What is Digg?46 Comments
- CircleFusion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9...yeah, because I've never had to search for drivers for Windows before.
:-/ - adb22791, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"All you need to do is run one program:
$ hal-device-manager
Every distro should have it with the switch to HAL/DBUS. One program. Graphical. Detailed."
And what if you're running without a GUI? - civilwarlord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6dugg because the article doesn't mention "that word" at all.
- digggggggggg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I wish that in Windows there was a way to tell what devices are installed without _first_ installing the driver. I mean, in the devices section of the system control panel, everything appears as "unknown device" if it has no drivers, and it reveals nothing about the vendor or what the hell it is when looking at the details.
Or maybe it's something I don't know about. If it was mentioned in the registry or something that would be a lot easier than booting into knoppix to see what drivers are needed whenever someone's computer needs a reformat. - thesteampunk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4mooninite
"Yes, you do need *X* for it."
Correct.
"That program will tell you *MORE* information than lspci, or reading proc will. Good lord, I'm trying to show you a *BETTER* program and you try to eat my face."
It's not better. It's excessive. Why use a program which you have to install when you can use basic linux commands? I've never had to use hal-device-manager, ever, EVER. - Dayz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://www.duggmirror.com
- mariogl91, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I installed Windows on my laptop and I had to install drivers for audio, wifi, card reader, Ethernet, modem, multimedia buttons, and some more.
In Kubuntu, I just needed to install the nvidia drivers and ndiswrapper for wifi. Everything else worked out of the box, even the IR remote. - kokorhekkus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Another way (in x86 systems) is to install/use dmidecode which goes into almost silly amount of details in certain areas.
About dmidecode : http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/
Sample output: http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/sample/dmidecode.txt - fernandez, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5great but how many people actually switch to linux and not know their hardware specs ? maybe im just too nerdy ..
- 47f0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, that's about as silly as saying cars are too complicated for prime-time after opening a Haynes manual because they're "too complicated".
Modern operating systems are complicated - but I'll bet by the time you've got all your anti-virus, and anti-spyware and auntie Em running on Windows, it's even more complicated - you've just never looked under the hood - you just pray that pulling your car off to the side of the road, turning it off, then rebooting it cures the issue. - Nilsneo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Can we un-digg stories where the link is dead. This sounded great but has been bought by a linkfarm. Shame.
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Computers are pretty complicated. Tell me, would you prefer to have absolutely no way to determine this info? Ninety percent of the time there's no need for it, but when you're wondering about the impedance of your audio inputs it's nice to be able to get "00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)" from lspci so you can track down some specs.
- funkytaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@coachace, you have a good point. This is more likely of use to techs.
I'm a data center tech and the article is pretty thorough, but I would recommend "free -m" to check a good indicator for installed memory and swap & memory usage. "dmidecode" is an application that you usually have to install (but I do recommend it if you need mainboard information, it's very good).
Also if you have a dual CPU box, you should see a processor count x 2 for "cat /proc/cpuinfo" , but you have to use an SMP kernel to take advantage of hyperthreading. Some people totally miss this. - coachace, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Oh, that is MUCH easier than using a screwdriver...
/sarcasm/ - molochi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298837
and
http://www.pcidatabase.com/ - heavyal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3To all those bitching about using a ui to get this info instead of the cl: If thats what nix means to you then go back to your f'ing windows, its full of that sh*t. If you ever expect to really learn what Linux is all about you are eventually going to need to get your hands 'dirty' and drop to a cl to find the info you need. Aside from my other post as to how this is useful in remote systems what do you think you're going to do when you download a bad video driver and X suddenly decides it doesnt want to start for you? Reinstall? Cry at the forums? Get a clue! Learn to use the tools that Linux gives you! The command line is your friend!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Some more auditing Tools http://www.geocities.com/kmuthu_gct/systeminfo/systeminfo.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/grabinfo/ - johnstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use this command but I prefer everest and bartspe
- Feyr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2another very nice tool is "dmidecode"
not for the faint of heart, but it gives some invaluable information - bevans, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Feyr
Nice One!! dmidecode looks like it can be very help full.
on a side note. If I didn't know any better I'd say one of those anti-linux ***** is going through and burying all the comments. - funkytaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1On what distro exactly? Details, please. Not found on several boxes or in binary repositories.
box 1:
[xxxx@mail xxxx]$ lshw
-bash: lshw: command not found
[xxxx@mail xxxx]$ sudo yum list lshw
Password:
Gathering header information file(s) from server(s)
Server: Red Hat Linux 9 - Base
Server: Fedora Legacy utilities for Red Hat Linux 9
Server: Red Hat Linux 9 - Released Updates
Finding updated packages
Downloading needed headers
Looking in Available Packages:
Name Arch Version Repo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking in Installed Packages:
Name Arch Version Repo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[xxxx@mail xxxx]$ sudo whereis lshw
lshw:
[xxxx@mail xxxx]$
===========
box 2:
Uptime:
19:55:06 up 94 days, 21:50, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
--------
Online:
support pts/0 Dec 21 19:54 (x.x.x.x)
------------------------------------------------------------------
root@river [~]# lshw
-bash: lshw: command not found
root@river [~]# whereis lshw
lshw:
root@river [~]# locate lshw
root@river [~]#
root@river [~]# yum list lshw
Setting up repositories
update 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
base 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
addons 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
extras 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Excluding Packages in global exclude list
Finished
root@river [~]# - jpohl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1After reading those links, it seems to me that Windows should make it easier like going to a command prompt and typing lspci or lshw. Microsoft should really cater to their users needs and not require so much knowledge to find out a simple device manufacturer.
- nonsequitor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Its supposed to be the basics. I was always told use lspci and for anything you can't find that you know you have build all the possible kernel options as a module. Once you reboot into the kernel, run lsmod and write down which of the modules were actually loaded. Then if you don't have to pass any special parameters to the modules (and if you do you can do it from grub) compile in the ones that are used and remove support for all the stuff you aren't using. This advice has helped me run Gentoo as my 1st linux distro, and I've been using it successfully for the last 4 years now.
- arizonagroove, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2
$ lshw
Tells you all sorts of useful stuff and requires you to remember only 4 characters. - heavyal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good article imo. Especially if you're logged into a remote system via ssh.
- hobophobe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually from everything I can see hal-device-manager simply polls the traditional means of acquiring hardware information and displays it in the GUI. Nothing wrong with that at all, as that's exactly how any GUI package should work: it should simply arrange information graphically that is (and should be) available in text/from the terminal.
That said, with both lspci and hal-device-manager some information will only be available to you as root (or depending how you arrange your group privileges). Something to keep in mind depending what information you're looking for. - diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2lspci
hwinfo
lshw
cat /proc/blah/blah - shuffle2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1marked lame
- thesteampunk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4mooninite
Some of us like specific quantities of information, which is why we use those commands. Hal-device-manager is graphical, which means it is useless when you're not in KDE. Kthanks.
"No. This is a terrible guide. Do you even read comments or do you just want to be up at the top of the comment tree by replying to the first comment?"
I could ask the same of you. - biggbrother, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Yes, install Windows, but good luck trying to reinstall Windows, especially after changing your hardware configuration.
On Windows you don't have to worry what hardware you have because you're too busy removing keystroke loggers and viruses and all that other Wizard of Oz crap. - theendlessnow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Install hwinfo. Tools mentioned in this article are primitive and not very good at all.
- JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@heavyal
"If thats what nix means to you then go back to your f'ing windows, its full of that sh*t."
In case you haven't noticed, this is exactly what the vast majority of "ordinary" desktop users are doing. And the attitude embodied by your post is at least part of the reason why.
The best way; perhaps the only way, to get large numbers of ordinary people to embrace your product is to accommodate them, not vice versa. Imagine a car company that offers buyers a small savings but in return, they have to learn to use a manual choke and stick shift. Do you honestly believe this approach would have any chance of taking market share away from Toyota? - VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Every time I look at stuff like this it reinforces my belief that Linux is so not ready for the common man. Look at that *****, it's complicated.
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Um... why not just build them all as modules and then leave it like that?
- mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3"Some of us like specific quantities of information, which is why we use those commands."
This tells me you have never even run "hal-device-manager" let alone know that you don't need "KDE" to run it. Yes, you do need *X* for it. That program will tell you *MORE* information than lspci, or reading proc will. Good lord, I'm trying to show you a *BETTER* program and you try to eat my face. - Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Chipset
just because the Firefox spell checker says otherwise doesn't mean you actually have to change it. Just about every compound word is split into two with that damn thing (it even splits Firefox into two words).......who the hell wrote the dictionaries? - mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5$ hal-device-manager
Or the "Hardware" in your system menu.
Graphical listing of all your detected hardware, which will be everything you need to know without becoming root! This includes a tree hierarchy listing so you know what is attached to which device.
This article is lame. Buried. - ReoStrong, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0On a lot of hardware, you can get more info on the "unknown devices" by looking at the properties of them in the device manager. It's not a ton of info, but it should be enough to get you started with Google. At least I've gotten this to work out for me in XP.
- crazynuj, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I dualboot my desktop at home, XP Home and Ubuntu. My experience has been that my my sound and graphics card divers have more issues when reinstalling XP (I have to find the setup cd's and such). While with Ubuntu it just worked.
In fact the main reason I decided to try Ubuntu was because of a XP driver issue that caused my PC to reboot randomly. - chacallot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Those commands only works if you already got a working driver for the thing you're looking for.
That's obviously when the hardware is'nt recognized that you need to open the thing and find out which chipset it has. Specially true for Wifi adapters.. - JQP123, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1How many more people might switch to a Linux desktop if they didn't need hardware specs or command line tips or any of the other n00b tutorials that appear here regularly?
The steady stream of such articles offers the best possible explaination for the popularity of Linux on the desktop. - swooshonln, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0genkernel
- thesteampunk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2It's all fine and dandy as long as your hardware is working properly. Also, you should probably know lspci, dmesg and /proc before you fiddle with linux anyway. Good guide for noobs I guess.
- mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2"Good guide for noobs I guess."
No. This is a terrible guide. Do you even read comments or do you just want to be up at the top of the comment tree by replying to the first comment?
All you need to do is run one program:
$ hal-device-manager
Every distro should have it with the switch to HAL/DBUS. One program. Graphical. Detailed. - rootlinuxusr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3A very helpful guide, worked on most of my machines, but with Ubuntu the fdisk needed the sudo command to display anything, but that's just symantics on my part =). Still dugg. Very nice guide.
- insomniac8400, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2Just install windows, then there would be no need to search around for drivers any more.
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