'Hardware Titbits' collects instructions on how to set up hardware devices which haven't been detected or configured by Mandrake Linux.
You are welcome to contribute a titbit, too!

Configuring An IDE CD/RW Drive On ML 8.1 By Hand

(Contributed by Mandrake Linux user Gerard Gilbert)

Here are the post installation procedures for installing or setting up a CD-R/W on LM 8.1. I have a Mitsumi CR4801TE CD-R, a very common CD-R! Still it was never detected during the install of any Mandrake OS.

Find out which is the 'real' device name for your burner:

ls -l /dev/cdrom

[tom: Sometimes this might not show the information you need. Try

dmesg | grep CD

instead. You will find the 'real' device name in front of the brand name of the drive then.]

I will assume it's '/dev/hdc'. If your system features two CD drives, you'll have to find out whether it's either '/dev/cdrom' or '/dev/cdrom1' by exploring '/proc/ide' and adapting the next steps accordingly [tom: or use the command I mentioned above].

1. As 'root' edit the '/etc/modules' file and add this line:

   scsi_hostadapter

2. As 'root' edit '/etc/modules.conf' and add this line:

   probeall scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi

3. As 'root' open the file '/etc/lilo.conf' in an editor [tom: Or use the Mandrake Control Center, module 'Boot', submodule 'Boot Config']. Scroll down about six lines till you see the line that starts with:

   default =

   Now find the line that starts with: label =, that matches the line default =. Go down two lines to the line that starts with:append =. Add to that line

   hdc=ide-scsi

   after the devfs=mount entry between the quote marks. There should be a space between the two entries. See the example below.

   #Example of a lilo.conf entry, this is not the complete
   file.#
   boot = /dev/hda
   map = /boot/map
   timeout = 100
   prompt
     message = /boot/message
     default = 2417-20smp
     vga = normal
     read-only
   install=/boot/boot.b
   keytable=/boot/us.klt
   lba32
   menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
   image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.17-20mdksmp
     label = 2417-20smp
     vga = 788
     append = " devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi"
     root = /dev/hda1
   
                         

4. Don't forget to run 'lilo' after you edit but before you reboot!

   lilo -v

5. Reboot.

6. Test: Put a data CD into your burner. As 'root' mount it with

   mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom

   [tom: If you have more than one CD drive, you might have to create a mount directory with mkdir /mnt/cdrom2 first, since '/mnt/cdrom' is already in use by your other drive.]
   Note the different device file, your IDE drive is handled like a SCSI CD-R(W). Check your scd0 entry in /dev directory. It should point to somewhere like 'scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/cd'.

7. Use the Mandrake Control Center, module 'Hardware', submodule 'Mount Points' to create an fstab entry for this device.

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Configuring An Agfa Snapscan E20 Scanner

(Contributed by Mandrake Linux user max)

I had a look at the SANE USB site before choosing the scanner, but still wasn't too confident...

Then I found this German web page on configuring the Snapscan which helped a lot, but I found that the Sane packages supplied with Mandrake 8.1 didn't need upgrading - I only needed to do the following (as 'root'):

1. Create the device file for the scanner: mknod --mode=660 /dev/usbscanner c 180 48
2. Setting permissions: chown root:scanner /dev/usbscanner
3. Edit '/usr/local/etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf' so that only '/dev/usbscanner' is uncommented.
4. Edit /etc/modules and add
   modprobe usbcore
modprobe usb-uhci
modprobe scanner vendor=0x06bd product=0x2091
5. Create the script 'snapscan' in the directory '/usr/share/snapscan' [NB the actual script is all one line]:
   #!/bin/sh
#
#script to upload scanner agfa e20 firmware
/usr/share/snapscan/agfafirm -v /dev/usbscanner /usr/share/snapscan/snape20.bin
6. Download agfafirm .
7. Get 'snape20.bin' from the CD that came with the scanner.
8. Copy 'snape20.bin' and 'agfafirm' to '/usr/share/snapscan/'
9. Make 'snapscan' executable': chmod 755 snapscan
10. Add relevant users to group scanner (e.g. with 'UserDrake').
11. Create a link from to '/usr/share/snapscan', called '/usr/bin/snapscan':ln -s /usr/share/snapscan /usr/bin/

Now you can switch on your scanner whenever you need it, any user that is in group scanner can just type snapscan in at a terminal and then open up the scanning program.

Sometimes it doesn't work, and then it's just a case of switching the scanner off and on again, then rerunning the snapscan script.

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