I am trying to work with the VectorNav VN-200 INS with a FTDI cable and the Jetson. The FTDI cable drivers are not being installed and ftdi_sio.ko is nowhere to be found. Will I have to compile the module from the kernal source or is there another way?
If the kernel driver you need is not compiled in the kernel or as a module, then yes, you need to compile it from the source.
If you know the driver name, you should be able to check the option from the running kernel with (replace FTDI with the actual name):
zgrep FTDI /proc/config.gz