I installed Ubuntu 20.04 on a new HP laptop. HP uses Realtek rtl8821ce wifi card.

That does not work out of the box in Linux.

I bought a usb wifi, got the new laptop connected to the net.

I installed gcc.

I read I need to install DKMS.

During the installation, I got a purple bash type window.

It asked me for a password. 2 times. Said, I would need it on boot or the 3rd party modules would not work.

Then I installed the Ubuntu deb package for the Realtek rtl8821ce wifi card

On reboot, the first time, I did see a screen mentioning manage MOK, but I went with the first option, which was .... I can't remember.

I was not asked for a password.

The Realtek wifi still does not work.

But, subsequent boots do not show any mention of MOK manager, it just goes to grub straight away.

I will try to reinstall from scatch.

Should I disable "Secure boot" in the BIOS?

I wouldn't disable secure boot on modern supported distro's. There does seem to be a few posts that suggest it is the issue. Can't really hurt to disable it though.

DKMS is dynamic Kernel module support or something. For loading modules.https://docs.01.org/clearlinux/lates...ules-dkms.html

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1071...n-ubuntu-18-04

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A search engine is your friend. It finds many answers much faster than a post in a forum.

The password request while installing dkms was asking for the users password. To install software you need root priviledges and many packages and installation tools now prompt you for that password so they can use sudo to complete the install.

dkms is the tool that builds kernel modules during install as explained here.

There should have been no need to install dkms from a thirdparty source since almost all distros that use it include it in the initial install. I know that Ubuntu 20.04 has it so your install may have damaged the original version in the distro.

You need to search for the rtl8821 driver fixes. The one included as a deb may not be up to date with the latest chipsets used and there are several posts on how to fix that. Several on this linuxquestions site.


I searched for "rtl8821ce driver" in these forums (search link at the top) and found 25 threads on the subject.

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From your description you appear to be missing all of the steps to create your own keys and then sign your newly compiled Realtek kernel module with them.

Adding your own keys to the MOK list only makes sense if you have first generated your own keys with openssl tools.

The following guide explains how to do this for Ubuntu.

https://ubuntu.com/blog/how-to-sign-...or-secure-boot

This was likely part of the MOK enrolment phase. If you first didn't generate a key pair you don't have anything to enroll. The "3rd party modules" refer to kernel modules from external sources such as the Realtek module you are trying to compile.

This is to be expected as you didn't generate a key pair, sign your module with it and then add it to the MOK list.

The OP needs help in how to sign their own kernel modules and add their own keys to UEFI. You didn't mention this at all in your post or perhaps even realize their problem.

@computersavvy: You were right:

I found what looks like a promising solution on GeeksforGeeks.org (I get a lot of tips there for Python, they are good!)

I'll try it when I get home tonight. They recommend

The password I was talking about above was not my sudo password, just a password that DKMS asked for on install.

I think I got that step wrong on reboot, I was never asked again for that password, and the Realtek wifi won't work, like they said.

Anyway, I will start from scratch, reinstall everything.

Unless you won't to go through the steps of signing the driver to work with secure boot as tofino_surfer has suggested then yes you want to disable secure boot for the wifi module to work.

I have some pics to show you, perhaps you will better understand the password I am talking about.

I did a complete reinstall, this time with a usb wifi dongle plugged in. Please see the first pic.

The first pic is the Ubuntu 20.04 installer. I clicked, "Install third party software for graphics and wifi hardware ...."

If you click that, you need a password.

After the installation completes, on reboot, I got a "Perform MOK management" screen.

I tried the second choice "enroll MOK"

The Realtek rtl28821ce on the HP laptop still does not work!

Any tips please?

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You obviously didn't read the guide I linked.

This only makes sense if you actually generated a public/private key pair using an x.509 certificate with openssl. Did you do this first ?

No kidding. No need for screaming. You obviously didn't do any of the steps in the guide I linked.

Tips ? The guide I linked https://ubuntu.com/blog/how-to-sign-...or-secure-boot
explains exactly what you need to do. If you had even read it you wouldn't have made this post. You were told what the problem was and given a guide on how to solve it and you are simply repeating the complaining in your first post.

By the way there is no need to use the installer to do this. All of the steps can be performed manually on a regular installation as the guide shows. Except for the wifi not working there is probably nothing else wrong with your installation.

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Why not disable secure boot and be done with it?

This assumes that they are able to disable secure boot. Unfortunately there are many Windows 10 laptops that are installed either with Secure Boot locked down or where Windows won't run if Secure Boot is disabled. Since many new Ubuntu users will want to dual boot with Windows this would cause a problem. Ubuntu along with Fedora and several others are the few Linux distros that can handle SB. It is a valuable skill to be able to sign your own modules and add your own MOK to the accepted key list.

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Thank you all for your advice! I appreciate it, as I really am not so savvy as far as this stuff is concerned.

This morning, around 4am (I'm an early riser) I fixed it.

If you have this trouble you can try this:

1. Get the computer with the wifi problem connected to the net somehow. I bought a usb wifi dongle, 75 Yuan, about US$11.

2. Go to here

3. Follow the instructions, then reboot

Done, solved, thank you to geeksforgeeks.org

You were lucky that this worked. Most usb wifi dongles use Realtek chips. It could have failed to run the same way the built-in one failed.

The standard advice given in this guide is to use an ethernet cable and plug your computer directly into the modem.