This section will take a closer look at the finer details of dealing with PCI devices under Linux. Enabling support for PCI devices under Linux is pretty straightforward. Simply ensure that you have "PCI support" enabled under the "General Setup" kernel configuration category. The "PCI device name database" option is also recommended, as it will allow you to view the actual English names of the PCI devices that Linux can see (instead of just their official PCI device ID numbers). Other than ensuring that the above options are enabled, Linux is ready to support PCI.

The only additional step required is to enable the specific driver for the type of card you're installing into your system. For example, you'd enable "Creative SBLive!" support (under the "Sound" category) if you were installing a SoundBlaster Live!" card, and you'd enable "3c590/3c900 series (592/595/597) "Vortex/Boomerang" support" under the "Network device support/Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)" category/subcategory if you were installing a 3Com 3c905c Fast Ethernet card.