Configuring your Hardware

Introduction

Abstract

The HardDrake project has been developed to simplify hardware detection and configuration under GNU/Linux by providing an user-friendly interface.

What Is HardDrake?

HardDrake is a full GUI-based tool which ties together many of the tools already included in a GNU/Linux distribution. It automates and simplifies the process of installing new hardware. For the most part, HardDrake will be able to detect most devices.

On one hand, HardDrake is used to display information, and on the other, it can launch configuration tools. With its easy-to-use interface, you should be able to browse all the hardware your system contains.

HardDrake uses the “ldetect” engine, so if your new hardware is not detected, you may try to upgrade the ldetect library itself and its hardware database, located in the ldetect-lst package.

Usage

To launch HardDrake, you can start it through:

  • the Mandrakelinux Control Center: click on the Hardware category, and then on the Hardware icon.

  • a terminal: type harddrake2 as root. You can also pass parameters to HardDrake through the command line (type harddrake2 -h to get a list of possible parameters).

  • the desktop: go in the main menu. The HardDrake entry is in the System+Configuration+Hardware->HardDrake sub-menu.

After all devices have been detected, the main HardDrake window will appear (Figure 14.1, “Selected Device”).

On the left, you can see the device tree showing you all of the hardware categories.

Figure 14.1. Selected Device

Selected Device

By selecting a device, you will see additional information about it in the right frame. You can consult the help page accessible by clicking on the Fields description entry of the menu associated to the Help facility (button or Help menu depending on the way you started the application).

Depending on the device selected, two other buttons may appear:

  • Configure moduleThis pops up a window with all the module device parameters listed. For experts only!

  • Run config toolLaunches the Mandrakelinux configuration tool (available through the Mandrakelinux Control Center) associated with that device.

A special category called Unknown/Others might also show up, containing all the currently unknown hardware in your system, as well as known hardware that does not fit into the existing categories (such as thermal sensors, random number generators, etc.).

Problems/Troubleshooting

If you think you have found a bug related to HardDrake, report it through the Mandrakelinux bug reporting tool (the section called “The Drakbug Reporting Tool”).

ISA PnP devices are not probed for by HardDrake. If you have an ISA PnP sound card, run sndconfig or alsaconf from the command line. You may need to install the sndconfig package or the alsa-utils package.

Other Information

  • If you have a hard time getting your IsaPnP tools working, please check out the IsaPnPTools home page (used by the detect library).