linux drivers question

[darkoshi]

One of my brother's old computers boots ok from an old 2015 Knoppix live CD. The wireless connection works too that way.

But using Linux Mint XFCE 18.1 (which supposedly works better on older devices than the current 19.1 version), wireless doesn't work and it shows "No network devices available".

I did a search, and found this set of instructions for that particular Wifi card:
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/155
But it sounds a bit complicated for me, a newbie to Linux.

Rather than doing that, I was wondering... Is there an easy way to copy the necessary drivers from Knoppix to Linux Mint? Ie., boot to Knoppix, find and copy the driver files to the hard drive, then boot to Linux Mint, and somehow install them?

Comments

[randomdreams]

I don't think that's easy. It's not just drivers. Newer linux systems typically use a somewhat complicated scheduler for setting up hardware initialization, that old systems didn't have.

[darkoshi]

Oh well, shucks. I found a Driver Manager in Linux Mint, but it only works if you have an internet connection to begin with.

That computer is so noisy with all its fans and what-not, that I'm beginning to think it's not worth putting more effort into it (even though I liked it at first because it's got pretty LEDs in the case & a clear side panel). There's one more computer I haven't looked at yet, maybe I'll have better luck with it.