Is there a way to use Windows drivers on Linux?
Asked by
TechieNinja42
I'm having trouble with my laptop as it crashes every time I connect to Wi-Fi. I've tried several Linux distros, but the issue remains unsolved. I want to update the drivers for my hardware, but I only have access to Windows drivers. Is there any way to install them on Linux? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Answers
Drivers in Linux are kernel modules, and they're quite different from Windows ones. You can switch the kernel version on your Linux system which might help with the drivers (modules) available. Just know that Windows drivers really won’t work on Linux; they’re fundamentally different.
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A friend of mine faced a similar issue and found that renaming the Wi-Fi network actually solved the crashing problem. Sounds silly, but it worked for them! Might be worth a try if nothing else works.
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You can run `sudo lshw -C network` in your terminal to find out what kind of network hardware you have and see which driver version is currently in use.
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Windows drivers are designed specifically for Windows and won’t work on Linux. It’s best to look for open-source drivers tailored for your Linux distribution instead. Hope that helps!
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If you're using a MediaTek or Realtek card, consider swapping it for an Intel card. The driver support for some of these chips can be quite poor, so a change might make a big difference.
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TechieNinja42: Thanks for the info! I’ll look into changing the kernel version and see if that helps.