Re: [gentoo-user] Identifying missing modules...

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

Apparently, though unproven, at 20:08 on Sunday 23 January 2011, 
meino.cramer@gmx.de did opine thusly:

> Hi,
> 
> when doing as root
> 
>     lspci -vk
> 
> I get all pci devices and "bus inhabitants" listed.
> Additionally there are often two lines added to each
> device saying similiar things like:
> 
>         Kernel driver in use: >XYZ>
>         Kernel modules: <XYZ>
> 
> and there other devices do not have similiar entries.
> 
> My question is: How can I distinguish devices/entities,
> which do not need any driver to work and those, which
> need a driver but in the current setup the driver wasn't
> compiled in/compiled as module?


lspci won't show you the info you request. That's a function known only the 
the kernel, not to userspace. What lspci does is find stuff on the pci bus, 
then go looking for modules that are attached to it.

Note that it looks for modules (via some kernel<->userspace interface), not 
any kernel code driving the device.

Your question is an entirely different beast. I think your best bet is google, 
or to find some web site showing a kernel/hardware/module compatibility list.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com