1. Configuring your Hardware

1.1. Introduction

Abstract

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

1.1.1. What Is HardDrake?

HardDrake is a service for hardware detection, run at system boot time, and also 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 can 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.

1.1.2. 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 to 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 (see Figure 3.1, “Selected Device”).

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

Figure 3.1. Selected Device

Selected Device

By selecting a device, you will see additional information about it in the right frame. To better understand the meaning of the information presented, you can consult the help page accessible by choosing Help->Fields description from the menu.

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.).

You can also toggle the entries in the Options menu to enable automatic detection of some hardware which wouldn't have been detected otherwise. You need to restart HardDrake for those changes to have effect.

If you have a Mandrakeonline account and want to help us improve hardware support under Mandrakelinux, or want to see your hardware better supported in the future, you can choose File->Upload the hardware list from the menu and fill the form with your account data, then click on the Ok button: your hardware list will be uploaded. You need a working Internet connection.

1.2. Problems/Troubleshooting

If you think you have found a bug related to HardDrake, report it using the Mandrakelinux bug reporting tool (see Section 6, “The Drakbug Reporting Tool”).

HardDrake does not probe for ISA PnP devices. 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.

1.3. Other Information