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Fixing Missing Wireless Drivers and Kernel Modules on Xubuntu

Introduction

Recently, I encountered an issue where my laptop running Xubuntu lost wireless connectivity, Bluetooth, and MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) support. After investigating, I found that the required kernel modules were missing. Since I had no internet access on the affected system, I had to manually recover and install the necessary drivers using a Live USB.

This article covers how I diagnosed and fixed the issue, including mounting the existing installation in a live environment, copying necessary files, and manually installing the missing kernel packages.

Problem Diagnosis

Symptoms

  • No WiFi adapter detected.
  • Running modprobe ath10k_pci returned "Module not found".
  • Bluetooth was not working.
  • MTP (Android file transfer) was broken.
  • The system was running kernel 6.8.0-55, but the ath10k drivers were missing.
  • No internet access to download missing packages.

Checking for Missing Kernel Modules

First, I checked if the required ath10k driver files were present:

ls /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/

The directory was empty, meaning the wireless drivers were missing.

Solution: Installing Missing Kernel Modules from a Live USB

Since I had no network access, I used a Live USB to manually install the missing kernel modules and headers.

Step 1: Boot into a Xubuntu Live USB

I booted into a Xubuntu Live USB and opened a terminal to access the system.

Step 2: Locate and Mount the Existing Installation

To access the files from my existing installation, I first identified my root partition using:

lsblk

Since my system used LVM, I listed the available volumes:

sudo vgscan
sudo lvscan

This showed my root volume as /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root.

To mount the root filesystem:

sudo mkdir /mnt/root
sudo mount /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root /mnt/root

Then, I mounted additional system directories to ensure smooth operation:

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/root/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/root/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/root/sys
sudo mount --bind /run /mnt/root/run

Step 3: Chroot into the Installed System

To make changes as if I were inside the installed OS, I ran:

sudo chroot /mnt/root

Now, I was inside my actual system’s environment, but the missing kernel modules were still an issue.

Step 4: Copy and Install the Required Kernel Packages

I had previously downloaded the following .deb files from another machine with internet access:

  1. linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-55-generic
  2. linux-headers-6.8.0-55
  3. linux-headers-6.8.0-55-generic

Since my system was already mounted under /mnt/root, I copied these files from my USB to the mounted system:

cp /media/xubuntu/USB_DRIVE/linux-*.deb /mnt/root/home/user0/

Then, inside the chrooted environment, I installed them:

cd /home/user0
sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-extra-6.8.0-55-generic_6.8.0-55.57_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-6.8.0-55_6.8.0-55.57_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-6.8.0-55-generic_6.8.0-55.57_amd64.deb

Step 5: Update Initramfs and Grub

After installation, I regenerated the initramfs:

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

Then, I updated GRUB in case boot settings needed to be refreshed:

sudo update-grub

Step 6: Exit Chroot and Unmount Filesystems

After installing everything, I exited the chroot:

exit

Then, I unmounted all system directories to prevent corruption:

sudo umount /mnt/root/dev
sudo umount /mnt/root/proc
sudo umount /mnt/root/sys
sudo umount /mnt/root/run
sudo umount /mnt/root

Step 7: Reboot and Verify

Finally, I rebooted the system:

sudo reboot

After booting into my main system:

  • WiFi was working 🎉
  • Bluetooth was detected
  • MTP worked again for Android file transfer

Conclusion

The issue was caused by missing linux-modules-extra and linux-headers for my kernel version. These packages contained critical wireless drivers (ath10k_pci) and other essential networking components.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Always match kernel modules and headers to the installed kernel version.\ ✅ Use **, **, and ** to find and mount existing installations from a Live USB.**\ ✅ **Chrooting into an existing system allows package installation even when it won’t boot properly.**\ ✅ **Install dependencies in the correct order (** → ** → **).

This method can be used to recover missing kernel drivers without internet access, ensuring your system remains fully functional. 🚀

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