Re: Linux Drivers, The Kernel, and a Driver List

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to respond. It's helped a lot. I'd still like some more help though if you can spare it. =)

My goal is ultimately the following. I want to be able to say "I'm interested in getting a Super Device 4000" and then go through whatever steps I need to verify that it will or won't work before I even try it. I'd like to at least understand how I could theoretically do that, even if it isn't always possible to accomplish.

My kernel has all the drivers, and it's sitting right there on my hard disk. It seems like with enough know-how, I should be able to dig through what's sitting on my disk (or some source code) and figure out if the support is there or not. I am just at a loss as to how to start doing that.

So far, I think I understand that what's important is not the piece of hardware (Linksys Awesome Device 4000), but rather the chipset it uses (Intel Rockin Chipset 250). And I do understand all the complications in identifying the chipset that everyone's outlined for me. (Thanks!)

But if I could somehow identify a device's particular chipset, could I then somehow determine if support is available in the default kernel?

Is it safe to say that drivers are really for a chipset, not a device? And so therefore, support for a device really boils down to "is the chipset supported?" not "is the device supported"?

Thanks,
- GM


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