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During my Linux studies, I came up with this question which I've thus far been unable to find a satisfactory answer.

Suppose I have a computer and I've just installed a Linux OS. A certain piece of hardware is not working because the required module is not in the kernel. I have the hardware information but how do I find out the identity of the missing module?

I wondered if there might be an online resource which lists all hardware with their respective modules but I haven't been able to find anything like that. Is the situation then, that I would have to tackle each hardware/module problem on a case by case basis?

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Sometimes the install media will have many modules available, so while you've booted the install media you can run lspci -k to show the name of the driver associated with the piece of hardware:

$ /sbin/lspci -k              
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 01)
        Subsystem: VMware Virtual Machine Chipset                                      
->      Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel

If you've already finished the installation, you can always boot the install media again — just don't perform the installation again — to see if this command reports a driver for your hardware.

If that doesn't list a kernel driver in use, you can use the other associated information from the output of that command to search for an appropriate driver. That said, I'm not familiar with a particular source, other than simply to use Google, to find the driver in that case.

Andy Dalton
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  • Thank you. Could you please clarify "while you've booted the install media"? Do you mean, once I have the OS running with the inoperative hardware? –  Mar 21 '18 at 18:09
  • When you are in the process of installing your distribution, you're usually running a Linux kernel during the installation (e.g., from a LiveDVD). – Andy Dalton Mar 21 '18 at 18:13
  • Brilliant, thanks again. Later I might start work on that one website that brings hardware and drivers together! –  Mar 21 '18 at 18:17