(1) Since it takes considerable work to create and debug hardware drivers not provided by my Linux distribution, I would like to learn how to save user-created Linux drivers for future re-installation and use on other computers.

(2) How does one install such saved drivers on another Linux system?

Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated.

julianvb

If a driver is not installed by default on a newer distro then I'd assume that you have some driver package or source. I'd keep that source and try to use it on newer systems. It may be that some tools might be needed or other apps and at some point it may not install due to changes.

The other way is to use windows drivers for some things with ndiswrapper.

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what jeffro mentiond is pretty much the only way to do so, as drivers are kernel modules and have to be compiled against the active kernel on a given system, as well as the installed versions of any libraries/headers present, so really, the best way would be to create a make file, and if necessary a 'configure' script to make any necessary changes to the makefiles and simply create a tarball of that, umpack, compile/install.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'll just mention this as a note relating to this topic.

Three ways exist to have a driver for the most part.

One is built into the kernel or you can add it to the kernel.(kernel space)

Two is outside the kernel.(userspace)

Three is using windows drivers.

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jefro and frieza,

Thank you both very much for your valuable advice. I conclude that the cleanest, safest method would be to save the original source and re-derive the driver accordingly. I've been creating Linux network-adapter drivers from Windows XP ones via Ndiswrapper.

julianvb

Hi, jefro and frieza,

I need your help badly. About half an hour ago I started writing a long post on K3B. But somehow I got lost and could not get back to it. Can you help me? I was going to write frieza but I don't have an MSN address. Your help will be greatly appreciated. I wish this website had a general webmaster e-mail address available to registered users.

julianvb

---------- Post added 07-16-14 at 12:24 AM ----------

Hi, jefro and frieza,

I need your help badly. About half an hour ago I started writing a long post on K3B. But somehow I got lost and could not get back to it. Can you help me? I was going to write frieza but I don't have an MSN address. Your help will be greatly appreciated. I wish this website had a general webmaster e-mail address available to registered users.

julianvb