Linux "generic driver" for HW device

[sysp]

Hi there,

Is there such a "generic driver" ??

Lets say f my wireless card has no driver from the vendor.
Then i will use this "generic driver" and compile that source to my linux.

If there is, anyone knows where the URL listing all those "generic drivers"??


thanks..

[daark.child]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

As far I know, for wireless devices there aren't generic drivers so you need to find a compatible driver for your card.

[coopstah13]

what do you mean by a "generic driver"? Do you mean a driver that somehow knows how to interface with all hardware no matter the vendor? That isn't possible, the driver needs to be written specifically to interact with a certain piece of hardware. Some drivers may work for more than one piece if they adhere to a similar specification, such as a minor revision to a chipset.

[sysp]

Thanks for the answer, i learnt that the "generic driver" is per chipset.

So when we have device with a same chipset, they can share the driver, though might not be efficient. Or if the driver in one distro, and we need it for another distro, then we can compile the source accordingly.

One of the weird thing, i saw in AIX a so-called "generic printer" driver, which we can use when we install a printer which we don't have the driver.

[coopstah13]

Pretty much all drivers are included in the kernel

"generic" (generic postscript I believe) driver may or may not work for printer, they do tend to have pretty similar interface I believe, but you may not get all features of the printer without using its intended driver

[gooney0]

Sysp,

You're on the right path. There are many different makes and models of wireless hardware but far fewer chipsets. You may be able to find a driver that was written for the same chipset even if the make and model don't match.

Here is how I would go about it.

As root:

/sbin/lspci -vvv

Look for the hardware in question. Somewhere in output you should find a company name and a model number or two.

Google that make and model. You'll probably come across many other people with the very same issue. Hopefully one of them has a solution.

-Gooney0