Appendix F.

Driver Disks

F.1. Why Do I Need a Driver Disk?

While the Red Hat Linux installation program is loading, you may see a screen that asks you for a

driver disk. The driver disk screen is most often seen in three scenarios:

If you run the installation program in

expert mode

If you run the installation program by entering linux dd at the

boot:

prompt

If you run the installation program on a computer which does not have any PCI devices

F.1.1. So What Is a Driver Disk Anyway?

A driver disk adds support for hardware that is not otherwise supported by the installation program.

The driver disk could be produced by Red Hat, it could be a disk you make yourself from drivers

found on the Internet, or it could be a disk that a hardware vendor includes with a piece of hardware.

There is no need to use a driver disk unless you need a particular device in order to install Red Hat

Linux. Driver disks are most often used for non standard or very new CD ROM drives, SCSI adapters,

or NICs. These are the only devices used during the installation that might require drivers not included

on the Red Hat Linux CD ROMs (or boot disk, if you created an installation boot disk to begin the

install process).

Note

If an unsupported device is not needed to install Red Hat Linux on your system, continue with the

installation and add support for the new piece of hardware once the installation is complete.

F.1.2. How Do I Obtain a Driver Disk?

The Red Hat Linux CD ROM 1 includes driver disk images (

images/drvnet.img

  network card

drivers and

images/drvblock.img

  drivers for SCSI controllers) containing many rarely used

drivers. If you suspect that your system may require one of these drivers, you should create the driver

disk before beginning your Red Hat Linux installation.

Another option for finding specialized driver disk information is on Red Hat's website at

http://www.redhat.com/support/errata

under the section called Bug Fixes. Occasionally, popular hardware may be made available after a

release of Red Hat Linux that will not work with drivers already in the installation program or included

on the driver disk images on the Red Hat Linux CD ROM 1. In such cases, the Red Hat website may

contain a link to a driver disk image.