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They are handled by the program
cdrecord, either directly from the console or from one of the several
graphical frontends. 'Cdrecord'
supports almost every IDE/SCSI CD writer in existence.
Your mileage may vary with external burners (parallel, USB, Firewire), though.
Check the appropriate sections below for more information on these.
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These are really nice gadgets, although still
requiring some larger investment. The program which provides the drivers
and the user interface to digital cameras is called gPhoto. They also provide a list of Supported Cameras in gPhoto.
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In contrast to operating systems like MS Windows or
Mac Os the graphical subsystem in Linux is not part of the operating system
itself, but is handled via a collection of programs, libraries and drivers
issued by the XFree86 project, commonly
referred to as 'X'.
You'll find more information on supported cards and features supported on
these cards, in the Status
file. This file will also tell you if you have to revert to an earlier
version of X to get a driver for your card.
'XFree' is but one offer to provide a graphical subsystem for Linux.
There are also commercial and proprietary alternatives: Xi Graphics and Metro Link.
Notice however that especially Xi's offers are quite expensive.
There is also the possibility to run XFree even on unsupported cards by using
the framebuffer
server.
If you've got an nVidia based card, read nVidia on
Mandrake.
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Scanners are supported via the program SANE ('Scanner Access Now Easy').
There is a list
of scanners supported by SANE.
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The 'isdn4linux FAQ' has a comprehensive list of supported
ISDN cards.
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Laptops are highly integrated devices. The built-in
graphic chip and pc-cards (former PCMCIA) deserve particular attention.
Linux on Laptops
collects installation descriptions and more. The Linux Mobile Guide is an extensive
HOWTO. Linux PCMCIA Information...
well - I think you can figure out yourself what this page is about ;-). Also
have a look at the 'Mandrake Laptop Files' in this section.
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All external modems (apart from some USB WinModems,
see below) and ISDN TA's work. Support for so-called 'WinModems'(TM), which
emulate most of their functionality in software is in its early stages and
Lucent has released a binary-only module for cards based on its chipset.
Check out Linmodems.org.
If you want to know if your internal modem is a WinModem, go to the WinModems information
page.
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Donald Becker has written many Linux drivers for Ethernet
cards. His Linux Network Drivers
provides a good deal of information on them, as well as pointers to other
network driver resources. Another excellent source is the Linux Ethernet
HOWTO.
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These are legacy devices, sooner or later to be replaced
by USB or Firewire. To get these devices working with GNU/Linux, some tweaking
may be required. Linux Parallel
Port takes care of gathering information about this topic.
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Mandrake supports an array of printer spooler systems,
with CUPS being the default system. The
spooler system uses Ghostscript.
'Ghostscript' is necessary because most Unix programs traditionally only support
printing via PostScript printers which are usually too expensive for the
average user. 'Ghostscript' translates the PostScript input from any program
to the specific printer language. If your printer understands the PostScript
printer language anyway, it should work with GNU/Linux.
'Ghostscript' comes in two versions: 'Aladdin Ghostscript' and 'GNU Ghostscript'.
'GNU Ghostscript' is just a slightly older version of Aladdin and commonly
used on GNU/Linux, because the Aladdin license forbids commercial distribution.
Have a look at the Unix Printer Compatibility
Database List at Linux Printing
to find out if and how good your printer is supported. They also have a list
of 'suggested printers'.
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The GNU/Linux kernel sound modules are either provided
by the Open Sound System (OSS)
or the Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture (ALSA), which is intended to replace OSS some time in the
future.
If your card is not supported, Opensound provides a quite
inexpensive alternative.
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USB support in Linux is implemented by the Linux USB Project (Database of supported devices).
Check out The Linux
USB sub-system which provides some excellent installation instructions
for almost all kinds of USB hardware in Linux.
Firewire (1394) is handled by the Linux1394 Project (Hardware Compatibility List).
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Video and TV is being worked on by the Video for Linux project
(also have a look at the VfL Resources
page).
The CPiA webcam driver for Linux
is actually a subsystem of VfL (i.e. your webcam must be supported by CPiA
and your graphics card by VfL). VfL components are already available as modules
on your GNU/Linux box.
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