Live CD Hardware Detection. How?
 

Hi,

does anyone know how live CD hardware detection works? Does it probe for every device under the sun or is there some generic framework that allows for any arbitary device to discover drivers and get them loaded?
I'm aware of hotplug but it doesn't handle "coldplugged" devices too well (eg video/sound cards).

Some background info on what I'm trying to do:
I'm working on a diskless emulator-based Live CD. Ideally, the live CD should behave like a game console without the need for any configuration on the user's part. Ultimately, this is going to be used in a modded PC that will function much like a console.

Some likely sticky issues:
- Detecting Xorg drivers.
- Detecting gamepad/joystick drivers.
- Difference in button mappings due to pad layouts. This is invetible i guess.