i have compaq presario v6307TU notebook, i am going to learn ethical hacking and i have ubuntu 9.10 and backtrack linux OS.
Do i need different drivers for my ubuntu n backtrack linux OS or there will be only one drivers required for 'linux'.
Anyways i am not able to find any drivers for my notebook for LINUX, i have asked HP for that but nothing gud happened they told that they dont have drivers for 3rd party operating systems.

My notebook uses Conextant HD audio and has intel 945 express family 128mb graphics, i ran ubuntu from the disk i have (but had not installed it yet) and tryed palying my .mp3,mpeg,mp4,avi files and nothing worked..obviously because i had not installed the audio-video drivers...causse i didnt had them...so im here for them.
So please tell me where to find them??
also i wanted to kno that i have installed nfs most wanted on my xp, so will i be able to play it in linux??

Hi, welcome to LQ. Ubuntu (and BackTrack, which is based on Ubuntu) should find your drivers automatically. Remember that if sound is coming out of the speakers reliably, then they have been found and configured. Your being unable to play mp3 and etc. stems not from a lack of drivers, but a lack of support for restricted codecs. In Ubuntu, this is fixed by opening up a terminal and typing "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras" (without the quotes).

Drivers come with the distro. So what is windbloze, 4th party?

The files to support your hardware come with the dirsto for the most part. Unless you have very new hardware, I would expect buntu to work with it. You did the correct thing, boot the live CD and see what works, and what doesn't.

If you got a desktop, then the video hardware is recognized by buntu, and drivers were loaded. Sound, try loading the CD again, look for a mixer application, bring it up, turn up the volume, and make sure things are not muted. Then try to play a .wav file. If that doesn't work, look in windoze and find out what audio hardware you have. Some drivers are not installed by default. Once we know what hardware you have, then we can guide you.

Compaq's are usually not too difficult to get things going.

thanks for a warm welcome guys..as i was hoping, even better.

I quit didnt understand wat ur trying to kno camorri..do u need some more information about my laptop?

here are the drivers taht i install after i format and install xp :->

1) Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio
VERSION: 1.00 Rev. A

2) TITLE: Conexant High Definition Audio
VERSION: 3.26.0.0 Rev. A

3) TITLE: HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
VERSION: 7.56.0.0 Rev. A
actually i just attached a file reporting information by the "dxdiag"
just take a look into that maybe u find wat ur lookin for..if not tell me
ok thanks guys

Attached Files

DxDiag.txt (43.4 KB, 24 views)

What the previous posters were saying is that, in almost all cases, hardware drivers are included in the linux kernel. You do not normally need to search the web looking for drivers, unlike Windows. If you are having trouble getting some specific hardware working, post that problem.

In the case of mp3 and multimedia playback, many media formats are patent-encumbered or under non-free licenses. Many distros have a policy against the inclusion of non-free software in their official releases, Fedora and Debian are two notable names with a pretty strict commitment to use only free and open source software. Point being your troubles may not be driver related, it may be that you need to install some software to allow playback of restricted media.

From Ubuntu, if you look at the output of
It will list your pci devices and show the current drivers in use. An example of my output showing the audio device.
The last bit, Kernel modules, is the driver.

Thank-you reed9, you summed it up nicely.

mrughindersingh - The big picture, many drivers ( as you know them ) are in the kernels, ie, you don't need to do anything, other than use the device. Others are included in the distro, and are known as kernel modules, they insert into the kernel to operate the device.

If for some reason audio is not working, we need information on the hardware, we get that from linux using commands, like lspci for the pci bus; or lsusb for usb attached devices. With the hardware information, then we can do some searching for a known working driver. There are many sources. For audio, alsa is the main site to look into. If a kernel module exists, ( a driver ) then we find out its name there. Then we look at the distro first to see if it is included. If yes, then you load the module with a command 'modprobe'. Once loaded the device should work. Sometimes a little configuration is necessary.

If the module is not included, you are not stuck yet. It may be possible the module exists as source code. This has to be downloaded, and compiled. You do that yourself. I know this is different than the windbloze world you came from; welcome to linux. Once the module is compiled, ( that builds a binary module ) you load it with the modprobe command.

You may get stuck with brand new hardware, and there is no driver. If that is the case, then you can either get a different adaptor that is supported, or wait for someone else to create a working driver. Usually only bleeding edge technology falls into this category. If the system is at least six months old, chances are we can get everything going.

This is the big picture...

hmm..looks i need to get going for linux now.
get back with u guys soon...after checking things out (now the correct way)
thanks people