For a given device, sometimes one linux distro perfectly supports a hardware component. Then if I switch distros, the same component no longer functions at all, or is very buggy.

How do I find out what the difference is?

  • Quantum Cog
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    5 months ago

    Could be varoius reasons. Some common ones:

    • distros can have different kernel parameters
    • unloaded kernel modules
    • different kernel parameters
    • older kernel/packages
    • missing packages

    You can narrow down which distros work and which hardware support is missing. Also look at archwiki for that specific piece of hardware. You can find a lot of useful information even if you don’t use Arch.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      5 months ago
      • distros can have different kernel parameters

      • unloaded kernel modules

      • different kernel parameters

      • older kernel/packages

      • missing packages

      how do I find out about these?

      Are they specific to my system? Some kind of decision the installer makes? So I would investigate locally on the device?

      Or will it be a general distro thing? Am I looking on their website to find out?

      • Quantum Cog
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        35 months ago

        No, look up what drivers/modules/packages your hardware need and load them/upgrade/install on the buggy distro