If I'm installing a proprietary driver (e.g., NVIDIA, AMD) and encounter this error, what specialized steps should I consider?

For proprietary drivers, first verify you have the exact driver version compatible with your kernel and hardware. These drivers often require specific development tools and kernel headers (e.g., `build-essential` and `linux-headers-$(uname -r)` on Debian/Ubuntu, or `kernel-devel` on Fedora) to be installed beforehand. Consult the driver's official documentation for prerequisites. Temporarily disabling Secure Boot in UEFI/BIOS might also be necessary for some proprietary drivers to load, and enabling 'non-free' or 'RPM Fusion' repositories is often required on Linux distributions.