Mandrakelinux can handle a large number of hardware devices, and the list is far too long to be quoted in its entirety. Nevertheless some of the steps we describe will help you to find out if your hardware is compatible. It will also guide you in configuring some problematic devices.
You may also consult an up-to-date list of supported hardware on the Mandrakelinux Hardware Database web site.
USB devices: support for USB 1.x and USB 2.0 is now extensive. Most peripherals are fully supported. You can obtain the list of supported hardware on the Linux-USB device overview site.
winmodems are also called controller-less modems or software modems. Support for these peripherals is improving. Drivers do exist, but most of them are in binary form and available only for newer kernel versions.
If you have a PCI modem, look at the output of cat /proc/pci run as the root user. This will tell you the I/O port and the IRQ of the device. Then use the setserial command (for our example, the I/O address is 0xb400, the IRQ is 10 and the modem will be the 4th serial device) as follows:
setserial /dev/ttyS3 port 0xb400 irq 10 UART 16550A |
Then try to query your modem using minicom or kppp. If it does not work, you may have a software modem. If it does work, create the /etc/rc.d/rc.setserial file and place the appropriate setserial command line in it.
If you happen to have a software modem in your machine, and you have a Mandrakeclub account, you might find an RPM package that supports your modem. You can also take a look at the linmodems web site.