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Idea #13644: Hardware Driver Manager worth it's name

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #4848: Better Hardware Profile Manager.
Written by nandersson the 24 Sep 08 at 15:36. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
When I go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers I expect to see a list of my, well, Hardware Drivers.

Instead it lists proprietary drivers only, even though the operatingsystem is LOADED with drivers.

It would be of great interest to see what hardware drivers are attached to what hardware, if they are in use, if they're not valid etc..

A kind of hardware manager that Microsoft has in their system would be nice, with a tree-view of the hardware with the loaded drivers.

Basically I'm asking for a graphical, extended view, together with versions, of the modules you get when you run the command "lsmod" (list modules) from the commandline.

A valid issue today when the network driver e1000e.ko in kernel 2.6.27-rcX could ruin your network card.

Perhaps an "About this system" that gives you loaded drivers, X.org-version, X-server-version, and other software. I.e crucial information when you browse the web for support.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #13644
Written by nandersson the 24 Sep 08 at 15:36.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #13644 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
pepperpupper wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 15:37
Most drivers i think are inbuilt in the kernel...

litamus wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 16:01
+1

Yeah, very practical idea!
Still we need a usefull but also a well designed application to view, manage and look for lacking drivers...

jimmy9pints wrote on the 24 Sep 08 at 17:04
After recently experiencing driver-hell and finding no one place to look for them all I very much agree with this idea.

+1

andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 25 Sep 08 at 01:31
Since drivers continue to be one of the cruxes in development, I think this is a good idea. Getting certain drivers to work is sometimes a pain, even though many of them are built into the kernel.

I would also like to petition the future/current dev to include a way to force drivers, as that has been an issue with some tablets (for me at least) in the past.

+1

mudfly wrote on the 25 Sep 08 at 03:15
sudo aptitude install gnome-device manager
or
sudo aptitude install kde-hal-device-manager

Plaristote wrote on the 25 Sep 08 at 13:41
Hmmmm no I don't think it only shows the proprietary drivers.
If I remember well, since "Proprietary drivers manager" became "Hardware drivers manager", all the drivers are listed.

I agree with pepperpupper.


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