How do I install drivers for hardware not seen by linux versions

leobing · 12-01-2003, 02:04 PM

I have an ECS K7VMM mboard with AMD Duron 1300Mhz, 256 ddr ram, LS 52x cdrom, Yamaha R/W cdrom, IMPS2 mouse etc.
I have broken the AGP socket and so must use the onboard video. I am running Slackware 9.1 as it is the only Linux version that I can get to run all my hardware. I will add the output from lspci so you can see the hardware I have. Slack uses a generic vga driver and that is ok but I want to try out other Linux versions and I have no success.
How do I install a driver to make the hardware work? Where does it go and what do I do to make the version of Linux see and use it? I would like to try other versions of Linux.
here is the output of lspci.
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8375 [KM266] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. [ProSavageDDR K4M266]

hw-tph · 12-01-2003, 02:15 PM

Have a look over here.

Håkan

fancypiper · 12-01-2003, 02:18 PM

Basically you will need to have the developmental packages installed as well as kernel-source. Download the driver and install according to the instructions.

# Guides to software management
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation
You might want to check out CheckInstall to manage source code installations/uninstallation

# Compiling/installing kernel modules
You will need to have installed:
1. The developmental packages (compiler)
2. The kernel source code that matches your running kernel
3. The module source or install code

Check out your system and look under the hood and see if you installed the stuff you need to do the job. Open an x terminal and type in this sequence of commands to see what kernel we are running and see if you have the kernel source installed:

Code:

[fancy@tinwhistle fancy]$ su -
Password:
[root@tinwhistle root]# uname -r
2.4.18-3

I am running kernel version 2.4.18-3. Do I have the proper source code?

Code:

[root@tinwhistle root]# cd /usr/src
[root@tinwhistle src]# ls -alc
total 3
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root          136 Jun 12 14:53 .
drwxr-xr-x   16 root     root          424 Jun  4 12:04 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           14 Jun  4 12:11 linux-2.4 -> linux-2.4.18-3
drwxr-xr-x   16 root     root          584 Jun  4 12:11 linux-2.4.18-3
drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root          168 Jun  4 12:08 redhat
[root@tinwhistle src]#

I do have the same kernel version source code installed in the directory /usr/src/linux-2.4.18-3 and there is a symbolic link named linux-2.4 pointing to it.

If you don't see something similiar to this (but in color), you will need to install the kernel source.

NOTE: I noticed that Red Hat didn't make the symbolic link /usr/src/linux that all of the INSTALL files that I have read mentioned that I need, so I may as well make one now to save editing the files in the source code to install.So, I'll make it just now:

Code:

[root@tinwhistle src]# ln -s linux-2.4.18-3 linux         
[root@tinwhistle src]# ls -alc
total 3
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root          160 Jun 12 15:46 .
drwxr-xr-x   16 root     root          424 Jun  4 12:04 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           14 Jun 12 15:46 linux -> linux-2.4.18-3
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           14 Jun  4 12:11 linux-2.4 -> linux-2.4.18-3
drwxr-xr-x   16 root     root          584 Jun  4 12:11 linux-2.4.18-3
drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root          168 Jun  4 12:08 redhat
[root@tinwhistle src]#

Ah, there it is, so that's done.

Next, did I install the compiler?

Code:

[root@tinwhistle src]# gcc -v          
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/2.96/specs
gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-113)
[root@tinwhistle src]#

Yes, I have a compiler installed.

If you don't have those two things installed, you have to install them first off your install CD.

If they are installed, download the source and happy comiling.

Make sure you carefully read the README and INSTALL files after extracting and before compiling/installing.