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GNU/Linux now supports an astonishing amount of hardware,
given the fact that most drivers are still written and maintained by GNU/Linux
users.
If you consider buying new hardware, you can help by buying products from
GNU/Linux-friendly
hardware vendors which either publish the specifications of their products
(like Matrox) or even supply their own GNU/Linux drivers in GPL'ed source
code (like 3Com). See the Hardware Resources page
for more.
Make sure you have the kernel-source package installed.
It's a lot, but you will need it. The package installs to '/usr/src/linux'.
I will refer to this directory as 'linux/'.
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This may sound funny, but there is a good chance the
device is already up and running, but you just do not access it
correctly. Scan 'linux/Documentation/devices.txt'. This file contains the
names of all device files and which devices they refer to.
Let's assume you are looking for the correct device file for a SCSI CD-ROM:
grep -i scsi /usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt
| grep -i cd
returns
block SCSI CD-ROM devices
0 = /dev/sr0 First SCSI CD-ROM
1 = /dev/sr1 Second SCSI CD-ROM
so something like mount /dev/sr0 -t auto /mnt/cdrom
might be a good shot at accessing a CD in this drive. (More on 'mounting')
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If you don't even know the name of the device and it's
too inconvenient to look it up (e.g. because it is a card), you can scan
your system for PCI cards using lspci (from the 'pciutils' package).
Reading the boot messages with dmesg may also help. Or use Windows'
'System Manager' (or any other operating system's hardware tool).
This method isn't very subtle, but it works in many
cases ;-): go to /usr/src/linux and run
grep -r [name of device or vendor] *
Remember this only works as expected if the kernel sources
are installed!
Example: You have an old Aztech CD-ROM drive. grep -ir Aztech *
will give you a list of all files in the source tree which contain the string
'Aztech', for example 'Documentation/cdrom/aztcd', which you can now read
for further enlightenment. But there is more:
drivers/cdrom/aztcd.c: linux/drivers/block/aztcd.c
- Aztech CD268 CDROM driver
Bingo! ;-) aztcd is the name of the driver
you need.
By the way, this also works for hardware which relies
on programs like Ghostscript or X: just use the grep command
in '/usr/doc' or in the special case of X in '/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc'.
An even less elegant method is to have GNU/Linux try
to load modules until one succeeds. Of course this only works for devices
which are accessed via kernel modules and not for those which need program-supplied
drivers (like graphics cards or printers).
Go to '/lib/modules/[kernel-version]'. Change to the
subdirectory matching the type of hardware you have. As 'root' run
modprobe -t . *
You will get error messages for wrong modules: Device
or resource busy. If the command stops before reaching the last module
in the directory, you can take a cookie. Run lsmod, the module
listed on top of the list is the driver you need.
This also works for program-driven hardware, though
it is somewhat more tedious: if you can't find the driver which matches your
hardware exactly, try one for an earlier model by the same vendor or look
for an 'generic' option.
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This depends on whether the driver is supplied by a
program (user-space) or via a kernel module (kernel-space).
The first is usually configured by a utility of the program or the distribution
itself, the second via entries in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local', '/etc/conf.modules'
(or 'modules.conf') and / or '/etc/lilo.conf'. If you need help with the
latter, jump right to the page about kernel-space configuration.
ML comes with some tools to help you configuring your
hardware (which require root privileges to run). Since ML 7.0 most of these
have been integrated into 'DrakConf' and the 'Mandrake Control Center', but
you can also access most of these tools from the console (package 'drakxtools-newt')
The package names refer to the RPMs which contain them in short form, i.e.
'package sndconfig' refers to 'sndconfig-[version]mdk.i586.rpm' (in case
you can't find the program and have to install the package from your ML CD).
The vast majority of these programs require root privileges.
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Sound cards: 'sndconfig' (package 'sndconfig', in
some releases 'lothar-soundconfig'). For Plug-and-Play ISA and PCI sound
cards.
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Printers: Pre-8.0: 'printtool' (package 'printtool').
Newer releases use 'printerdrake'.
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Graphic Cards/Monitors: Mandrake 8.x relies on 'XFdrake'.
Older releases use Red Hat's 'Xconfigurator' (package 'Xconfigurator'). Alternatively,
you can use XFree's own graphical 'xf86cfg' (package 'XFree86') or the console
program 'xf86config' (package 'XFree86').
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Mice: Pre-8.0: 'mouseconfig' (package 'mouseconfig').
Newer releases use 'mousedrake'.
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Keyboard: Pre-8.0: 'kbdconfig' (package 'kbdconfig'),
KDE and GNOME provide their own key map utilities, so does XFree with 'xmodmap'
(package 'XFree86'). On the console, there's 'setkeycodes' (package 'console-tools').
Since 8.0, 'keyboarddrake' is M's configuration tool for keyboards.
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Serial Devices: 'setserial' (package 'setserial').
You are strongly recommended to read its man page (man setserial)
before changing any settings. Try M's own 'HardDrake' first.
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Clock: 'hwclock' (package 'util-linux') allows you
to adjust your hardware clock from the commandline. From within X, do it
via the Mandrake Control Center.
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Modems: 'modemtool' (package 'modemtool', not included
in ML 7 or later. In KDE, use 'kppp'). Newer releases of Mandrake use 'draknet'.
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 Configuring kernel-space devices
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