Many drivers not working on new laptop install

Hello, I'm new here (coming from windows after the system-breaking KB5053598 update) and I've just switched to Zorin OS today on my desktop and it's going great! I've also installed on my CyberPowerPC Tracer III 15 Series laptop, and it's not going so great there. Just before install, the install USB version saw my wifi card and had me join my router without problems. Now, after install there is no wifi (wifi settings say no wifi adapter found), no touchpad, no sound, etc. I've disabled Secure Boot in the BIOS and am using AHCI. Here is what a "sudo lshw -C network" returns:

*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 14.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:14.3
version: 10
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:a4414000-a4417fff
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 15
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:3000(size=256) memory:a4204000-a4204fff memory:a4200000-a4203fff

Yes, I've tried turning wifi on/off via fn+F4 and I've tried connecting an ethernet cable to take updates. The updater cites multiple available updates but fails to install. No wired connection is visible to the OS either even though the cable is good (works on another device) and is firmly connected. Notably, plugging in a USB stick threw an error that the 'exfat' filesystem is unknown. Also notably, my laptop has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, however the graphics in about says, "llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.7, 256 bits). The “Additional Drivers” tab in Software & Updates says, "Using NVIDIA driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-550 (proprietary, tested)".

It's overall acting as if Secure Boot in the BIOS is activated, but it indeed is deactivated. I know this because it happened on my desktop earlier, and as soon as I disabled Secure Boot everything worked great. Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi, welcome to Zorin OS!

During the installation, there is an option to download and install third-party drivers. It should be checked by default, but in case you unchecked that you can try to re-install this package to install the drivers.

sudo apt reinstall linux-firmware

Hi and welcome. Having searched Linux Hardware for your model it works with Ubuntu 18.04 (= Zorin 15):

Using Brave A.I. search engine it states:

Linux Driver for Cannon Lake WiFi

The Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver for Linux is supported by the iwlwifi module, which is included in the Linux kernel versions 4.13 to 6.3. The driver is sourced from drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/pcie/drv.c and requires the configuration options CONFIG_IWLWIFI , CONFIG_WLAN , and CONFIG_WLAN_VENDOR_INTEL to be enabled.

For the CyberPowerPC Tracer III 15 Series, the specific hardware ID for the Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi is 8086:a370:*:0034 for kernel versions 4.13 to 5.6, and 8086:a370 for versions 5.7 to 6.3.

The device is known to work on various systems running Debian Testing and Ubuntu MATE, as reported by users.

For troubleshooting and ensuring the driver is correctly installed, you can check the system logs for any errors related to the iwlwifi module. If issues persist, consider checking the power management settings and ensuring the latest firmware is installed.

Welcome to the Forum!

Were on the ''Additional Drivers'' Tab other Drivers listed? there could be Drivers for Network, too.

Is Your System running in Wayland or Xorg? Because You have a Nvidia Card it would be better to use Xorg. Please look in Settings>About if there stands Wayland or X11.

And is Your Machine in Dual-Boot?

Thanks so much for all your attempts to help, I really appreciate it!
None of the suggestions worked, so I decided to review BIOS settings. As previously mentioned, I had already disabled Secure Boot. I've additionally disabled Intel Virtualization Technology as well as disabled LAN Remote Boot. I then reinstalled the OS from USB and now this time, for whatever reason, it mostly worked! I was able to take updates and everything seems okay, with the exception that settings > about says the graphics are, "Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) / Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630". When checking Software & Updates > Settings > Additional Drivers, it shows my Geforce GTX 1650 Mobile and various driver options below, however they are all ghosted out and there is a message saying, "This device is using a manually-installed driver. No proprietary drivers are in use". None of the Nvidia drivers are selectable in this window. In light of "Ponce-De-Leon" mentioning Wayland vs Xorg, it's Wayland so I've followed the very bottom of Activate NVIDIA Graphics Card and I'm unable to login when “Zorin Desktop on Xorg” is selected for my user. After entering my credentials, it thinks for a moment and then re-presents me with the user selection page (loops). Any ideas of how to proceed? Thanks again!

Okay, then let's try the Following:

First type this:

sudo apt purge nvidia* libnvidia*

That should delete all maybe present Nvidia Drivers first. If one of the Packages shouldn't be installed do the Command again without the not installed Package. and if both are not installed, it is okay. Then no Nvidia Stuff is installed. Should something be uninstalled, type next:

sudo apt autoremove

That deletes File Rests. BUT: please take a Look at the List of Elements what will be deleted before You delete them.

After this install a Nvidia Driver with:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550

You can change the Number at the last Position against another if You want or need try an older Driver for Your Graphics Card. If the Nvidia Driver is installed, try changing to Xorg again.

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Thanks once again for your attempt to help. Before noticing your reply Ponce-De-Leon, I was messing around with the laptop and checking things over again. Suddenly another update notification appeared. After another update, I can now see:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650/PCIe/SSE2 / Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630

...as the "Graphics" shown under About. These two are indeed accurate to what is on my device. So, I presume this means that the concern is over? Another check of the Software Updater > Settings > Additional Drivers looks the same as before. All NVIDIA ghosted out with, "Continue using a manually installed driver" as the selected option with no means to select anything else. Am I to assume that it's okay now? Is there a way beyond the About page to verify? I don't want to start playing some game later and learn that I cannot use the GPU. Thanks.

You could try it with the nvidia-smi Command in the erminal to let You show an Overview for You Graphics. Simply type nvidia-smi

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Thanks again! Here's that result:

technowolf@technowolf-Tracer-III-15-Series:~$ nvidia-smi
Thu Mar 20 14:27:32 2025
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.120 Driver Version: 550.120 CUDA Version: 12.4 |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Off | 00000000:01:00.0 Off | N/A |
| N/A 33C P0 6W / 50W | 3MiB / 4096MiB | 0% Default |
| | | N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=========================================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 1424 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 1MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Further, I've checked the following two things:

technowolf@technowolf-Tracer-III-15-Series:~$ inxi -G
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] driver: i915 v: kernel
Device-2: NVIDIA TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q] driver: nvidia
v: 550.120
Device-3: Chicony HD Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 1.22.1.1 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.9 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nouveau
unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2)
v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.3

technowolf@technowolf-Tracer-III-15-Series:~$ sudo lshw -C display
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
resources: irq:149 memory:a3000000-a3ffffff memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:a0000000-a1ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memory:a4000000-a407ffff
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630]
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
logical name: /dev/fb0
version: 00
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
configuration: depth=32 driver=i915 latency=0 resolution=1920,1080
resources: irq:145 memory:a2000000-a2ffffff memory:80000000-8fffffff ioport:5000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

So, does it look like I'm all good now as far as the NVIDIA driver? By the way, I'm still unable to login when “Zorin Desktop on Xorg” is selected for my user. Is that a deeper problem? I've just discovered THIS thread on the similar issue, except mine is the opposite. Is this a concern in my case, and if so, is there something I should do, or a Xorg reinstall command similar to:

sudo apt reinstall zorin-os-desktop gdm3

Would it perhaps be this?

sudo apt reinstall zorin-os-lite-desktop

Yes, the Nvidia Card seems to be used now. So, this should be okay.

Because of Xorg: Yes, it is a bit weird. Only to make it clear. You go to the Login Screen and You click on Your Profile, the Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner appears, You click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin desktop on Xorg'' and then You type in Your Password and ... it jumps back to the Login Screen?

Because You are on Core this would be the right Command. And yes, You can try it. It will reinstall the Zorin Core desktop and the Login Manager.

Correct. I will try the reinstall command and report back later how it goes. Currently I'm installing Zorin OS on my second laptop so my physical desk space is occupied. If the reinstall command does not fix it, should I start over from USB clean install?

That is an Option, yes. Of Course, it is a bit annoying to do it. A couple of Things for this:

  • Check the Checksum of the ISO
  • Try it with an Offline Installation or at least without installing it with Updates and Stuff. That You can make after it.
  • And install it without Nvidia Drivers. You can install them after the Installation, too.
  • Secure Boot is already off but take a Look if Fast Boot is turned off in BIOS, too. And if You have a Dual-Boot System turn off Fast Start-Up in Windows, too.

Thank you once again. The reinstall command had no effect, and before seeing your last reply, I've reinstalled from scratch via USB yet again. This time, I was sure to immediately select “Zorin Desktop on Xorg” upon my first login after the install restart. So far after updating, examining and testing, everything is working normally.

The moral to the story in my perception is to 'from-scratch' reinstall repeatedly until the desired behavior is attained and the bugs are gone since essentially that is what it took on this particular device.

I'm very grateful for all your help. Thank you so much!!

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