly destroying my life but I just like things to work properly. But I can live with this.
 
Not silly, I quite understand.

Back around this time 2014, I gave Windows the flick, and was multibooting within days:
  • Linux Mint 17.0 'Qiana' Cinnamon
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 'Trusty Tahr' with the Unity desktop and
  • Zorin OS 9 with its GNOME DE
Actually made a boo-boo, deleting Windows by accident, had intended to keep it along with the new ones.

Figured "burned my bridges now, this is meant to be", and haven't regretted it.

Been a challenge sometimes, but mostly rewarding.

Chris
 
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