On my Job I regularly have to install Windows PCs and sometimes even install the USB Drivers for Mouse and Keyboard to work. Why dont I have to do that on Linux ever? Seems weird not to have them installed on Windows.
You’ve probably figured this by now, OP, but the computers at your job are weird. Needing to install USB drivers for mouse and keyboard to work is not normal behavior for Windows. Like another person commented- check the BIOS settings.
Yea for mouse and keyboards that is very weird, the only times I had to do this when I was using adb for my google pixel
Windows ME didn’t have the ability to automatically install USB drivers and it was fucking bullshit even back then.
You can’t install a flash drive driver if you need the flash drive in order to transfer the driver to the computer, everything is always 0.1mb too large for a floppy drive so CD has to be burned which is clunky and stupid and time consuming.
Only not normal behaviour for a pre installed system. Windows out of the box install often requires chipset drivers installing for all but usb1.1 speeds as well as drivers for many 3rd party peripherals.
What version of windows and what mouse and keyboard. 99% of them work out of the box and the drivers only add extra functions if there are special features.
Basic functions of HID should still work under windows for the same reason why they work mod-less under Linux. But when those devices are not HID-conform then you would need drivers/a kernel-mod.
Drivers are included in the kernel, you will always have them.
That’s odd. I can’t remember the last time I’ve installed USB drivers on Windows. It either works or it doesn’t (like a 75% chance of it working though).
Windows 7 lacked USB 3 drivers, and if you have a bleeding edge system windows might not have the chipset drivers which is like half of your system. (EX windows 10/11 lacked 11th Gen. chipset drivers until 22H2)
Outside of that I’ve never had the basics work. Especially a mouse and keyboard.
sometimes even install the USB Drivers for Mouse and Keyboard to work.
There should be an option in the bios to avoid that if you’re interested.
There should be something along the lines of “USB Legacy Support” if you set that to enabled, not auto this should pretend that the keyboard and mouse are ps/2 devices that would work without extra drivers.
Other possible names.
`
USB Legacy Support USB Emulation USB Device Legacy Support USB BIOS Supported Devices`
Because many 3rd party hardware providers are lazy, while Linux maintainers are not.
Ms provides a way to have drivers deployed over their windows update channels when needed but the hardware provider has to do it.
Linux allows basically anyone to provide a driver.
Linux has come along way, there was a time just getting Linux to run, and then to run apps on it was just unmanageable. I mean, you could do it but most people wouldn’t want to compile the kernel. Nor would they know where to start to do that, coming from Windows XP or even 7. They’d ask, what’s a kernel, and all you had was a terminal, and I assume the terminal wasn’t as user friendly as it is now back then but idk about that.
Windows use to just work out of the box, Microsoft used to care back then because in my opinion they were just trying to sell the idea of just using a computer to people. Now that they got people using computers, most with Windows on it then they go to the next phase, make money. The product is less of a concern, but they want to make money off their users.
You can expect Windows to be more modern and up to date on corporate trends, but not so what you want as a user. They aren’t trying to sell computers and operating systems any more, they already got people hooked to using their os, that’s what they probably cared about back then.
It’s always drivers with Windows. smh
Yeah, I’ve had more than a few chipsets or periphs that worked on Windows, and worked on Linux but were… quirky, especially when dealing with stuff like suspend states etc.
For USB3 in particular, I’ve found many storage devices or adaptors like to drop out partway through an longer copy process on Linux (like they’ll be fine for copying a smaller amount of data, but the controller or device would reset during longer ones). This didn’t seem to occur in Windows, but I’m pretty sure the copy process was also slower so guessing it’s some sort of buffer or heat quirk that 'nix didn’t account for in the more generic driver
This didn’t seem to occur in Windows, but I’m pretty sure the copy process was also slower so guessing it’s some sort of buffer or heat quirk that 'nix didn’t account for in the more generic driver
If the device says it’s a generic storage device (to the system that is) but actually isn’t (based on your description) then it’s 100% devices fault and not a Linux fault.
That’s not a distinction that users care about, or should need to care about.
Honestly I think it’s generally more of a bus driver issue, because it seems more tied to the motherboard than a given device
I’ve had the opposite experience - nearly everything works out of the box on Windows, yet not even a Logitech mouse works on Linux unless I go find some third party tool to make it work.
A mouse that works instantly on XP (probably on Win95).
That sounds like the dumbest bullshit ever. What kinda of mouse are we talking about that does not work with generic mouse drivers?!
If I had to guess, the programmable extra buttons on a Logitech mouses.
You need to configure them in the piece of shit Logitech software, that’s not supported on Linux
That would not work under Windows either, unless you install the extra proprietary app and he specifically talked about an out of the box experience. That implies basic functionality.
Yeah, I’m stretching it a bit
Logitech doesn’t put their software to Linux, but all my Logitech dongles and wireless devices worked fine, just couldn’t change their settings. But, there’s this software that does everything you need and actually works better than Logi Options+ imo.
Oh sweet, I refuse to download Logitech’s software so this is just what I needed
So you’re saying that this mouse can’t move the on-screen pointer or register even normal left clicks with the generic Linux HID drivers? Seems unlikely.
