You have a new hardware that is not working properly on Linux? Chances are, you do not have the correct drivers for it. For Linux to load the proper drivers, it must identify the hardware correctly and have the drivers available. How do you find information about the hardware your Linux runs on? Without taking apart your CPU or device and looking at the each individual chip, SecGuru provides some tips on hardware detection.
In case you cannot find the proper driver, what I usually do is to load up a LiveCD linux distribution and see if it can properly detect the hardware and load the correct drivers. From then on, you can use the tips above to locate the driver and install it on your Linux installation.