Does Ubuntu require special drivers?

[Peter Boholdt]

Thank you for your reply and for sharing your knowledge.

I do apologize for not taking the threaded mail reader aspect into consideration when first sending mails to this list. I've duly noted your comments and will act accordingly in the future.

My notebook is an Acer Aspire 3620 (3628A) and I'd be thrilled to hear from users who have had experiences running Ubuntu on this.

Thanks to David Retall, Richard Ibbotson and Mario who were kind enough to answer my enquiry.

Regards,
Peter

----- Start Original Message -----
Sent: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:54:33 +0100
From: Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic at dantian.org>
To: "Ubuntu user technical support,
	not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>,
	Peter Boholdt <boholdt at runbox.com>
Subject: Re: Does Ubuntu require special drivers?

> First of all, to send email to the list please don't reply another email
> and change the subject to something unrelated -- it screws up mail
> threading for people using threaded mail readers. To post, simply send a
> new email to <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> 
> On Wed, 2006-11-29 at 11:28 +0100, Peter Boholdt wrote:
> > I'm brand new to Ubuntu but very keen on trying it.
> 
> Welcome
> 
> > I'm using an Acer Aspire notebook and only have drivers for Windows XP
> > with which it was delivered.
> > After installing Ubuntu, how does the operating system communicate
> > with the hardware? Does it require special drivers to be installed?
> 
> In general the Linux kernel (that's the piece the communicates with the
> hardware) contains drivers (which are called "modules" in Linux) for a
> wide variety of hardware*. If the hardware vendor has opened up the
> specifications then in general the hardware is supported by Linux. The
> same is true if it was possible the reverse-engineer the hardware.
> 
> However there are some pieces of hardware that need proprietary drivers,
> which cannot be included in the Linux kernel but are provided by the
> hardware vendor. This is true for most graphics cards if you need 3D
> acceleration (2D is usually available), for some Wi-Fi devices, and for
> assorted other hardware.
> 
> And there is some hardware that isn't supported at all.
> 
> To know more about how well your notebook is supported you should do one
> (or all) of the following:
>       * Post the complete model name to the list, and ask if someone has
>         experience
>       * Check the Ubuntu Acer laptop list at
>         https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/Acer
>       * Go to linux-on-laptops.com and check the Acer list:
>         http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/acer.html
>       * Go to http://www.google.com/linux and search for your laptop
>         model
> 
> Kind regards,
> Mario
> 
> * In fact Linux supports more hardware than any other operating system
> 
> 
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> 

----- End Original Message -----