Install restricted drivers in command line

command-line wireless drivers proprietary ubuntu-minimal

13,118

Solution 1

You can run jockey-text, which is the command line equivalent of the "Additional Drivers" GUI tool.

jockey-text -h will show you the options available.

Solution 2

jockey-text -l

shows what drivers are available

jockey-text -e <type:name>

enables a driver. Only last -e seems to be used. eg.

jockey-text -e kmod:wl

It goes quiet for a long time during which it fetches and installs the driver. You can use

jockey-text -l

again to check that your driver is now enabled.

13,118

Oxwivi

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Oxwivi over 1 year

I'm aware there's already been a question and answer regarding Nvidia drivers, but my case is a little different. My wireless adapter's driver is proprietary, and for a minimal install, I need a command to install it. A general command for any other restricted driver that I may come across in the future would also be extremely helpful.
- Admin about 13 years
  
  Do the instruction in the other answer work for you? (--list in particular)
- Admin about 13 years
  
  No, I didn't try it since I've only one system. Is jockey-text pre-installed in Ubuntu installs?
Oxwivi about 13 years

Do I need to install anything to use it? And is it necessary to have jockey* installed for restricted drivers?
Jorge Castro about 13 years

It's installed by default, and unless you plan to manually hunt down individual drivers then you need it installed to fetch the right ones.
Oxwivi about 13 years

Thou art mistaken, for executing the above code asketh me to installeth jockey-common.
Jorge Castro about 13 years

what code? Did it ask you to install jockey-common after you ran jockey-text for the first time?
Oxwivi about 13 years

Anyway, it'd be great if I could simply locate and download only the necessary driver package for my model since jockey seems to be an one-time use application.
Oxwivi about 13 years

It's exaclty as you say, after I ran the command (sorry not code) it asked to me install jockey-common. By the way, it's actually the second time, the first time was before I installed any GUI.
Jorge Castro about 13 years

ok, then what happened? Did it find the driver you needed?
Oxwivi about 13 years

Can't answer that right now. Like I commented on the question, I've got only one active system, so I can't try it out outright. What I've updated you on are just the results on a VM I'm running.
Oxwivi about 13 years

I've confirmed in a live run of Ubuntu.