ok, so i go into my regular pc shop (they remember be. god that's sooo embarrassing!) and ask about a pci ata100 card, and they says there's all the drivers cd's for windows and all that. i ask if it'll be supported under linux, and they laugh at me. he seems to think not in the slightest, but looks at the docs, and does't find anything, and laughs some more....

installing:
insert device, plug in cd drive

windows: boot to windows, reboot, insert cd, try to automatically use cd, no luck. manaually scour cd for vaguely useful looking drivers, and eventaully find the right ones. reboot. done.

linux: boot to linux. done.

Didn't even tell me it had found anything, but catting /proc/ide tells me it's already up and going.

windows.. pah!

Good story, but how did you actually install the driver? Where does it go? I guess the 'ide' file told you it was accepted and working, but how did you get to that point? Is there some sort of built in utility that comes with Linux to install drivers?

I ask because my modem isn't working (*NOT* a winmodem) and I have no idea whether Linux has installed a driver for it or even if Linux knows the modem is there. I have read several help sources but they were of no use. It's a PCI modem, so I've examined the /proc/pci file but that just tells me the modem isn't there.

Drivers under Linux are a mystery -- when I mount my CD-Rom drive it works, and I can access it via the mount point, but where did the driver come in? A driver must have been involved somewhere ot the drive wouldn't be accessible.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
.....olsPawn

i got to the ide bit simply cos i knew that that shows you what hardware is attached to the system.

The thing about drivers on linux is that tehy're all homegrown, and as such the kernel already knows about 99.6% of the devices it's currently able to use, adn comes ciomplete with the drivers. manye of which are a) much smaller) and b) much better, than the official windows counterparts.
Although it can be very disjointed on the surface, once you get down to a fairly fundamental level, everythign is very integrated, unliek much of windows. If linux can find the exact driver for the hardware you've installed.. what else can it do? I mean, personally it would be nice to be told it's found it.. but that's totally forgiveable IMHO.

I'm pretty sure that looking the /proc directory is pretty much teh lowest level of hardware detection availaible to you. there's the kudzu information as well in erm.... /etc/sysconfig/hwconf i think... but that's higher up.

Constructive help.. i'm not so sure on really.... if you're not even getting it listed at any level, then there's the things like taking it out and rebooting, and reinserting, but that's a very windows approach to it really.

The net is the best source of information really.

My promise ULTRA 66 was also a plug it in and turn it on deal.

8 Devices in no time

You might check your ttyS ports (COM - 1):

[root@localhost rolf]# setserial /dev/ttyS*
/dev/ttyS4, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x9400, IRQ: 10

I used to have to use setserial to load my modem in Mandrake. Now, I think the kernel does it and all I have to do is:

# ln -s /dev/ttyS4 /dev/modem

There is some good help at linuxnewbie.org and a comprehensive ppp howto here.

Good luck.

but why i have so much problems with my UDMA 100 Controller from Sunix?

The controller works with a CMD 649 Chip and i got failures during the installation of RedHat 7.1 .
The Messages ist "interrupt lost".

Anyone knows something bugfix or a new driver which i can use during the installation ?

Thanks
Immo

well, that's *exactly* what i've got under md80...

Have you fixed it ?

sorry, i meant that's the same card i have, and it worked perfectly first time