Do any inf driver work on Linux

srk999 · 07-13-2008, 07:20 AM

I just extracted all my drivers (inf) into a folder using DriverMax. I was wondering if I could use these while installing Linux on my system.

Larry Webb · 07-13-2008, 07:25 AM

That depends on which distro you are going to use and the kernel version. For example some of the newer lan cards will not work on the older kernels.

Nylex · 07-13-2008, 07:58 AM

By "inf driver", I assume you're talking about Windows drivers. Linux is a different operating system (technically kernel) to Windows and you'd expect hardware to be controlled differently. Thus, no, one does not use Windows drivers under Linux (the exception being NDISwrapper, which allows you to use Windows drivers for wireless cards). Are you having problems with specific hardware?

jomen · 07-13-2008, 08:02 AM

I gather you want to use your windows drivers under linux (because you say "inf" - which I recall to be driver descriptions from windows OS)
Generally not possible - what gave you the idea? (...rehtorical)

AFAIK there is only one windows driver which you can (just maybe) use: the driver for you WLAN-Card.
Should your card not be supported by linux natively then there is a program, called ndiswrapper, which can try to utilize the windows driver to make that card work.

srk999 · 07-13-2008, 08:09 AM

hmm. that means I have to go through the painful process of finding every individual driver for my laptop's hardware. and laptop drivers are rare already. Do you guys know any massive driver packs like this one (http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/)?

jomen · 07-13-2008, 08:15 AM

No, that is not what it means.
It means you don't need your windows drivers in linux - with the possible exception of the wlan-driver.

elliott678 · 07-13-2008, 08:21 AM

Chances are, quite a bit of your laptop's hardware will be supported without manually installing a single driver.

srk999 · 07-13-2008, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomen

No, that is not what it means.
It means you don't need your windows drivers in linux - with the possible exception of the wlan-driver.

So, you are saying Linux already got all my drivers included? even my laptop's special keys, and 8600gt mobile edition? cos games wont run without proper driver.

jomen · 07-13-2008, 08:30 AM

No - I'm not saying that - since I know nothing about that particular laptop.
I'm saying: windows drivers are for windows. They are "useless" for linux. With the possible exception of the wlan-driver.

elliott678 · 07-13-2008, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by srk999

So, you are saying Linux already got all my drivers included? even my laptop's special keys, and 8600gt mobile edition? cos games wont run without proper driver.

You'll need the proprietary driver from Nvidia, but that isn't an issue, most distro's have some easy way of installing it or you can get it straight from nvidia.com. A lot of the more modern ones will pick up a majority of the special keys too.

I'm not saying it will be totally trouble free, especially since I don't know the specifics of this laptop, but it shouldn't be too hard. The main trip ups are usually just wireless, sometimes sound if it uses some exotic sound hardware, other than that it is usually fairly easy.

srk999 · 07-13-2008, 08:34 AM

cool! thanks guys. I'll give it a try. Hopefully, I don't mess up my partitions like last time.