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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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determining why/how hardware is supported in one distro but not another? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 10 months ago by linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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For a given device, sometimes one linux distro perfectly supports a hardware component. Then if I switch distros, the same component no longer functions at all, or is very buggy.

How do I find out what the difference is?

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[–] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I feel like 99% of the time it's just "does this distro have drivers for this hardware". If yes it works, if no it doesn't.

[–] Bogasse@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

But on Linux aren't most drivers part of the kernel?

[–] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago

I think maybe if there are license issues the distros have different policies? You might need to do some kind of extra step to include certain drivers.

[–] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 10 months ago

Depends on the hardware. You have to download NVIDIA drivers from your package manager.

[–] KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Yes, and different distros use different kernel versions which they've compiled differently.

[–] linuxPIPEpower@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That's what I'm thinking!

I am asking a really basic question here. How do I find out about the drivers in the distro?

[–] eya@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I mean it depends on the hardware. (if we knew what hardware youre talking about it would make this much easier)

[–] PaX@hexbear.net 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You can check to see what drivers were compiled as modules or into your kernel by reading the kernel configuration at /proc/config.gz or /boot/*config*

There might also be out-of-tree (not included with the kernel) drivers installed as packages on your system but this is very rare outside of like... having an NVIDIA card and running the closed-source vendor driver