HardDrake: Configuring your Hardware

Introduction

Abstract

The HardDrake project has been developed to simplify hardware detection and configuration under GNU/Linux by providing an easy-to-use interface.

Description

HardDrake is 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; for those which it cannot auto-detect, they may be selected from a drop-down list.

On one hand, HardDrake is used to display information, and on the other hand, it can launch configuration tools. With its easy-to-use interface, you should be able to browse all the hardware your system holds.

HardDrake uses the “ldetect library”, so if your new hardware is not detected, you may try to upgrade ldetect itself. You may also upgrade the hardware database, located in ldetect-lst.

Usage

To launch HardDrake, you can start it from:

  • Mandrake Control Center: just click on the "HardDrake lists and helps you set up your hardware" icon.

  • a terminal: type harddrake2. If started in a terminal, you can also pass parameters to the program.

  • GNOME and KDE: go in the main menu. The HardDrake entry is in the Configuration+Hardware->HardDrake sub-menu.

After a wait screen (while device detection goes on), the main HardDrake window will appear (Figure 2.1).

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

For some categories, you will notice a “[+]” symbol. By clicking on it, the subtree will be expanded and all detected hardware of this category will be listed. Figure 2.1 shows such a window.

Figure 2.1. HardDrake –– Selected Device

HardDrake –– Selected Device

By selecting a device, you will get additional information about it. In some cases, you will see a configuration button which will allow you to configure the selected device. In Figure 2.1, we expanded some parts of the tree and selected a device in one of the categories. On the right, you can see information about the selected card.

Depending on the device selected, two buttons may appear:

  • Configure moduleThis pops up a window with all the module device parameters listed. For experts only!

  • Run config toolLaunches the Mandrake Linux configuration tool associated with that device. These correspond to the tools available through the Mandrake Control Center.

There is a special category called Unknown/Others which contains all currently unknown hardware in your system as well as known hardware that does not fit in existing categories (thermal sensors, random number generators, etc.).

If your hardware is really unknown (no description or no driver even though you know a working driver exists), you may be able to see your hardware recognized in future versions! To contribute to the effort, report the displayed information to the harddrake team and use the subject “[Unknown_devices]” in your e-mail.

Problems/Troubleshooting

If your hardware is not recognized or your system freezes, contact the harddrake team and use the subject “[Detect_devices]” in your e-mail.

If you think you have found a bug related to HardDrake (bugs with the user interface), contact the same e-mail address but use “[harddrake::ui]” as the subject.

ISA PnP devices are not probed for by HardDrake. In order to configure them, run sndconfig on the command line. You will need to install the sndconfig package if needed.

Other Information

  • If you have a hard time getting your IsaPnP tools working, please check out the IsaPnPTools home page (used by the detect library).