Prior Art submitted for Method and apparatus for delivering device drivers

Building a self-contained auto-configuring Linux system on an iso9660 filesystem

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:25:02 -0700

Title:
Description: Knoppix (Knopper’s *nix) is an attempt to not only create a fully featured rescue/demo system on a single CD, but also to unburden the user from the task of hardware identification and configuration of drivers, devices and X11 for his or her specific hardware.

US5826090: Loadable hardware support

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:53:19 -0700

Patent/Application #: US5826090
Description: Operating system that only loads specific hardware support for the booting hardware.

cfgmgr Command

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:38:02 -0700

Title: AIX 5.2 Commands Reference, Volume 1, a - c
Description: Configures devices and optionally installs device software by running the programs specified in the Configuration Rules object class.

SCSI initial program loading for zSeries

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:52:18 -0700

Title: IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 48, Number 3/4, 2004
ISBN:
Description: This article describes the IBM zSeries IPL process where a system load program (device driver) is loaded from the system SE (service element).

System and method for automatic device driver identification and installation

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:01:01 -0700

Patent/Application #: 20050160157
Description: Systems and methods that provide for automatic device driver identification and installation. Each peripheral device to be added to a computer network or coupled to a personal computer is configured to have a uniform resource locator (URL) stored in its onboard firmware ... The Internet site downloads a driver installation package for the peripheral device to the browser that is appropriate to the personal computer and operating system, and that is capable of implementing a driver installation process without a user specifying any option selections.

Apparatus for automatically retrieving and installing device drivers across a network

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:31:07 -0700

Patent/Application #: 6442683
Description: Reads like the exact same thing.

System and method for installing and servicing an operating system in a computer or information appliance .

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:06:56 -0700

Patent/Application #: 6763458
Description: The invention provides apparatus, computer program, and method for multiple operating system support and a fast startup capability in a computer or information appliance. It permits execution of one of a plurality of available operating systems at the time of powering on the device and where data generated within one of the plurality of operating systems is available to a different application program executing within a different operating system on the same device.

Dynamically configurable portable computer system

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:06:35 -0700

Patent/Application #: 5014193
Description: A dynamically configurable computer system which includes apparatus for storing former and sensed current system configuration data and for automatically reconfiguring the system without user interaction.

Using link-layer address to obtain device drivers

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:28:46 -0700

Patent/Application #: 6772420
Description: Methods and systems consistent with the present invention utilize a unique hardware address of a first network device to determine and locate an appropriate driver software for controlling the network device. Once the driver software has been located, it is installed on a network server, or other network device, capable of controlling the first network device. This method operates automatically, absent user intervention, each time a new device enters a network.

Method and system for providing device driver configurations on demand

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:57:53 -0700

Patent/Application #: 5,815,731
Description: A method and system for providing device driver configurations on demand during runtime within a computer system is disclosed. In accordance with a method of the present invention, a Hardware Namespace is constructed by a Hardware Resource Manager and a Logical Device Namespace is constructed by a Logical Device Manager within the computer system. A determination is made as to whether or not the peripheral device is contained within the Hardware Namespace and whether or not a device driver for the peripheral device is also contained within the Logical Device Namespace, ...