[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Proprietary drivers management



On 12/8/20 4:47 AM, Victor Sudakov wrote:
> 
> 3. What is a "driver" after all in Linux terms? A kernel module, an
> Xserver loadable module? How do you "install a driver"? (in FreeBSD you
> either enable/load a kernel module, or make something like
> xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so available to the Xserver).
> 

Hi Victor,

drivers can be:

 - kernel space only - Network Interface Card (NIC) for example, USB,
SATA controllers, etc.
 - kernel space + user space drivers - video drivers
 - user space only drivers - printers, scanners, etc.


> How do you "install a driver"?

It depends how particular driver is packaged what kind it is. If the
driver is included in Linux kernel then you don't have to do anything.
Some video drivers have meta package and you can install the driver like
every package in Debian. For user space only drivers - it depends, in
most cases you have to enable it in configuration file for particular
subsystem (like CUPS or SANE). For some drivers you have to install
additional package in addition.

HTH

Kind regards
Georgi


Reply to: