are the linux drivers a part of the linux kernel?
 

I am confused and just like it says in the subject I need to know if the linux drivers are in the linux kernel and if not then are they in their own separate packages?

If they are a part of the linux kernel I will just upgrade to the latest linux kernel.

Which drivers? Drivers for what exactly?

The kernel file contains a few drivers if compiled in. The initrd file has extra drivers the system needs to boot up but aren't in the kernel.
You can also have extra drivers elsewhere, so long as the relevant sw knows where they are.
You may find some of this relevant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

More detail

http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ion/index.html

It depends on what do you mean by "part of the kernel".

99.9% of the linux drivers are part of the linux kernel, however they might not be compiled in the kernel image, they can also be inside the initrd or as external modules. However, they come from the same source tree that the monolithic kernel does, and their source is part of the official linux kernel.

Some other drivers are 3rd party, like the propietary drivers for nvidia or ati, the ntfs-3g driver, and many more. And there are also the fuse drivers, which work form the user land, so their implication with the kernel is even lesser.

As I suspect you will not understand half of the weird stuff I wrote, I suggest you to let us know what driver exactly are you talking about, so we can tell you if a kernel upgrade will help you or not.

No worries I understood it.

I was originally meaning wireless drivers as that is what I have the most problems with. Half the distros I try I have to use ndiswrapper to get my wireless card working and since I am currently building my own LFS distro but still VERY confused about it I thought I would ask.

ndiswrapper is the weirdest case I can think of.

ndiswrapper itself is not a driver, but an special loader that allows you to use -natively- Windows drivers for *some* wireless cards under linux. ndiswrapper is an external project that is not part of the linux kernel, and the drivers themselves are from the Windows domain, so they don't even relate to linux at all. I never used ndiswrapper myself, I prefer to buy hardware I know I can use without any hocus pocus magic.

I am not sure how ndiswrapper deals with the kernel, kernels versions might actually matter, or not. I can only recommend to read the requisites for ndiswrapper on its documentation. Maybe someone who actually knows about ndiswrapper can give you more details about this concrete issue.

I did a pretty good job of hosing my system a few times trying to learn to compile a custom kernel.
If I recall correctly, some of the options you can select are to compile your kernel for ndiswrapper as well as wireless.
Good luck with LFS, it gave me a nose bleed from the veins popping out to far on my forehead.