- How do I check the status of my drivers and install them if needed? [duplicate]
- 3 Answers 3
- Unity (15.10 and 15.04/14.04/13.04/14.10/13.10/12.10)
- How can I tell if all the hardware in my system has correctly installed drivers?
- 3 Answers 3
- Linux: How to find the device driver used for a device?
- 8 Answers 8
- How to List Drivers in Linux
- Understanding Drivers in Linux
- Using the lsmod Command
- Using the modinfo Command
- Using the lspci Command
- Conclusion
- Alex Ivanovs
- Read also
How do I check the status of my drivers and install them if needed? [duplicate]
I’m trying to learn how to use Ubuntu, but I must say I didn’t have half as many issues with 16 as I have had with 18.04 I’m using a laptop and I’m at a beginner-level. (But I’m willing to learn) And basically I’m having a lot of lag, and perhaps I don’t have the correct drivers. I’d need an easy command to pull up my system info, and then run a check on my drivers and download what’s needed. Proc: AMD e1-1200 APU with Radeon HD graphics x2, Mem: 3.5m total, 1.7g used, 651m free, Swap: 3.6g total, 29m used, 3.6g free CPU MHz: 778.147, CPU max MHz: 1400.0000, CPU min MHz: 777.0000
You’re thinking of apps that run in the Windows environment. I’m not aware of anything similar in the Ubuntu/Linux environment. Maybe, describe more about your «lag» and we might come up with some ideas on how to cure that. Does the lag happen all of the time? Only in one app? When you’re running a VPN? Etc.
I’ll have to read more about the kernal system and the major differences between Linux and Windows, to better understand. But basically, my system is very slow upon installing ubuntu 18.04. Namely, application windows slowly opening, webpages and while trying to play Minecraft. Generally the entire system seems slow.
What processor? What speed? How much RAM/swap? What video subsystem/drivers? Edit your question to show me free -h .
3 Answers 3
This has been answered before but in two parts.
First displaying loaded kernel modules.
Linux (and Ubuntu as well) doesn’t have separate entity as «device drivers», Linux has kernel modules which could be called «drivers» for real or virtual hardware depending on their functionality.
Use lsmod or cat /proc/modules to see list of loaded kernel modules. Also you can see list of all available (installed) kernel modules in system using:
ls -R /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/
Next, using Software Sources > Additional Drivers, for installing device drivers, often proprietary.
Unity (15.10 and 15.04/14.04/13.04/14.10/13.10/12.10)
Click on the gear icon on the top right corner of your screen and click on «System Settings» from that menu, click on Software Sources (or you can click on the Ubuntu button and search for «Sources»:
and then on the Additional drivers tab:
Source | How do I install additional drivers?
How can I tell if all the hardware in my system has correctly installed drivers?
I’m working on making the switch from Windows to Ubuntu. Does Ubuntu have an equivalent to «Device Manager»? What I want to do is check if all of the hardware in the machine has correctly installed drivers. (without having to run a plethora of individual lsusb, lspci, modprobe, etc. I’m not quite there yet.)
3 Answers 3
Dash, type in «test» and it will show a test suite.When started it will take a while collecting and then show this:
It will take a while but the end result will be a full report.
Besides that. if you do no run into crashes or get error notices it basically works. Ubuntu (Linux in general) uses generic drivers. So if you can use it it works 😉
For you graphics card there is an alternative to go 3rd party (proprietary).
Dash, search for «software & updates»:
Now that Unity is no longer there, how to run test ? I ran test in the terminal but it seems that that command is for something else
The situation is rather different with Linux, because most drivers are included with the kernel, so there’s not the same need to compare what is installed and running with what is available from various websites. As long as you keep your package manager up to date, it will inform you of any updates.
But you can install a package called hardware info, with it you can find a lot information about your hardware similar to device manager, and more. You can generate a complete system report.
Plus, if you haven’t installed Ubuntu yet, you can choose try Ubuntu, to make sure that all your hardware is working.
Here is a comparison between Hard Info, and System Testing
Linux: How to find the device driver used for a device?
If my target has one device connected and many drivers for that device loaded, how can I understand what device is using which driver?
8 Answers 8
Example. I want to find the driver for my Ethernet card:
$ sudo lspci . 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01) $ find /sys | grep drivers.*02:00 /sys/bus/pci/drivers/r8169/0000:02:00.0
First I need to find coordinates of the device using lspci ; then I find driver that is used for the devices with these coordinates.
I know the OP asked for «drivers being used», but what if the driver is not installed nor being used? How to find out just by the vendorID:productID ? Also, what if it is not a PCI device, and you only see it in lsusb for example?
@DrBeco: But if driver is not installed, what do you want to find? You should just google in this case
#!/bin/bash for f in /sys/class/net/*; do dev=$(basename $f) driver=$(readlink $f/device/driver/module) if [ $driver ]; then driver=$(basename $driver) fi addr=$(cat $f/address) operstate=$(cat $f/operstate) printf "%10s [%s]: %10s (%s)\n" "$dev" "$addr" "$driver" "$operstate" done
$ ~/what_eth_drivers.sh eth0 [52:54:00:aa:bb:cc]: virtio_net (up) eth1 [52:54:00:dd:ee:ff]: virtio_net (up) eth2 [52:54:00:99:88:77]: virtio_net (up) lo [00:00:00:00:00:00]: (unknown)
I’d like to find solution which would find also veth and other virtual drivers. IMHO the only solution is to use ethtool or lshw .
sudo lspci -v will show it. like this:
$ sudo lspci -v 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. . Kernel driver in use: radeon Kernel modules: radeon
You can also combine it with grep like this:
$ sudo lspci -v | grep -A 20 VGA
For USB based devices you can see the driver name by using the lsusb command:
And/or you use lshw which enumerates the devices on all buses including USB, PCI, etc so you can see which driver it uses:
FTR: the driver is shown at line titled configuration , for example: configuration: driver=btusb maxpower=100mA speed=12Mbit/s
If you just want to plainly use sysfs and doesn’t want to deal with all these commands which eventually looks inside sysfs anyways, here’s how:
say, what is the module/driver for eth6? «sfc» it is
# ls -l /sys/class/net/eth6/device/driver lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 22 12:30 /sys/class/net/eth6/device/driver -> ../../../../bus/pci/drivers/sfc
or better yet.. let readlink resolve the path for you.
# readlink -f /sys/class/net/eth6/device/driver /sys/bus/pci/drivers/sfc
so. to figure out what are the drivers for all of your network interfaces:
# ls -1 /sys/class/net/ | grep -v lo | xargs -n1 -I<> bash -c 'echo -n <> :" " ; basename `readlink -f /sys/class/net/<>/device/driver`' eth0 : tg3 eth1 : tg3 eth10 : mlx4_core eth11 : mlx4_core eth2 : tg3 eth3 : tg3 eth4 : mlx4_core eth5 : mlx4_core eth6 : sfc eth7 : sfc eth8 : sfc eth9 : sfc
How to List Drivers in Linux
If you’re a Linux system administrator or power user, you may need to check which drivers are currently installed on your system. Fortunately, Linux provides several ways to list installed drivers. In this article, we’ll show you how to use command-line tools to list drivers on a Linux system. Understanding Drivers in Linux Before we […]
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If you’re a Linux system administrator or power user, you may need to check which drivers are currently installed on your system. Fortunately, Linux provides several ways to list installed drivers. In this article, we’ll show you how to use command-line tools to list drivers on a Linux system.
Understanding Drivers in Linux
Before we dive into how to list drivers in Linux, let’s take a moment to understand what drivers are and how they work.
In Linux, a driver is a software component that enables communication between the operating system and a hardware device. Without a driver, the operating system would not be able to control the device or access its features.
Linux drivers come in two flavors: kernel drivers and user-space drivers. Kernel drivers are part of the Linux kernel and are loaded at boot time. User-space drivers are loaded by user-space programs and run in user mode.
Using the lsmod Command
The lsmod command is a Linux utility that lists all currently loaded kernel modules, including drivers. To list all loaded drivers, open a terminal and type:
This command uses the grep utility to filter the output of lsmod to show only the kernel modules that start with «drm». The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) is a subsystem of the Linux kernel responsible for managing graphics drivers.
You can also use the lsmod command without grep to list all loaded kernel modules, including drivers:
This command will display a list of kernel modules, including their names, sizes, and dependencies.
Using the modinfo Command
The modinfo command is another Linux utility that provides detailed information about a specific kernel module, including drivers. To use modinfo , open a terminal and type:
Replace with the name of the module you want to inspect. For example, to display information about the DRM kernel module, type:
This command will display information about the DRM module, including its description, author, license, and dependencies.
Using the lspci Command
The lspci command is a Linux utility that lists all PCI devices connected to the system, including their drivers. To list all PCI devices and their drivers, open a terminal and type:
This command uses the -k option to display the kernel driver that is currently in use by each PCI device.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve shown you how to list drivers in Linux using command-line tools. The lsmod command lists all loaded kernel modules, including drivers. The modinfo command provides detailed information about a specific kernel module, including drivers. The lspci command lists all PCI devices connected to the system, including their drivers.
By understanding how to list drivers in Linux, you can better manage your system and troubleshoot issues related to hardware devices.
Alex Ivanovs
Alex is a full-stack developer with more than 15 years of experience. After many years of threading the self-taught path, he discovered a natural passion for writing. His past work includes helping build the Huffington Post Code column and working with publishers such as Entrepreneur, TheNextWeb, and many prominent tech startups.