Adding SAS RAID Drivers to CentOS 8 and Red Hat Linux During Installation

CentOS 8 and Red Hat Linux 8 removed a lot of built in RAID controller and SAS drivers.  As such, you'll need to identify your SAS RAID controller card model number, and then during the installation of CentOS 8 or Red Hat, you will need to follow these instructions (modifying them for your hardware).

https://gainanov.pro/eng-blog/linux/rhel8-install-to-dell-raid/

If for some reason the link above is no longer available, I saved and archived a copy which can be read here.

Add El Repo Permanently

As updates are released to CentOS 8 / Rocky Linux / Red Hat 8, the kernel will often be upgraded.  To make sure the SAS drives are updated as well, you'll need to configure your system to pull updates from El Repo automatically by using the following commands:

sudo rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
sudo yum install https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm
sudo yum update -y

In case the above instructions no longer work, this guide should help.

Disable NetworkManager Wait Online Service

Prevent the boot from being halted on startup by network connection checks by running the below command:

sudo systemctl mask NetworkManager-wait-online.service

Fixing Sound in Ubuntu

If your sound quits working randomly after installing updates via the apt system (via sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade) or via the Software & Updates graphical program, it's possible that some of the drivers have not been installed with the latest kernel updates.

To fix this, try running the below command:

sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

Reboot.  Your sound should hopefully work again!

If the above command doesn't work (older versions of Ubuntu do not have this package), please see the generic information here:

https://itsfoss.com/how-to-fix-no-sound-through-hdmi-in-external-monitor-in-ubuntu/

Intel Original Compute Stick – Keep WiFi from Breaking – Block Kernel Updates and Chestersmill-Settings Updates

If you have the original Intel Compute Stick (STCK1A8LFC [1GB of RAM] or STCK1A32WFC [2GB of RAM] models from 2015), you'll need to prevent a few software packages from updating so that these updates won't break your WiFi!  I've never been able to get the WiFi to work with these Intel Compute Sticks running a kernel newer than version 3.16 on any version of Ubuntu.  I've also never been able to get the WiFi to work on anything but Ubuntu 14.04, so you might be stuck having to run this older version of Ubuntu.  Also, updates to the chestersmill-settings package can break your WiFi.  To prevent both scenarios from breaking your WiFi, simply prevent the below packages from being updated.

Preventing packages from being updated can be accomplished using hold statuses in the apt system as explained on AskUbuntu:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/18654/how-to-prevent-updating-of-a-specific-package

Basically, you'll need to run the below commands to prevent WiFi from breaking due to buggy kernel and chestersmill-settings package updates:

sudo apt-mark hold chestersmill-settings
sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-mark hold linux-image-generic
sudo apt-mark hold linux-generic

You can now safely update software packages without worrying about your WiFi being broken by kernel and chestersmill-settings package updates!

Get Latest Software from Ubuntu Advantage for Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 14.04 is also still supported via the Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) Ubuntu Advantage program (https://ubuntu.com/advantage).  

To get updated software and packages until April of 2022, you'll need to get an Ubuntu Advantage key.  Get your key using your UbuntuOne account on this page:  https://ubuntu.com/advantage

Now, install the Ubuntu advantage client by using the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ua-client/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-advantage-tools

Set your key using the command below (using your key rather than YOUR_KEY_HERE):

sudo ua attach YOUR_KEY_HERE

Now update and install the upgraded packages available via Ubuntu Advantage:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade