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How you can Set up A Device Driver On Linux- 2 Techniques

Itching your head as a consequence of missing device driver in your machine? Seeking tips on how to set up a device drive on a Linux system? Just switched to a brand new OS, but hardware will not be operating effectively? Verify out this article to find out how you can set up a missing device drive on your Linux system. Get a lot more details about How To Install A Device Driver On Linux- 2 Methods

 

Installing and configuring a driver on a Linux based machine is really daunting for all those who just switched to Linux from Windows/Mac, or trying the new OS with dual boot. The widely used windows and Mac operating system typically tends to make it a user-friendly experience with regards to set up device drivers, but in case of a Linux OS, the user could obtain some of their hardware is not working. Well, this would not be a problem anymore.

 

Is it challenging to set up a device driver on Linux?

For Windows and Mac OS customers, it is definitely an easy method to set up any device driver because the OS detects those automatically. Also, the users can download the missing ones from the internet, and just click on a very simple wizard to possess the driver installed.

 

On the other hand, in case of a Linux platform, the process just isn't enough very simple. One in the most common explanation is, Linux is an open-source OS as well as a number of variations available. So, there can’t be a single method which can suit all Linux platforms, and every with the distribution has its own way relating to the way to install a device driver on system.

 

Also, most of the default Linux drivers are open-source and integrated inside the system, and this makes the installation of missing drivers very difficult, if not incorporated already with OS. Nevertheless, the majority of the valuable drivers are automatically detected with well-liked Linux distros.

 

Another cause why installing a device driver on a Linux could be complex is license policies which technically vary amongst Linux distributions. For example Fedora restricts to include things like drivers which are legally prohibited or violate cyber laws. Even Ubuntu asks its users to stop using closed hardware.

 

Signifies, installing a device driver on a Linux is usually a bit difficult, but nonetheless here mentioned 2 approaches is often helpful.

 

Two Solutions To discover Drivers & Install on Linux

Approach 1: Using Built-in Interface

Newbies must know that Linux platform mostly offers possible ways to check a driver is obtainable through built-in wizards. For Example, the Ubuntu Distro allows customers to deal with an option called Additional Drivers. You'll be able to come across this option on Ubuntu within Software Updater > Additional Drivers.

 

Approach 2: Using Command Line

Although, the majority of your hardware’s driver can easily be found using Linux GUI interface. But, what if you fail to find a certain driver through GUI offered by the distro. In this case, you may use Command line option to seek out a certain driver. To do so, users have two options that are talked about below:

 

Option 1: Using a repository

If you are familiar Mac OS, you may aware from the term homebrew. In Linux, there’s a similar command as well through which it is possible to add repository to your system and install a device driver. Some well known commands used in various Linux distros consist of yum, dnf, apt-get, and so on. Adding a repository allows you to update the package cache, and this could possibly set up any missing driver.

 

Option 2: Download, compile and build it yourself

Under this option, you'll be able to download the driver package directly from its official website or by using wget command, and run the configuration file and Makefile to install the package. This option may be different for various Linux distributions. So we suggest you to verify for specific guidelines for your OS type and device.

 

Tips on how to verify already installed driver details?

Since we are going discuss tips on how to install a device driver on Linux, it is necessary to know if what drivers are currently installed in your machine.

 

In order to do so, we can use lscpci command which brings information about all PCI buses and active devices on a Linux machine. Below are the commands to use:

 

sudo lscpci

Filtering the details using grep command:

 

sudo lscpi | grep driver_name

To determine all device drivers recognized by kernel, we can use the following command:

 

sudo dmesg

or use grep to filter the details

 

sudo dmesg | grep driver_name

Nonetheless, in case if you locate nothing with above two pointed out command, then you can use the following two command to verify if the driver is at least loaded on the disk:

 

/sbin/lsmod

and

 

find /lib/modules

If you end up noticing the device driver is loaded on the disk with above two commands, but not recognized by the kernel, then you may load the module using below command:

 

sudo modprobe missing_mod_name

Ways to install a device driver by adding a repository?

As described currently, there might be various commands which we use to add a repository in different Linux platforms like yum, dnf, and apt-get. Under this example, we are using apt-get command, nevertheless the measures in other distros will be similar.

 

In order to add a repository and set up a missing driver, follow the steps mentioned:

 

Step 1: Delete existing repository, if currently existing

 

sudo apt-get purge Driver_Name

Inside the above command, the Driver_Name is actually the name of driver which is missing or not installed properly.

 

Step 2: Adding the repository to repolist

 

sudo apt-get-repository Driver_Repolist

Here, Driver_Repolist value might be found on a certain driver’s documentation. You should read the documentation to determine the name specific to driver which you want to set up.

 

Step 3: Updating the repository list in your machine

 

sudo apt-get update

Step 4: Installing the driver package

 

sudo apt-get install Driver_Name

Once the installation is done, you could verify if the driver is installed and loaded correctly with the commands discussed above (lscpi command).

 

Conclusion:

This tutorial relating to how to install a device driver on Linux could be helpful to set up a missing driver in your machine. If you locate the guidelines genuinely helpful, share it with your friends.

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