Arch Linux

riwa

Member

From: Lund, Sweden

Registered: 2006-04-04

Posts: 215

Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

I'm reading thru this "Arch_Linux_Review.pdf" prior to installing Arch and am wondering about the 'hwd' program that it features. It says that Arch features hotplug system, but 'hwd' helps to configure the hardware manually and faster. I don't really understand. Will I have to configure all my hardware manually during installation or will the hotplug/hwd help me out?

Regards
Richard

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If you must have must. Have must.
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Sander

Member

Registered: 2006-02-26

Posts: 138

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

hotplug isn't used anymore, everything relies completely on udev now. Most (non-exotic) hardware will be automatically configured for you and udev will load the right modules. This system isn't perfect though; I for one had to manually load the modules for my sound card. I believe you can use hwd also for this functionality, but I haven't tried it.

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tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

Bear in mind that the review you're reading was written quite a while ago (I can't remember exactly when, but the author is on the forum here - search for posts by jondkent), and a lot has changed since then. Arch uses the latest technology, so IMO you would be better off using the Install Guide and the wiki to get you going.

gwine

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2006-03-20

Posts: 14

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

the review you're reading was written quite a while ago

Linux Magazine Issue 64 March 2006 - so quite a while ago 

I really didn't ment to forget  "Arch Linux 0.7.1 (Noodle) Installation Guide"  - sorry for that!

riwa

Member

From: Lund, Sweden

Registered: 2006-04-04

Posts: 215

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

Well I'm using an Acer Aspire 3003 LMI. It probably has some exotic (as in rare) hardware since it's a laptop. What parts am I most likely to encounter problems on?

BTW, here's the specifics:

Sempron Mobile 3000+ 1800MHz

512MB

80GB

3 x USB 2.0 ports

1 x Type II CardBus PCMCIA slot

1 x RJ-11 jack for modem

1 x RJ-45 jack for Ethernet

15" LCD con 1024X768 pixel resolution - 16.7 milioni di colori

XGA 128MB SIS shared

Integrated Audio System

DVD Dual Layer (+ e -)    # This one is actually a dvd-burner.
                                         # Don't know if other info is bad.
Modem PSTN Interno 56K ITU V.92 data/fax

LAN: gigabit Ethernet 10/100 Mbps

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If you must have must. Have must.
- DKE supporters about this wonderful swedish soda.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

Linux Magazine Issue 64 March 2006 - so quite a while ago 

Published two months ago, written at least a month before that. It's a good review, but a lot has happened in Archworld since then.

elliott

Member

Registered: 2006-03-07

Posts: 296

Re: Detecting hardware? (SOLVED)

Well I'm using an Acer Aspire 3003 LMI. It probably has some exotic (as in rare) hardware since it's a laptop. What parts am I most likely to encounter problems on?

I have a Acer Aspire 3003LCi, I have everything on mine working.

CPU scaling works great using the powernowd daemon and the proper modules. This makes it run really cool and not burn my legs, with windows it always ran at 53C in Linux it barely makes it past 45C. It also added about 20min to the battery life. I actually get 30min more battery in Linux than Windows.

Battery monitoring did not work out of the box because of Acer's buggy BIOS, changing to the archck kernel and adding a custom DSDT made it work flawlessly.

The 56k modem works with the slmodem drivers.

The sound works great with the intel8x0 drivers with alsa.

I am using the sis drivers in xorg for video, it works beautifully.

The SIS900 NIC is supported right out of the box with no extra configuration.

The touchpad works great and is fully configurable using the synaptic driver.

The Broadcom 4318 wireless works using ndiswrapper with the Windows drivers.

I have no use for sleep mode so I haven't bothered configuring it yet, but all other ACPI features work great. Using laptop-mode-tools it is able to automatically spin down the hard drive when not in use with AC unplugged.

Do some reading here http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/acer.html pretty much all of the Aspire 300x laptops are the same.