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I have an Asus Laptop which had ubuntu 18 installed on it. On fine day my laptop started restarting automatically on moving it even slightly. (details!).

Now the same thing happens with ubuntu 16 or a bootable pen drive of ubuntu 18. But surprisingly on using ubuntu 14 my laptop works fine, (as well as it works fine with windows). I had given the device to repair (considering it was hardware issue). But given it works with windows they are saying it's not hardware issue and probably issue with linux drivers (which does makes sense).

So I wanted to know does it make sense for it to work with ubuntu 14 but not wubuntu 18. Do they not use same/similar deivers???

Also I never explicitly downloaded and driver when workig with ubuntu. I don't know how to reinstall correct drivers. If someone could tell any procedure it would be great.

Naman
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2 Answers2

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What graphics hardware do you have? And why do you suspect it's the graphics drivers? It does sounds like you're experiencing ACPI issues. Your previous post doesn't reveal much other than you probably have a ZenBook, and your machine couldn't sync your laptop's time with an NTP server. It's possible that the newer kernel in 18.04 is doing something that's making your ZenBook run hot, hence the reason why it restarts when moved/lifted/bumped.

Just a wild guess, but you could try adding the following kernel parameters:

i915.enable_execlists=0

and 

acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009'

To add kernel parameters you need to edit /etc/default/grub (as root) using your favorite editor. You then add, inside the quotes, the lines above to the line starting with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. So your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT might look something like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.enable_execlists=0 acpi_osi=! acpi_osi='Windows 2009'"

Once you have modified your kernel parameters in /etc/default/grub, run the following:

$ sudo update-grub

After that, reboot, and see if it solves the issue.

if acpi_osi='Windows 2009' doesn't work, try acpi_osi='Windows 2015'.

If you're unable to boot in to a stable Ubuntu 18.04 to add the above kernel parameters, you may have to first temporarily add them during the boot process. Details on how to do this can be found here:

How do I add a kernel boot parameter?

Scott Deagan
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This requires some clarification for future readers, and I happened to be in the neighborhood:

IF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT DISTRO VERSIONS (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio):

Yes they do. The same drivers will work on anything, even Bodhi Moksha is based on Ubuntu, as are many other distros with weird names. Just make sure you are using the same VERSION NUMBER. (read about that next)

IF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT VERSION NUMBERS:

No they do not. For example. NVIDIA dropped support for GT Series that uses 390 drivers in >= 22.04. There won't be any, ever. This is because the CUDA and other technology is a industry asset that isnt to be shared with open source community. Once upon a time NVIDIA was considered the standard for "continued" linux support across all their cards that were still largely in use, now its following suite with AMD/ATI and only supporting so many years back or not at all in some cases. (you can see if your nvidia card is supported by simply typing nvidia-detector on a command line in a terminal).

WHY IT HAPPENS

This happens largely because nobody wants to update the kernel code or there is just no programmers to do it, or the workload is too great, or they just don't want to do it anymore. On the other end, whenever something updates the kernel in an incompatible way, the drivers need changed. This is unlike Windows where drivers are not as strictly incorporated into the kernel or requiring specific kernel features.

VS

For this reason Windows drivers are far more usable. Sometimes you can even use drivers for a completely different platform. Driver support is one thing that Windows has always had over Linux, hate to say it. I doubt this will ever change unless someone solves the "kernel-sock-blocking" problem. But then again, we might just need one person to think in a completely different direction and show us how simple it is to fix :3 (seen people do this a few times through the decades).

PLAN AHEAD

So, before installing any OS be sure to verify your card is compatible with THAT operating systems. Nowadays, even the not-so-smart search engines can give you a ballpark on that, and go from there with whatever links it throws at you.

osirisgothra
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