"W: Possible missing firmware for module i915_bpo" when updating initramfs
Solution 1
The driver package is somewhat lagging the kernel. In my case the missing firmware doesn't matter because I don't have a SkyLake processor, but in your case it might matter. You can get the newer firmware from here.
EDIT 1: Note the link changed, but readers should still be able to find what they need in the new link, although sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what your are looking for.
EDIT 2: This answer should be applicable to some other new firmware requirements that have come along since this answer was originally written. For example:
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin for module i915
EDIT 3: For users that use git, this answer also works well.
Solution 2
May 20, 2019 Update
To answer your question you don't need to update drivers for a processor you aren't running but it is nice to see the warnings disappear when you do.
Today I received these warning:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.0.1-050001-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_dmc_ver1_27.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_04.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/cnl_dmc_ver1_07.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/icl_dmc_ver1_07.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_39.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver9_29.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver9_33.bin for module i915
I downloaded the blobs (described in next section) and then used:
$ sudo cp ~/Downloads/*.bin /lib/firmware/i915/
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.0.1-050001-generic
Now my Sky Lake (skl
) drivers are up to date and I can try out latest kernel parameters recommended on the internet. Warning messages for future processors Kaby Lake (kbl
), Cannon Lake (cnl
) and Ice Lake (icl
) are gone making life less stressful.
May 26, 2018 Update
Minor revision August 6, 2018.
New download screen of "blobs"
Recently Intel has created a new download page and new web page layout:
The download files are now called firmware blobs which is new-speak for firmware drivers. It stands for Binary Large OBject (BLOB).
Drivers are sorted by processor:
-
bxt
Broxton, Canceled in 2016, successor to Cherry Trail processors -
kbl
Kabylake, 7th generation, eg i7-7700 -
skl
Skylake, 6th generation, eg i7-6700
Then drivers are organized by subgroup (full explanation here):
- GUC - GuC is designed to perform graphics workload scheduling on the various graphics parallel engines.
- DMC - DMC provides additional graphics low-power idle states.
- HUC - HuC is designed to offload some of the media functions from the CPU to GPU.
Match error message to driver needed
Compare the error message you are receiving by update-initramfs
or update-grub
to find the missing driver. In your example the message was "/lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
" so you are missing the Kabylake GuC called: kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
in the web page shown above. You don't want the newer one: kbl_guc_ver9_39.bin
Download driver needed
There is no more installation script as in past versions. Simply highlight the missing driver (blob) and click on it. This screen appears:
Initially you only see the "hex dump" but after clicking the link titled plain a download window appears as illustrated above.
Click "Save File"
Install driver with simple sudo cp
(copy command)
After downloading, installation is a simple sudo cp
(copy command) and there are no complicated tar
commands, or ./script_name
installation steps.
Quick Install
cd ~/Downloads
sudo cp kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin /lib/firmware/i915
sudo cp bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin /lib/firmware/i915
IMPORTANT: Replace kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
and bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin
above with the missing driver names you downloaded.
VOILA! New driver is installed. Much simpler than previous installation methods for missing Intel i915 drivers!
TL;DR Exploratory Installation
I already had the driver installed. This lengthy installation method gives you an idea of before and after effects of copying the BLOB:
$ sudo updatedb
$ llocate kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
ACCESS OWNER GROUP SIZE MODIFIED NAME (updatdb last ran: 2018-05-26 12:07:57)
-rw-rw-r-- rick rick 142656 2018-05-26 /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
-rw-rw-r-- rick rick 142656 2017-02-24 /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
-rw-r--r-- root root 142656 2017-10-26 /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
$ diff /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
# Blank line appears here signifying no differences from previous version
$ sudo cp /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin /lib/firmware/i915
$ llocate kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
ACCESS OWNER GROUP SIZE MODIFIED NAME (updatdb last ran: 2018-05-26 12:07:57)
-rw-rw-r-- rick rick 142656 2018-05-26 /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
-rw-rw-r-- rick rick 142656 2017-02-24 /home/rick/Downloads/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
-rw-r--r-- root root 142656 2018-05-26 /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
Use the locate command below in place of llocate.
February 14, 2017 - Intel has released drivers
As per this bug report today (W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915) Intel has released the required Kabylake and Broxton drivers on their (https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/firmware) web page:
Download the missing drivers for Kabylake (GuC - Ver 9.14) and (DMC - Ver 1.01) and Broxton (GuC - Ver 8.7). These are in .tar.gz
and .tar.bz2
format.
Install drivers in "tar" format
Although you can run the install.sh
scripts these instructions are the easiest.
Change to the download directory and verify files are there:
:~$ cd Downloads
:~/Downloads$ ll *tar*
-rw-rw-r-- 1 rick rick 69329 Feb 14 21:05 bxtgucver87.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 rick rick 4338 Feb 14 21:06 kbldmcver101.tar.bz2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 rick rick 70402 Feb 14 21:06 kblgucver914.tar.gz
Extract the compressed tar files:
:~/Downloads$ tar -zxvf bxtgucver87.tar.gz
firmware/bxt/guc/bxt_guc_ver8_7/
firmware/bxt/guc/bxt_guc_ver8_7/install.sh
firmware/bxt/guc/bxt_guc_ver8_7/ReleaseNotes.txt
firmware/bxt/guc/bxt_guc_ver8_7/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin
:~/Downloads$ tar -xjvf kbldmcver101.tar.bz2
kbl_dmc_ver1_01/
kbl_dmc_ver1_01/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin
kbl_dmc_ver1_01/install.sh
kbl_dmc_ver1_01/ReleaseNotes.txt
:~/Downloads$ tar -zxvf kblgucver914.tar.gz
firmware/kbl/guc/kbl_guc_ver9_14/
firmware/kbl/guc/kbl_guc_ver9_14/install.sh
firmware/kbl/guc/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
firmware/kbl/guc/kbl_guc_ver9_14/ReleaseNotes.txt
Copy the files and update initramfs
:~/Downloads$ sudo cp -t /lib/firmware/i915/ firmware/bxt/guc/bxt_guc_ver8_7/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin kbl_dmc_ver1_01/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin firmware/kbl/guc/kbl_guc_ver9_14/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
:~/Downloads$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.9-040909-generic
Notice the error (warning) messages are gone!
Remove work files
:~/Downloads$ rm -r firmware kbl_dmc_ver1_01 *.tar.*
Historical (Original) Post for reference
I've had two warning messages on missing i915 drivers for Kernel's 4.6.3, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.7.3 and 4.7.5. I've ignored them and things have been fine with my HD4000 Intel Integrated Graphics. I wish the same thing could be said about Nvidia and Nouvaeu.
As one answer in your link stated you can go to Intel's website to get most up-to-date Linux Graphics drivers at: intel-linux-graphics-firmwares. However when I read that site a few weeks ago I was concerned with all the possible things that can go wrong under different scenarios so I opted out.
Did you install 4.8 release candidate 6 from September 24th? That's the most current in Ubuntu I believe. You don't have to answer but I'm curious why you went with 4.8 instead of 4.7.5, ie what the differences are you need to fix things.
Edit - October 19, 2016
Now using kernel version 4.8.1 (real version and not release candidate) for over a week and things are working nicely. This is under Ubuntu 16.04 though. Ubuntu 16.10 was released October 13th and it is using Kernel version 4.8.0 I believe.
It's not my plan to keep updating this answer but I wanted to lay to rest the inference that 4.8 release candidates might have problems. The real version does not.
Edit - February 2, 2017
Now running Kernel version 4.9.5 mainline version which at this time Ubuntu 16.04 has updated it's kernel to 4.4.0-59. Intel changed it's link for Intel Graphics for Linux drivers and I updated the new link above.
Questions still remain about the warning messages generated by sudo update-initramfs -u
when Kernel version > 4.8 (Ubuntu 16.10 and Ubuntu 17.04):
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin for module i915
As stated in the bug report (bugs.launchpad.net - linux firmware bug) the drivers simply do not exist and will not until a future chip called "kaby lake" is released.
Make the warning messages go away
To make the warning message go away I did the following:
$ sudo cp assembly/hello /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin
$ sudo cp assembly/hello /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
$ sudo cp assembly/hello /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.5-040905-generic
Voila! No more warning messages.
The program "hello" is a 504 byte assembler program that says "Hello World!". You can copy any small executable to the firmware binaries given in the error messages. When Intel eventually releases them the software updater will replace them with the real versions.
How to navigate Intel Graphics for Linux website
It was asked via comments how to navigate within the the new Intel website (01.org - Linux Graphics Downloads) which presents this screen:
Type Ubuntu 16.04
into the search field and click the Filter
button.
For Ubuntu 16.10 select the first result. In our case Ubuntu 16.04 select the second result INTEL GRAPHICS UPDATE TOOL FOR LINUX* OS V2.0.2
and this screen appears:
In my case I selected Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit which downloaded the file intel-graphics-update-tool_2.0.2_amd64.deb
to my ~/Downloads
directory.
The next step is to open the terminal and use:
cd Downloads
sudo dpkg -i intel*.deb
NOTE: Intel uses the ancients ttf font and your installation will fail if it's not on your system. At this point you need to use:
sudo apt -f install
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Now you can run the Intel Graphics for Linux Updater
tool as this screen shows:
Add Intel signatures for Ubuntu
During apt-get update
you can see warning / error messages like this:
W: GPG error: https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 56A3DEF863961D39
E: The repository 'https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/16.04/main xenial InRelease' is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
You'll need to add Intel's signatures using:
wget --no-check-certificate https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg-4 -O - | \
sudo apt-key add -
Then update in Ubuntu:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Solution 3
I also have faced a similar problem because I've updated the kernel from the Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 "Software" app (native package manager) and it crashed while updating.
So, I was barred to boot Ubuntu again because the linux-image was unsuccessfully generated.
To solve it from that point I did the following:
- Reboot linux and right after motherboard screen press
Shift
to enter into grub menu; - Select your previous linux version from menu. In my case
*4.4.0-21-generic
and pressEnter
; - Once Ubuntu is up again, uninstall the broken linux-image. In my case the
*4.4.0-59-generic
(I've used Synaptic package manager for it); - Download and install the missing firmware from Intel page (same as Doug Smythies). In my case, I got the
KabyLake kbl DMC - Ver 1.01
; - And finally, install again the linux kernel
*4.4.0-59-generic
(in my case) or justlinux-generic
for the latest complete generic Linux kernel.
Success! Kernel is up-to-date and all firmwares working fine!
Best regards!
Solution 4
If you are running debian (I have Debian GNU/Linux buster) just follow these steps:
-
create the folder:
sudo mkdir -p /lib/firmware/i915
copy all files from https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/plain/i915 to this folder
-
Reconfigure the initramfs-tools package:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure initramfs-tools
Related videos on Youtube
Byte Commander
Ask Ubuntu moderator♦, IT student and DevOps engineer. I love Ubuntu, Python, good music and coffee, although not necessarily in that order. You can easily contact me in the Ask Ubuntu General Room most of the time, or on Discord as @ByteCommander#2800. I'd also love to invite you to my Ubuntu Hideout Discord Server btw. PS: My profile picture is derived from "Wolf Tribals" by user HaskDitex (DeviantArt.com), which is under creative Commons 3.0 License. Currently I'm using the character "Dregg Morriss" from the game "Medieval Cop" by Vasant Jahav ("Gemini Gamer"). It can be found here.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
Byte Commander over 1 year
When I run a kernel or NVIDIA driver update on my 16.04, this triggers an initramfs rebuild which outputs the warning below:
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.1) ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver6.bin for module i915_bpo
I have a notebook with two graphics chips, an NVIDIA GeForce 940M and the Intel i5-6200U's integrated graphics.
The device in use is my NVIDIA card:
$ inxi -G Graphics: Card-1: Intel Sky Lake Integrated Graphics Card-2: NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 940M] Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 driver: nvidia Resolution: [email protected] GLX Renderer: GeForce 940M/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 367.35
Here's the output of
lshw -c video
, corresponding to my Intel graphics chip which should use that driver:*-display description: VGA compatible controller product: Sky Lake Integrated Graphics vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0 version: 07 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=i915_bpo latency=0 resources: irq:125 memory:a2000000-a2ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:5000(size=64)
The file in the warning does not exist, only those:
$ ll /lib/firmware/i915/ total 336 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 11 13:24 ./ drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 32768 Aug 11 13:24 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5872 Jul 21 17:03 bxt_dmc_ver1_04.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5872 Jul 21 17:03 bxt_dmc_ver1_05.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8380 Jul 21 17:03 bxt_dmc_ver1_06.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8380 Jul 21 17:05 bxt_dmc_ver1_07.bin lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jul 21 17:05 bxt_dmc_ver1.bin -> bxt_dmc_ver1_07.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8824 Jul 21 17:03 skl_dmc_ver1_23.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8928 Jul 12 21:33 skl_dmc_ver1_26.bin lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Jul 12 21:33 skl_dmc_ver1.bin -> skl_dmc_ver1_26.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 109636 Jul 21 17:03 skl_guc_ver1_1059.bin lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Jul 21 17:03 skl_guc_ver1.bin -> skl_guc_ver1_1059.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 128320 Jul 21 17:03 skl_guc_ver4_3.bin lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Jul 21 17:03 skl_guc_ver4.bin -> skl_guc_ver4_3.bin
The latest driver package seems to be installed though:
$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-intel: Installed: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1 Version table: *** 2:2.99.917+git20160325-1ubuntu1 500 500 http://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
What does this warning mean exactly and how can I fix it?
-
Csaba Toth over 7 yearsI got
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1.bin for module i915_bpo
and my CPU is SKylake with Intel HD in it. -
Csaba Toth over 7 yearsAdditionally, I'm using the
1.158
version of thelinux-firmware
package instead of the mainline1.157
because only that provided working firmware for my wifi (killer wireless). -
Byte Commander over 7 years@CsabaToth
kbl
stands for Kabylake, which is the successor of Skylake. As you don't have such a CPU, you can either ignore the warning, or just install the Kabylake driver from the same link given in Doug Smythies' answer. -
Csaba Toth over 7 yearsCorrect, i7 6820hk is just SkyLake, Kaby Lake is the next gen
-
-
Doug Smythies over 7 yearsIf I understand correctly, the error listed in your question, you would only need the GuC firmware. However, I'm not really sure.
-
Byte Commander over 7 yearsI installed both GuC and DMC drivers for Skylake successfully and I think the warning should be gone now. Thanks.
-
Byte Commander over 7 yearsOh no! I just ran the kernel update from 4.4.0-34 to 4.4.0-36 and now I have this warning instead:
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1.bin for module i915_bpo
- Where would I get thatkbl_dmc_ver1.bin
file? -
Byte Commander over 7 yearsAh, I found it. Looks like the new kernel update added support for the new Kabylake Intel processors and now it would also like to have a module driver for those. Probably it's superfluous as I don't have a Kabylake CPU, but just to get the warning away, I also downloaded and installed the kbl DMC driver from the site you linked. It looks fine again now.
-
navjotjsingh over 7 yearsWhile installing the DUC driver, I am getting the following error:
cp: cannot stat 'skl_guc_ver6_1.bin': No such file or directory ERROR: Couldn't install new firmare file guc/install.sh: 17: exit: Illegal number: -1
What to do? -
Doug Smythies over 7 years@navjotjsingh : Do you actually have a skylake processor? If not, don't bother.
-
navjotjsingh over 7 years@Doug Smythies Yes. I do have a skylake processor (i5-6400).
-
Doug Smythies over 7 years@navjotjsingh : I just tried it, and it worked fine for me. Did you run the script as sudo? i.e.
skl_guc_ver6_1$ sudo ./install.sh
-
JohnRB over 7 yearsByte_Commander you don't have a kaby lake that error is irrelevant @navjotjsingh I have installed all of these fw updates and have never had a problem just doing sudo ./install.sh Check your file permission/file crc if thats not working.
-
musiKk over 7 yearsWhat does "matter" mean? Will the new kernel not be able to boot or is there no real visible impact besides some warning messages?
-
Doug Smythies over 7 years@musiKk: If your processor is not one that needs one of the missing firmware files, then it doesn't "matter", meaning there will be no consequence due to it being missing. For example only a Skylake processor would need the "skl" firmware.
-
musiKk over 7 years@DougSmythies That answers what "doesn't matter" mean. ;) I just want to know if a processor that needs the newer firmware will not boot with such a kernel. Maybe it only affects a few features but generally works, I don't know.
-
Doug Smythies over 7 years@musiKk: I don't know either, but my guess is that, since it can not find the proper firmware, it might be a problem, and it might not know to try to find an older version.
-
Fery W over 7 yearsJust got this issue and have installed the
skl_dmc
one, but still getting this warning. When I tried to installkbl_dmc
the warning is gone. But it's odd, because the fact that I'm still using Skylake not Kabylake. -
Doug Smythies over 7 years@FeryArdiant: Yes, the warnings are not related to which processor you are actually using, just if you have the firmware or not.
-
Nickolai Leschov over 7 yearsThe link to graphics firmwares does not work anymore. Does anyone know where one can get firmwares now?
-
Nickolai Leschov over 7 yearsThe link to graphics firmwares does not work anymore. Does anyone know where one can get firmwares now?
-
Nickolai Leschov over 7 years@DougSmythies Which one is the firmware, there?
-
Doug Smythies over 7 years@NickolaiLeschov : What you need depends on which processor you have. And yes, with the new link it is not as obvious which is needed. Post the particular missing firmware warning you are wanting to solve herein, and I'll see if I can find specifically what you need.
-
Matt Mello over 7 yearsReally? I can still open it here. However, also try the following link: git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/firmware/…
-
Damian Lattenero almost 7 yearsMy friend, you saved my life here, I spend a entire day with this, why I didn't look I at your answer closer?
-
WinEunuuchs2Unix about 5 yearsThe command for Ubuntu is something like
sudo update-initramfs -u
but I'm on phone so can't confirm. Debian questions are off-topic here so your answer is unlikely to influence many people.