installing drivers

filanfistan · 01-22-2007, 06:10 AM

Please, can anybody tell me how to install drivers (motherboard, VGA, audio drivers)? for example, I have an ABIT NF7-S mainboard. I don't know what procedures to follow? I have only installed Linux and that's all.

stress_junkie · 01-22-2007, 06:29 AM

Maybe you don't need to install "drivers". If you are talking about upgrading your motherboard BIOS I would say that I have never benefited from doing that. I wouldn't bother. If you are talking about utilities that often come with hardware then those won't work in Linux. If you are talking about installing actual kernel drivers, not the Windows driver software that often comes with hardware, but Linux kernel drivers, then post back and let us know that this is what you intend. Of all of the things that you might have meant when you said that you want to install drivers, the last one that I mentioned is the only one that applies under Linux.

farslayer · 01-22-2007, 09:52 AM

There are drivers available for the chipset on your motherboard....
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.21.html

but I would check with someone that is using a motherboard with an nforce2 chipset to see if you actually need these or not. Most device drivers are already in Linux.. you typically just need to configure the device if it's not automatically working.

filanfistan · 01-24-2007, 09:48 AM

If you use Linux, how have you configured drivers, please a detailed explanation.

farslayer · 01-24-2007, 10:44 PM

If you are actually looking for help.. providing more information would help.. things such as What Distrtibution and version of Linux are you running ? Fedora core _ ? Suse ? Debian ? Ubuntu ?

What specfic devices do you want to install drivers for ? (lspci would be a good command to see exactly what devices you have...

If the drivers I linked to are the ones you need.. you could try downloading the file, unzipping it, and reading the instructions that are included with the drivers..

PC_Tech_Wants_Linux · 02-20-2007, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

Maybe you don't need to install "drivers". If you are talking about upgrading your motherboard BIOS I would say that I have never benefited from doing that. I wouldn't bother. If you are talking about utilities that often come with hardware then those won't work in Linux. If you are talking about installing actual kernel drivers, not the Windows driver software that often comes with hardware, but Linux kernel drivers, then post back and let us know that this is what you intend. Of all of the things that you might have meant when you said that you want to install drivers, the last one that I mentioned is the only one that applies under Linux.

I quoted you because it seems to me we need to understand each other.
In the computer field, instaling drivers meants that: installing drivers.
Either you are using windows, or Linux, you still need drivers to make the cards in your pc work.
so I did not understedt your "" around the drivers.
I am new to Linux, but I know Windows a litle bit. So, can we use a comon language????
in windows to make a card work, you need to install drivers.
In Linux, you do not need drivers?

I run the command lspci |grep -i ethernet, and I did not get anything but a prompt.
What that means?

Thank you

farslayer · 02-21-2007, 09:09 PM

Yes Linux does need drivers. although many of the are built into the kernel or loaded by default.

When your command didn't return any result That means it didn't find anything with ethernet in the listing.. when I do lspci I get the following output..

Code:

debian:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800] (rev a1)
02:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
02:02.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)
02:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW323 (rev 61)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller (rev 01)

debian:~# lspci | grep ethernet
debian:~#

debian:~# lspci | grep Ethernet
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller (rev 01)

A difference between Linux and Windows is that Linux is CaSe SeNsItIvE. so when you issued the lspci command and told it to search the results for ethernet that's exactly what it did and it found no entries.. so either eliminate the | grep ethernet portion of your command or try capitalizing Ethernet..