looking for basic step by step how to install device drivers

[hnash53]

I am looking for some kind of howto on installing downloaded device drivers. The readme instructions are very obtuse, vague, and cryptic in the downloaded drivers I have seen. I need something that says where to install etc. Thanks.

[Bartman]

I am looking for some kind of howto on installing downloaded device drivers. The readme instructions are very obtuse, vague, and cryptic in the downloaded drivers I have seen.

Agreed, but unless you can find better instructions somewhere, this is what you're stuck with...

I need something that says where to install etc. Thanks.

It will vary wildly, depending on the driver. If you have a particular driver you're interested in, you can post the bits of its README you want translated here if you like. Also a link to download it from would be helpful.

Bartman

P.S. I just finished getting a driver installed for my Radeon 9000 vid card on the weekend, it was a nasty job... I feel your pain... But I got it working in the end!

[hnash53]

Thanks for your reply. Here is the readme on this driver:

Description:

This is a linux device driver and utility for Ralink RT2400.

================================================== =====================

1) Compatibility.

RedHat 7.1
RedHat 7.2
RedHat 7.3
RedHat 8.0
RedHat 9.0

2) Installation Procedure

- run 'make config' to set up module install directory.
(If the new kernel has a different version string, you need to
change the directory. The default answer is correct for most users.)

- run 'make install'
(This will do everything (install the driver and the necessary files ).
(make sure that you logged on as root).

- run '/sbin/insmod rt2400.o' (as root)
run '/sbin/ifconfig ra0 inet YOUR_IP up'
run '/sbin/route add default gw YOUR_DEFAULT_GW dev ra0'
(where [YOUR_IP] like [192.168.1.1], [YOUR_DEFAULT_GW] like [192.168.1.254])

- run '/usr/local/bin/RaConfig' to start the Configuring Utility.

3) Uninstall Procedure

- run "make uninstall"
==================================
The instructions are so cryptic. Do I put the driver in a particular directory? These instructions are for RedHat. I am using SUSE. Will these instructions work with my distribution?

I am willing to learn and search and read, but is there NO step by step directions on installing a driver, for crying out loud? This should be really basic stuff that should have some kind of documentation. I've been to the howtos, the man pages, forums on half dozen different linux websites...and am still as baffled as when I started looking for info...just to install a freaking driver!!! Come on Linux, you can do better than this!

Please help!!!

I am looking for some kind of howto on installing downloaded device drivers. The readme instructions are very obtuse, vague, and cryptic in the downloaded drivers I have seen.

Agreed, but unless you can find better instructions somewhere, this is what you're stuck with...

I need something that says where to install etc. Thanks.

It will vary wildly, depending on the driver. If you have a particular driver you're interested in, you can post the bits of its README you want translated here if you like. Also a link to download it from would be helpful.

Bartman

P.S. I just finished getting a driver installed for my Radeon 9000 vid card on the weekend, it was a nasty job... I feel your pain... But I got it working in the end!

[Bartman]

You are trying to install a Red Hat driver on a SuSE system, and are looking for answers in a Knoppix forum! You might have better luck in a Suse forum, but never mind, I will have a go at this. After this post please e-mail me directly (tonybart@bigfoot.com) as this is not really Knoppix related stuff.

OK, let's take this one step at a time. I found the driver you have and tried to install it on my Knoppix 3.1 system. I managed to run the 'make config' and 'make install', but could not load the driver using 'insmod rt2400'. I got a heap of errors, and I think this is because they are specifically for Red Hat. You will probably have similar problems with that driver.

Try this instead:

1) Download this file and put it in /usr/src

http://minitar.com/downloads/rt2400_linux-09102003.tgz

2) cd /usr/src
3) tar -zxvf rt2400_linux-09102003.tgz (This creates a new directory called /usr/src/rt2400_linux)
4) cd /usr/src/rt2400_linux/Module
5) make config (This should display something similar to the following)

-------------------- Ralink RT2400 Configuration --------------------

Linux kernel source directory : /usr/src/linux-2.4.22

Module install directory [/lib/modules/2.4.22]:

6) Hit Enter to verify that this is the location of your kernel source. (You will probably get something slightly different, depending on your kernel version. If you don't get something like this, you may need to install the kernel source package and/or kernel headers package from your SuSE CD. Hopefully SuSE will have installed these already.)

7) The directory where it installs your driver should then be displayed. In my case it looked like this:

Module install directory [/lib/modules/2.4.22]:
Module install directory : /lib/modules/2.4.22

8) make all (This should compile your driver. It took less than a minute for me.)

9) make install (This should put the rt2400.o file in the directory shown above, in my case /lib/modules/2.4.22)

10) cd /lib/modules/2.4.22

11) insmod rt2400

When I did this, I got the following error:

/lib/modules/2.4.22/rt2400.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
You have new mail in /var/mail/root

Not surprising I guess, since I don't have an RT2400 device in my PC. Hopefully this does not happen in your case. If it has worked, you will see the rt2400 module when you type in 'lsmod' at a terminal.

See if you can get this far first. Good luck,

Bartman