LinuxQuestions.org
Visit Jeremy's Blog.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware
User Name
Password
Linux - Hardware This forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 04-25-2006, 12:46 PM   #1
paulsiu
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 143

Rep: Reputation: 15
How does auto-detect work in Linux?


I install different version of Linux on my machine and I notice that each distro can do auto-detect on my machine. Unfortunately, not everything is detected so I have to play around the configuration to get it to work. What is detected seems to vary from distro to distro.

I am curious, how does auto-detect work? Is it something that's in the kernel? I have tried to do some searches, but I haven't found any material regarding this subject.
 
Old 04-25-2006, 12:52 PM   #2
brianthegreat
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2005
Posts: 518

Rep: Reputation: 32
You are correct that auto-detect corresponds with a kernel function. Basically, each and every distro possesses a HCL. (Forget what HCL stands for exactly.) But this means that certain distros support different hardware. Kind of confusing considering that different linux distros might run the same kernel but recongizes different hardware. Certain vendors/distros add additional support within the OS regarding the hardware that will be detected and configured without additional configuration.
 
Old 04-25-2006, 03:35 PM   #3
Basile S.
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Apr 2006
Location: near Paris (France)
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 4

Rep: Reputation: 0
It seems to me that current hardware standards, in particular PCI & USB, requires that each hardware identify itself (in a standard way). Assuming it is effectively true (look at the lspci & lsusb commands) the kernel just has to probe the hardware using these standard "probing protocols" -and maybe match them with some internal table.

It was probably more difficult in the good old days of the ISA bus and Linux 1.0 kernel, where the kernel had to guess what the hardware is by "blindly" probing hardware ports... In that time, hardware probing was much less standard.

But I am not a kernel or driver developer.

Basile STARYNKEVITCH
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
auto detect proxy ilnli Linux - General 4 03-10-2006 01:44 AM
how linux auto detect thumbdrive cperdana Linux - Hardware 2 03-03-2005 09:34 PM
auto-completion - how does it work & can my script args auto-complete? BrianK Programming 1 06-11-2004 05:51 PM
X Windows Auto-detect Brother Michael Debian 3 05-13-2004 12:53 PM
Mandrake 8.1 Internet Auto-detect kleinella Linux - Newbie 1 12-31-2001 12:07 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:25 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration