Does the "which driver" question have an universal answer?

ManDay · Apprentice Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 247

It sounds strange, but in all the years I've used linux this remained a question which I was never able to fully solve.

The thing:

The kernel seems to know some way to load the correct driver for a device, so it must know which device requires which driver.

But I don't. Why? Why can I not simply use that information which the kernel appears to have to answer the question "Which driver/module do I require to use the pci/usb device of id xxxx:yyyy?"

It's painful to find all those drivers manually and I think, to the present day, I was never able to get all devices to work on all the personal computer I used and own.

Jaglover · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:19 pm Post subject:

http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/

or you can grep kernel sources. The fun part is if your device is not listed in kernel sources as supported then the driver will not be loaded ... regardless, if the actual chipset is supported then adding it to the kernel sources will work.
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Gusar · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:46 pm Post subject:

Load a liveusb distro, see if all hardware is working, see which modules got loaded for it (lspci -vnn)

<3 · Veteran Joined: 21 Oct 2004 Posts: 1085

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:57 pm Post subject:

ManDay,

The kernel doesn't know. It tries lots of things and if something binds to hardware, it stays loaded, if not its normally unloaded again.
There are two problems with this. The kernel does not always get it right - its been known to load the wrong driver, which stops the right driver from working.
Not all the junk gets unloaded.
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ManDay · Apprentice Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 247

I know of Debian HCL but that was not the answer I was looking for. Neither is using a LiveDistro an "ultimate answer" as I mentioned it.

NeddySeagoon, I guess that's it then. What a bummer.

So back to DebianHCL, is that the best one can get? What about http://cateee.net/lkddb/ ? Any use for http://www.pcidatabase.com/ ?

After all, if there is no ultimate answer that leaves plenty of room for the next best answer possible. So what do you suggest, besides DebianHCL ?

Gusar · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:59 am Post subject:

py-ro · Veteran Joined: 24 Sep 2002 Posts: 1734 Location: Velbert

Hmm,

ManDay · Apprentice Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 247

Gusar, that requires that the LiveDistro has all the drivers and also applies them correctly (especially former). So now I have a couple of devices here (also USB vendor:produce keys) and Debian HCL doesn't find them if I insert them as vendor:product keys into that field (lsusb has no -n switch) - does that mean I'm screwed and will have to guess?

py-ro: What?

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7471

lspci -k will gave you the kernel driver need to load the module

and neddy said the kernel cannot detect the driver it need for a device, but udev can, and lspci too
and lspci use a live database for devices, so even the tool isn't update, you can still update its database using : update-pciids

Gusar · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:34 pm Post subject:

ManDay · Apprentice Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 247

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:10 pm Post subject:

ManDay,

lspci followed by lspci -n and a grep of the kernel sources is pretty good.
lsusb and a grep of the kernel sources is good for USB devices too.
The vendor and device IDs are read from the hardware in both cases.
Google can be faster and more user friendly when fed with the device IDs and bus tyoe.

Knowing the file that the vendor and device IDs are declared in is a pretty good guide to where in the kernel you need to look.

This falls down for 'generic devices' like usb-storage devices and UVC class webcams but you can tell the difference between a webcam and a USB storage device by other means :)
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
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those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Gusar · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:07 pm Post subject: