Mandrake Linux 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 will 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 our web site.
USB devices: support for USB 1.0 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 site.
Legal disclaimer: the Mandrake Linux Supported Hardware List contains information about hardware devices that have been tested and/or have been reported to function properly with Mandrake Linux. Due to the wide variety of system configurations, MandrakeSoft cannot guarantee that a specific device will work properly on your system.
Some types of hardware cannot presently be handled by GNU/Linux, either because the support is still at an experimental stage; nobody has written a driver for the device in question; or because it has been decided, for valid reasons, that they cannot be supported. For example:
winmodems, also called controller-less modems or software modems. Support for these peripherals is currently very sparse. Drivers do exist, but are in binary form and available only for a limited range of 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 file /etc/rc.d/rc.setserial and place the appropriate setserial command line in it.
A recent project is trying to make software modems work under GNU/Linux. If you happen to have this type of hardware in your machine, you may have a look at the linmodems and the Winmodems are not modems; Linux information page web sites.