Central hardware identification database

I cannot find any centralized database for hardware info in the open source community.

More specifically, I'm currently finding it hard to tie the following pieces of information together. A. If I want to buy a hardware product, and only know the vendors description, its hard to find the necessary drivers. B. If I allready have the hardware, It's still hard to find the required driver's name from the 'dmesg', 'lspci' or 'lsusb' info. C. When there is no driver for a specifical piece of hardware, its more than usual that you must open the box, retrieve the information from the chips, and start from there.

As such, I'm thinking of joining a project (or starting a new one, if none exists) for hardware info that could: Given: - The vendor provided model name OR - The 'dmesg', 'lspci', 'lsusb' or simillar info Provide: - The 'supported', 'unsupported', 'never-will-be-supported', 'partially-supported', etc.. info - The required drivers, if supported - The components that make this model (chips, interfaces, protocols, controllers, etc) - The hardware compatibility issues known.

Possibly this project could be tied to the development projects so that the info would be helpful in both ways.

Can someone please direct me to such a project or direct me to the right place to start one?

Any ideas concerning the subject will be welcomed!

Thanks,

Pedro Rebello de Andrade CIDREIRA - Sistemas de Informa¨‹o, Lda