Module not starting at boot time on a system with secureboot enabled

[Miguel R. Araújo]

I'm using Fedora 36 (kernel 5.18.5-200.fc36.x86_64) and have compiled the driver. It works fine, but even after running deploy.sh the kernel module does not seems to start at boot time, so I have to run insmod 88x2bu.ko every time I boot my system.

Edit: I was able to start the module by running insmod 88x2bu.ko because I had signed that file, but I didn't knew that dkms wasn't installing that same file that I had signed, it was compiling a new module and wasn't signing it

[Miguel R. Araújo]

Fixed the problem.

Because I have secureboot enabled, I had to create two keys called dkms.der and dkms.key at /root, using openssl, and enroll dkms.der using mokutil. And then I uncommented the line sign_tool="/etc/dkms/sign_helper.sh" in the /etc/dkms/framework.conf file.

Then I just needed to run the deploy.sh script, after removing the previously installed module.

Step-by-step:

Ensure you have openssl and mokutil installed, then run:

sudo -i

openssl req -utf8 -new -x509 \
-newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /root/dkms.key \
-outform DER -out /root/dkms.der \
-noenc -days 36500

mokutil --import ./dkms.der 

Insert a passphrase two times, and then reboot to enroll that key.

If you run dkms status and you see that the rtl88x2bu/module-version (in my case rtl88x2bu/5.8.7.1) module is installed, run:

dkms remove rtl88x2bu/module-version

Then go to the /etc/dkms/framework.conf file and uncomment the line sign_tool="/etc/dkms/sign_helper.sh". After that you can run the deploy.sh script.

[Suburvan]

Hi,
I have two problems:

• can't find the sign_helper.sh script
• MOKutil doesn't accept the key upon reboot
• After entereing MOK on reboot, ubuntu won't load.
  I'm on ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  For precision, I'm a complete noob... Thanks!

[Miguel R. Araújo]

It seems DKMS updated, this should do it:

Step-by-step:

Step 1

Ensure you have openssl and mokutil installed, then run:

sudo -i

openssl req -utf8 -new -x509 \
-newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /var/lib/dkms/mok.key \
-outform DER -out /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub \
-noenc -days 36500

OBS: By default DKMS searches for a key pair called mok.key and mok.pub at /var/lib/dkms/. if you already have a key pair at /root/, I think renaming and moving them should be enough.

Step 2

mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub 

Insert a passphrase two times, and then reboot to enroll that key.

Step 3

If you run dkms status and you see that the rtl88x2bu/<module-version> (in my case rtl88x2bu/5.8.7.1) module is installed, run:

dkms remove rtl88x2bu/<module-version>

After that you can run the deploy.sh script.

OBS: you don't need to change anything in the framework.conf file.
OBS-2: the sign_helper.sh script doesn't exists anymore.

[Miguel R. Araújo]

Hi, I have two problems:

* can't find the sign_helper.sh script

* MOKutil doesn't accept the key upon reboot

* After entereing MOK on reboot, ubuntu won't load.
  I'm on ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  For precision, I'm a complete noob... Thanks!

About Ubuntu not loading, I'm not sure what happened there. I think you can go into your BIOS and clear all the keys saved and then try again.

Let me know if you are still having problems.

[Suburvan]

Thanks a lot! Ubuntu still doesn't load, I can only enter recovery mode to access the root shell prompt, so I did this:

• renaming the keys (dkms.key --> mok.key and dkms.der to mok.der)
• moving the key from /root/ to /var/lib/dkms/
• Import mok.der with mokutils (failed, already imported)
• delete mok.der
  -reboot
• re-import mok.der in mokutils
• reboot (this time MOK recognized it at boot)

still ubuntu HMI doesn't load (I only get a blinking "_")

[Miguel R. Araújo]

This doesn't seem to be related to enrolling the key, but I'm not sure what happened. If you can enter recovery mode, I think this means you can get to grub.

Have you done anything else before trying to enroll the key the first time? Like a System Update or something? Have you tried booting on an older kernel to see if it works? Usually there is the option to boot on previous kernel versions on grub.