Driver not found

Could not find driver (or could not find driver "MySQL") means SourceBans++ can’t find a usable MySQL/MariaDB client library. The fix depends on which half is complaining: the web panel uses PHP’s PDO driver, and the SourceMod plugin uses SourceMod’s own MySQL extension.

Web panel

The panel uses PHP’s pdo_mysql extension. Two common reasons it isn’t loaded:

The PHP MySQL package isn’t installed

On Debian / Ubuntu, the package name includes the PHP version:

sudo apt install php8.5-mysql

Adjust 8.5 to whatever PHP version your panel runs under.

On Fedora / RHEL: sudo dnf install php-mysqlnd.

After installing, restart your webserver / PHP-FPM:

sudo systemctl restart php8.5-fpm
# or, for Apache mod_php:
sudo systemctl restart apache2

The extension is installed but not loaded

Confirm with:

php -m | grep pdo_mysql

If that command prints nothing, the module isn’t loaded.

Open your php.ini and look for an extension=pdo_mysql line. If it’s missing or commented out, add it. The php.ini location varies by setup; php --ini prints the path it’s actually reading.

Restart PHP-FPM / your webserver again after the change.

SourceMod plugin

The plugin uses SourceMod’s dbi.mysql extension. The error usually means the extension itself is missing or fails to load because of an external dependency.

Check the extension is loaded

Connect to your game server’s RCON console and run:

sm exts list

Find MySQL-DBI in the list. It should show Running. If it shows Failed to load or doesn’t appear at all, continue below.

Check the file exists and is executable

Confirm dbi.mysql.ext.so (Linux) or dbi.mysql.ext.dll (Windows) exists in addons/sourcemod/extensions/. On Linux, make sure it’s executable:

chmod u+x addons/sourcemod/extensions/dbi.mysql.ext.so

Install `zlib` (Linux only)

The extension depends on zlib. Most Linux distros ship it already, but minimal installs sometimes don’t:

Distro	Command
32-bit Debian / Ubuntu	`apt install zlib1g`
64-bit Debian / Ubuntu	`apt install lib32z1`
32 / 64-bit Fedora	`dnf install zlib.i686`
32-bit SUSE	`zypper install libz1`
64-bit SUSE	`zypper install libz1-32bit`

You’ll need SSH access to the game server’s host to run these.

Diagnose missing libraries

If the extension still won’t load, ask the linker what it’s missing:

ldd -d -r addons/sourcemod/extensions/dbi.mysql.ext.so

Each line marked not found is a missing shared library. Search your distro’s package manager for whichever one is missing and install it.

Verifying

After the fix, restart the relevant service:

Web side: restart PHP-FPM / your webserver, then reload the panel. The install wizard’s System Check should now show pdo_mysql as available.
Plugin side: reload the map (changelevel via RCON) or restart the server. sm exts list should show MySQL-DBI as Running.

If you’re still stuck, drop into #help-support on our Discord with the output of php -m | grep pdo (web) or sm exts list (plugin) — that narrows it down quickly.