Home | Windows | Linux | Hardware | Shopping | Web Building | Downloads |Tech Support [LinuxPlanet] Search [Image] Power Search | Tips [Image] [Image] [Image] Front Door Discussion LinuxEngine Opinions Reports Reviews Tutorials Tech Support » Browse by subject. [Image] [Image] [Image] Free Weekly Newsletter! [Image] A free service rounding up the week's news, articles, tips and reviews. text html [submit] [Image] [Image] [Image] Internet News Internet Stocks Internet Technology Web Developer Internet Marketing ISP Downloads Internet Resources International Search internet.com Advertising Info Corporate Info Internet Trade Shows [Image] Be an Affiliate Software Store Computer Help Register a Domain Be Domain Registrar Travel Banking e-solutions Internet Jobs A/V Network Rent E-mail Lists Bookstore Press Release dist. Sell Ad Space Internet Research Venture Capital Web Publishing Build Your Intranet [Image] [Image] [Image] [Print this article] [Image] [Image] [Image] [Email this article] [Image] [Image] [Image] Related Items [Image] [Image] LinuxPlanet / Tutorials [Image] ------------------------------------------------------------- [Grow your revenue stream!] [Image] Linux Device Drivers Demystified Looking for the driver for a [kernel compilation] particular device? kernel compilation [Image] James Andrews Non-kernel devices This section tries to provide help on what devices are in the kernel and how to find out more about them. Non-kernel devices Although in this article we only cover standard kernel devices, there are also non-kernel devices that act in a similar way. The most important of these are the video drivers for X11; see http://www.xfree86.org/cardlist.html for a list of which cards are supported. Configure.help The best place to look is in the Linux kernel help files. However, you can normally only access them during a compilation of the Linux kernel. If you already have a Linux installed and a little experience with Linux, then skip over to our kernel compiling article and give it a whirl. If not, Linuxplanet is here to help. Use the search box below to access an online version of the Configure.help file. search the kernel docs for info on device drivers for... Note that the information it returns includes technical information aimed at people in the middle of compiling a kernel. It should be clear from the results if a particular device is supported in the kernel. The searchable files supplied are for kernel version 2.2.9. Most of the hardware is that is supported is common to the 2.2.x series. If you are planning on running a higher version than this, then it might be worth looking in on http://kernelnotes.org to see if a more recent update does support your devices. If you are running a 2.0.x version then the search facility is, I'm sorry to say, of little help. Have a grep If this still doesn't answer your questions about whether your particular device is supported or not, then the next stage is to look at the Linux kernel sources. I did consider writing a CGI to search these as well, but the information from C source code is of limited utility to people who cannot program C. If you can program in C or are feeling adventurous, please look at our kernel installation article and get the source. The device drivers are usually found in /usr/src/linux/drivers. I have found using a grep command for a numerical part of the name of the hardware device is quite a good approach. For instance if looking for Buslogic BT-950 support cd /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/ grep 950 *.[ch] README* Would work fine. The README files are sometimes out of date, so beware. If this still doesn't give you the answer you need, then ask! Linuxplanets online discussion forums might be a good place to start. « Back: Introduction Skip Ahead • Kernel updates[Image] and info site 1 Introduction [Image] 2 All About Modules • Kernel Compili3 Looking for the driver for a particular device? Guide [Image] • The Devtective [Image] • Linuxplanet discussion board [Image] [internet.com] home | write us | search | help! | about us [Image] [Image] About internet.com Corp. | Press Releases Copyright © 1999 internet.com CorporatPrivacy Policy | Career Opportunities