Unix & Linux: What is the difference between kernel drivers and kernel modules? (6 Solutions!!)

Unix & Linux: What is the difference between kernel drivers and kernel modules?


The Question: When I do a lspci -k on my Kubuntu with a 3.2.0-29-generic kernel I can see
something like this:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G86 [Quadro NVS 290] (rev
a1)
Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0492
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia_current, nouveau, nvidiafb
There is a kernel driver nvidia and kernel modules nvidia_current, nouveau,
nvidiafb.
Now I wondered what might be the difference between Kernel drivers and Kernel
modules?

Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful

All Drivers are modules. Not all modules are drivers.
Modules can be inserted at runtime. Modules/Drivers can be statically compiled
along with the kernel also.
Typical module init has
module_init(init_fn);
init_fn()
{
/* some code */
}
The same module can be made a driver
module_init(init_fn);
init_fn()
{
device_register(&device);
/* some code */
}

== This solution helped 20 people ==
To answer your specific question about the lspci output, the "kernel driver"
line refers to which driver is currently bound to the card, in this case the
proprietary nvidia driver. The "kernel modules" line lists all of the drivers
known to be capable of binding to this card. Here, the proprietary driver shows
up it a different name, probably due to how lspci found the driver and its
filename versus the name coded into the driver itself.

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