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Kalle Elmér
Asked: 2013-03-21 11:06:34 +0800 CST

Old USB driver on 12.10

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I have a USB device that comes with a generic Linux driver in the form of a kernel module. It's a .ko file that I'm supposed to install. However, it was compiled for version 2.16.18-53 of the Linux kernel. I don't have access to the source.

Is it possible to get this working on Ubuntu 12.10 with Linux 3.2.0-39-generic-pae?

drivers

1 Answers

    • The module will refuse to load by default.
    • You can try to force it with modprobe -f. Maybe you are lucky.
    • Best method is to recompile it against the new kernel. Look into DKMS, that's what is used in Ubuntu for packages that use kernel modules. Here is an example with a mouse module.
    • Another possible method might be to post the file on a (relevant) mailing list and ask if someone could/can recompile it.

    But ... having a source file might be crucial.

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