Hardware Detection

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Wednesday, March 17, 2004 10:55 am, Brian Kelsay wrote:

> Only problem with installing something like the full blown Knoppix for me
> is if I don't have a CDRW in a PC, I get all this extra software installed,
> same w/ TV card and other devices.  

Yeah, same problem here.  I can understand having things like mkisofs on a 
system without a burner, but not cdrecord.  In SuSE, every time I run the 
package manager (part of YaST), I have to lock out ISDN adapters, TV tuners, 
Nokia Cell Phones, Palm Pilots, and a bunch of other stuff.  They definitely 
need to work at not requiring that stuff just because you installed the 
calendar and address book, and at checking to see if the hardware is actually 
there before they install the software for it.

> The other problem is that, as far as I 
> know, once you install to disk, you lose the autodection of hardware.  So
> If you plan on putting a device in the PC, you should do so before install
> to make your life easier.

It's a related problem.  They could install all the support in advance, as 
they do above, or the could, again, provide better hardware detection and 
coordination.

RedHat has Anaconda (I think) that does hardware detection.  It can be run at 
every boot for a morphic configuration a la Win98 (BAD) or on demand 
(better), but it does not detect new hardware as thoroughly or as well as the 
installers currently do.

One of the biggest problems I've seen in this area is people adding, changing, 
and/or moving CDR drives.  It can be very difficult to get them working if 
they simply move from /dev/hdc to /dev/hdd.