Abstract
The HardDrake project simplifies hardware detection and configuration under GNU/Linux by providing a user-friendly interface.
HardDrake detects and configures existing hardware at boot time automating and simplifying the process of installing new hardware. When launched from the Mandriva Control Center, HardDrake displays information about your system's hardware and can launch configuration tools to modify hardware or driver settings.
HardDrake uses the “ldetect” engine, so if your new hardware is not detected, you may try to upgrade the ldetect library itself and its hardware database, located in the ldetect-lst package.
After all devices have been detected, the main HardDrake window appears (see Figure 9.1, “Selected Device”). On the left is the device tree that shows all the hardware categories.
By selecting a device, you see additional information about it in the right frame. To better understand the meaning of the information presented, you can consult the help page accessible by choosing → from the menu.
Depending on the device selected, other buttons may appear:
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. This pops up a window with all the module device parameters listed. For experts only!
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. Launches the Mandriva Linux configuration tool (available through Mandriva Linux Control Center) associated with that device. For sound cards, a special config tool is used allowing you to select the sound card's driver and provides some troubleshooting tips.
Unknown hardware. A special category called Unknown/Others may also show up, containing all the unknown hardware in your system, as well as known hardware which does not fit into any existing categories (such as thermal sensors, random number generators, etc.).
Auto-detection of special devices. You can also toggle the entries in the menu to enable automatic detection of some hardware which wouldn't have been detected otherwise. You need to restart HardDrake for this change to take effect.
If you think you have found a bug related to HardDrake, report it using the Mandriva Linux bug reporting tool .
Sound Cards. HardDrake does not probe for ISA PnP devices. If you have an ISA PnP sound card, run sndconfig or alsaconf from the command line. You may need to install the sndconfig or alsa-utils package.