Driver Scan™

A GitHub agent plus a small CLI that inventories this machine and reports missing, mismatched, error, firmware, and OS-offered driver updates on Linux and Windows.

It does not download or install vendor .exe / .inf blobs from the internet. Official sources only: Windows Update, the distro package manager, and the PC/chip maker’s support page.

Repo: https://github.com/wbharris/Driver_Scan

Contract: docs/PRODUCT.md. Copilot / coding-agent profile: .github/agents/driver-scan.md.

Driver Scan™ is a trademark of wbharris (common-law ™). See TRADEMARK.md.

What it does

Command	Job
driver-scan / scan	Fast inventory: missing, mismatched, error, firmware, OS-offered updates
list	Every installed driver in one place, grouped by class
driver-scan --html	Stand-alone results page (graphics / audio / network / printer / imaging / …)
guide	Ordered next steps (backup → OS update → PC maker → vendor → restore)
locate	Official PC-maker and chip-vendor URLs for problem devices
fetch -o DIR	Write LINKS.txt; on Linux apt-get download firmware/driver packages into DIR
backup -o FILE.zip	Zip the report plus a driver/config snapshot
restore FILE.zip	Dry-run restore; --apply writes Linux configs or Windows pnputil /add-driver (tries a System Restore point first). --only NAME for a subset
ignore add|remove|list	Hide a device from problem counts
schedule install	Repeat the scan; optional --backup --notify
scan --notify	Desktop notify when the scan finds problems

Severity	Meaning
missing	Hardware present, no driver bound (Linux) or Device Manager code 28 (Windows)
mismatch	Generic/fallback or OS-incompatible package (Basic Display, nouveau, code 32/39/48)
error	Device started and failed (code 10/31/43/52, DKMS broken)
firmware	Kernel log shows a firmware load failure
update	Distro packages (linux-firmware, NVIDIA, mesa, …) or Windows Update driver offers
ok / skip	Bound and healthy, or chipset/hub functions that never have a loadable driver

Install

git clone https://github.com/wbharris/Driver_Scan.git
cd Driver_Scan
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev]"

Windows (PowerShell):

git clone https://github.com/wbharris/Driver_Scan.git
cd Driver_Scan
py -3 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\pip install -e ".[dev]"

Python 3.11+. No extra runtime packages. Windows collection uses the bundled windows_collect.ps1 (PowerShell 5.1 or pwsh).

Usage

driver-scan
driver-scan --problems-only
driver-scan --json
driver-scan --html -o cases/$(hostname).html
driver-scan --markdown -o cases/$(hostname).md
driver-scan locate
driver-scan fetch -o ./driver-downloads
driver-scan backup -o ./drivers.zip
driver-scan restore ./drivers.zip
driver-scan restore ./drivers.zip --apply
driver-scan list
driver-scan list --category graphics --older-than 365
driver-scan ignore add pci:02:00.0
driver-scan guide
driver-scan --notify
driver-scan --category printer --category imaging
driver-scan schedule install --every daily --backup --notify
driver-scan schedule status
driver-scan schedule remove

driver-scan --os linux
driver-scan --os windows --no-windows-update

Simulate Windows from Linux (collector JSON, no Windows box required):

.venv/bin/python tests/simulate_windows11.py
.venv/bin/python tests/simulate_windowsserver2025.py
.venv/bin/python tests/simulate_ubuntu2604.py
.venv/bin/python tests/simulate_rhel102.py
driver-scan --fixture tests/data/windows11-dell.json --include-ignored --problems-only
driver-scan --fixture tests/data/windowsserver2025-poweredge.json --include-ignored --problems-only
driver-scan --fixture tests/data/ubuntu-26.04.1-xps.json --include-ignored --problems-only
driver-scan --fixture tests/data/rhel-10.2-poweredge.json --include-ignored --problems-only
driver-scan list --fixture tests/data/ubuntu-26.04.1-xps.json --include-ignored --category graphics

Exit code 1 if any missing / error / firmware / update finding exists, else 0.

On Windows without Python you can still dump JSON. Do not use a relative -File src\... unless you are already in the clone root — that is what broke the Latitude 5490 capture. Full procedure: docs/LIVE-WINDOWS.md.

No clone (absolute -File + Desktop -OutFile):

$script = Join-Path $env:TEMP "windows_collect.ps1"
$out = Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE "Desktop\dell-live.json"
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wbharris/Driver_Scan/main/src/driver_scan/windows_collect.ps1" -OutFile $script
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File $script -IncludeWindowsUpdate -OutFile $out

From a clone, repo root only:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "$PWD\src\driver_scan\windows_collect.ps1" -IncludeWindowsUpdate -OutFile "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\dell-live.json"

Redact the serial, then classify on a machine with driver-scan (--html -o creates cases\ if needed):

.venv/bin/driver-scan redact dell-live.json -o tests/data/windows11-live.json
.venv/bin/driver-scan --fixture tests/data/windows11-live.json --include-ignored --html -o cases/live.html

Agent

On GitHub.com Copilot coding agent / VS Code custom agents: select Driver Scan (.github/agents/driver-scan.md). It runs driver-scan --markdown --problems-only and stops at official next steps.

Honesty

• “Outdated” means the OS offered an update (apt / Windows Update), not a scraped commercial catalog.
• Chipset bridges, ISA/PMC, and USB hubs are skip, not missing.
• Firmware lines need dmesg or journalctl permission; if those fail, the report lists them under skipped tools.
• Prefer Windows Update, then Dell/HP/Lenovo/ASUS, then Intel/AMD/NVIDIA.
• fetch never pulls random .exe / .inf from the web. Linux downloads distro packages only.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.