Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

lanrat · 2004-06-03 10:43:17

Hwd did not detect my soundcard at all (standard SB Live) no alsa or oss module. That's why it is strange because it should detect at least oss module (emu10k) - I'll check that again when I get back home to be completly sure. For alsa the basic module is just snd_emu10k (if I remember corretly) + alsa oss emulation - maybe that's the reason it could not find oss module? I already had alsa and oss modules loaded. I'll try to unload them and then run hwd again.

I load my network module (ne2k-pci) in rc.conf so it's not built in the kernel (I tried this with arch's stock 2.6.6 kernel). I don't know what (AS) after RTL-8029 means but maybe this is the problem? BTW in 2.6 kernels shouldn't it be ne2k-pci.ko not .o ?

About the modules howto: I've just read the post about Whereto - I think I'll add this link to the wiki page.

rasat · 2004-06-03 12:28:27

The sound detection should work as long as there is an indication in the kernel output. I took a look at the source of Knoppix's /sbin/hwsetup script to learn how does it work (should have done it earlier) and it searches the whole system with /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids and ~/pcitable. Your sound card module is "emu10k1".

I also discovered that hwsetup has an option to detect netcards, so this solves the problem if then built or not in kernel but registered in ~/pci.ids. Can you test if it works?
Instead of downloading the whole package, when for testing only, overwrite the existing /etc/hwd/ hwd-no-autoconfig with the new updated file in tarball hwd.tar.gz.
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.tar.gz

PS.
Vendor and device ids:
http://pciids.sf.net/

lanrat · 2004-06-04 02:27:32

It took me some time but I discovered many new interesting things about hardware detection :-)
Sorry if this is chaotic but I'm very tired today.

Ok, let's start from the end :-)

Can you test if it works?
Instead of downloading the whole package, when for testing only, overwrite the existing /etc/hwd/ hwd-no-autoconfig with the new updated file in tarball hwd.tar.gz

I replaced hwd-no-autoconfig and it works now for my network card - good work!

Network    : eth0
Net Card   : Realtek|RTL-8029(AS) driver: ne2k-pci

I also followed your suggestions and links and I think there is still some place for improvement. Here is what I found:

1. There is another pci.ids on my system in /usr/share/pci.ids (it's more outdated than hwd's). This one is part of pciutils package. I followed pciutils manuals and found that it uses the same databases as hwd. What's more interesting pciutils includes a tool called update-pciids which "fetches the current version of the pci.ids file from the primary distribution site and installs it" in /usr/share/pci.ids. It has some additional dependencies: "This utility requires either wget or lynx to be installed. If gzip or bzip2 are available, it automatically downloads the compressed version of the list."
Hwd could use this file which requires symlinking from /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids to /usr/share/pci.ids or some changes in hwd sources. Then hwd package could depend on pciutils (possibly also on wget and bzip2/gzip since pciutils package doesn't depend on them). There could be another option in hwd startup script - something like: U - update pci devices database. Also this will make hwd consistent with lspci output. I tested update-pciids and symlinking updated file to hwd's pci.ids - seems to work ok.

2. Another important file is /usr/share/hwdata/pcitable. If I understand correctly hwd uses pci.ids to find module name in pcitable. pcitable can be generated from pci.ids with makeids script. When I was searching with google for information about pcitable I found a few interesting links about kudzu (redhat's hardware detection and autoconfiguration tool) and hwdata package (it's a dependency of kudzu):
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/kudzu.html
http://rhlinux.redhat.com/kudzu/ (this one seems to be outdated or not supported anymore directly by redhad?)
http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/kudzu.8.html
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/hwdata
The sources package of hwdata from debian includes makeids perl script which I used to regenerate pcitable using the already updated pci.ids. Then I used both updated files with hwd and they worked fine. This procedure could be a second part of the 1. procedure - only makeids, translations + pci.ids and pcitable files are required. This way we could have a very fresh database files for hwd.

3. Knowing all of this I tried first to reconstruct how hwd recognizes my network card. To find correct module name it needs to know what are the ids of vendor and device. In case of network card:

lspci -vvx
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8029(AS)
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
        Region 0: I/O ports at c800 [size=32]
00: ec 10 29 80 03 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00
10: 01 c8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0b 01 00 00

or a shorter version

lspci -n
02:05.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8029

or

lspci -mv
Device: 02:05.0
Class:  Ethernet controller
Vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
Device: RTL-8029(AS)

lspci -mvn
Device: 02:05.0
Class:  Class 0200
Vendor: 10ec
Device: 8029

Vendor id is 10ec and Device id is 8029. Hwd can easly find more information in pci.ids and pcitable:

grep -A 2 10ec /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids
10ec  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
        8029  RTL-8029(AS)
                10b8 2011  EZ-Card (SMC1208)
                10ec 8029  RTL-8029(AS)
                1113 1208  EN1208
                1186 0300  DE-528

grep 0x10ec /usr/share/hwdata/pcitable
0x10ec  0x8029  "ne2k-pci"      "Realtek|RTL-8029(AS)"

And the winner is... ne2k-pci - that's exactly what updated hwd shows now.

4. About finding soundcard module:

The sound detection should work as long as there is an indication in the kernel output. I took a look at the source of Knoppix's /sbin/hwsetup script to learn how does it work (should have done it earlier) and it searches the whole system with /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids and ~/pcitable. Your sound card module is "emu10k1".

I admit I can't find what is the problem with soundcard module. Following the procedure from 3.:

lspci -mv
Device: 02:01.0
Class:  Multimedia audio controller
Vendor: Creative Labs
Device: SB Live! EMU10k1
SVendor:        Creative Labs
SDevice:        SBLive! 5.1 Digital Model SB0220
Rev:    0a

lspci -mvn
Device: 02:01.0
Class:  Class 0401
Vendor: 1102
Device: 0002
SVendor:        0002
SDevice:        8065
Rev:    0a

grep -A 2 1102 /usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids
1102  Creative Labs
        0002  SB Live! EMU10k1
        1102 8065  SBLive! 5.1 Digital Model SB0220
        
grep 0x1102 /usr/share/hwdata/pcitable
0x1102  0x0002  "snd-emu10k1"   "Creative Labs|SB Live! EMU10k1"

Note that after regenerating pcitable in 2. it's now snd-emu10k1 - the alsa module not emu10k1 oss module as it is in the original pcitable included with hwd. And that is what I would expect from hwd to report (there should be some way of recognizing kernel builtin alsa too).

I think that is all I could find. At least hwd now correctly recognizes network card which is one of the most important things in initial arch configuration (to be able to play with pacman :-)).

rasat · 2004-06-04 05:15:33

Thanks for the valuable information..... I think we are getting hwd to move in right direction if we include option of data update, the netcard detect is now working, and if we make all devices / modules depending on ~/hwdata/pci.ids and ~/hwdata/pcitable info.

Did you noticed ~/hwdata/pcitable includes many Alsa modules. The ~/hwdata/upgradelist" includes your "snd-emu10k1".... meaning Alsa detect will work with a proper script. Moreover with the hwdata info hwd can also detect modems, scanners, serial and parallel adapters, and more.

EDIT:
hwd-2.1.-2 is uploaded (netcard detect is working but Alsa will be fixed in 2.2 with other improvements)

lanrat · 2004-06-04 11:00:38

Thanks for the info about upgradelist file I didn't notice it. Indeed it includes mapping of old modules to new modules names. What I did with makeids script was just refreshing pcitable to already include snd-emu10k1 module in place of emu10k1. The method is not important if the scripts will use all the files. Knowing exactly how it works now we can also improve hwd in the future and on others people pcs too. I'll install the newest hwd in a few moments and I'll wait for the new version to check alsa detection.

rasat · 2004-06-06 15:16:37

hwd-2.2-1 is uploaded.

Take a look at the screenshots displaying new features and updates (refresh if doesn't show three pictures).
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html

New options (got the idea from Xentac's testpkg script):

hwd <option>
options:
  -s    Simple mode - general hardware info.
  -e    Expert mode - full display including all devices and modules.
  -h    Howto - how to configure your hardwares in Arch way.
  -u    Update - download latest audio hwdata (REQUIRES CONNECTION).

#       Date of last updated audio snapshot (yyyy-mm-dd):
#       Daily snapshot on Sat 2004-06-05 10:00:0

I will wait for few days for feedback before updating hwd in staging.

PS.
The http://pciids.sourceforge.net/pci.ids has errors giving wrong module info, so hwd is currently using the sourceforge.net/pci.ids audio data only to display ALSA modules.

lanrat · 2004-06-06 22:55:52

I downloaded and installed the newest hwd (pacman was complaining about files conflict -already existing - in /etc/sysconfig but I forced the upgrade).

Upgrade of pci.ids went fine. Then I tried the expert mode. It didn't detect my SB Live and alsa module for it but instead hwd detected audio from my webcam (currently not functioning because pwc driver is marked broken in kernel 2.6.6). Now the webcam doesn't really have audio but all hardware detectors (including the one in windows) say that it has :-) So I think this is not the problem at all (it just wants to load usb audio module):

 Soundcard  : Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. MPC-C30 AnyCam Premium for Notebooks [pwc] OSS module: audio
  ALSA module: No ALSA module found in hwdata (run 'hwd -u').

The rest seems to be ok (ne2k-pci module properly advised).
Small error at the end of expert mode:

Generating how-to page... grep: invalid option -- '
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
Done
  View howto : hwd -h

But the howto page seems to be ok. This is the sound section:

Sound:
       Sound card   : Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. MPC-C30 AnyCam Premium for Notebooks [pwc]
       OSS module   : audio
       ALSA module  : No ALSA module found in hwdata (run 'hwd -u').
       Remark       : OSS driver compiled as a module.
                    : ALSA driver not compiled as a module.

Just for clarification: is this version of hwd supposed to detect kernel builtin alsa and alsa modules for SB Live? If not then (with an exception of this small grep error) hwd is ready for staging IMO.

rasat · 2004-06-07 07:08:12

hwd-2.2-3 uploaded (fixed the grep error).

lanrat wrote:

It didn't detect my SB Live and alsa module for it but instead hwd detected audio from my webcam...

Currently only detects one sound card and other single hardwares... this is why earlier versions for netcard detect had a different search engine (module based). The pci.ids search runs only once through files in /etc/sysconfig/. It can be changed (later).

Just for clarification: is this version of hwd supposed to detect kernel builtin alsa and alsa modules for SB Live?

Does pci.ids search telling if registered but not if built in kernel. I have to study what type of criteria to search.

If you remove your webcam, can hwd find SB Live?
For now if there are no other bugs, it will go in staging.

lanrat · 2004-06-08 01:02:54

After unplugging usb webcam I get from hwd -e

 Soundcard  : SB Live! EMU10000 OSS module: emu10k1
  ALSA module: snd-emu10k1

and from hwd -h

Sound:
       Sound card   : SB Live! EMU10000
       OSS module   : emu10k1
       ALSA module  : snd-emu10k1
       Remark       : OSS driver not compiled as a module.
                    : ALSA driver not compiled as a module.

It works then! How about another remark in the help about unplugging/disabling some usb media devices and/or secondary netcards if hwd can't find their modules and a user knows they are present? Are the remarks in help about "not compiled as a module" correct? Or maybe they are just confusing (first is prints module names then it says there are no modules :-)) ?

rasat · 2004-06-08 11:44:04

lanrat wrote:

Are the remarks in help about "not compiled as a module" correct? Or maybe they are just confusing (first is prints module names then it says there are no modules :-)) ?

Hwd detects the hardwares and modules even if not compiled in kernel or as module. The "remark" is based on information in /proc/modules. If a module is not found then its either compiled in kernel or doesn't exist. If not, then user has to build a new kernel. Currently the help says like an unsure person :

If drivers are not compiled as module, run 'dmesg' to check if built in kernel.

lanrat · 2004-06-08 13:43:27

Ok. According to proc and lsmod manuals /proc/modules and lsmod are the same (lsmod is just a better formatted version of /proc/modules):

/proc/modules
A text list of the modules that have been loaded by the system.
See also lsmod.

But this list includes a list of the modules already loaded by the kernel not just existing as modules on the disk. Moreover hwd seems to not find my alsa module for SB live which is loaded. I think I know the reason:

cat /proc/modules | grep emu10k1
emu10k1_gp 2944 0 - Live 0xe09b2000
gameport 3968 1 emu10k1_gp, Live 0xe09a6000
snd_emu10k1 95492 4 - Live 0xe0a15000
snd_rawmidi 21408 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_emu10k1, Live 0xe09c5000
snd_pcm 91168 4 snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1, Live 0xe09e1000
snd_seq_device 6920 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi, Live 0xe0966000
snd_ac97_codec 63364 1 snd_emu10k1, Live 0xe09b4000
snd_page_alloc 9348 2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm, Live 0xe098a000
snd_util_mem 3712 1 snd_emu10k1, Live 0xe0969000
snd_hwdep 7712 1 snd_emu10k1, Live 0xe0982000
snd 48996 16 snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_util_mem,snd_hwdep, Live 0xe0992000

But hwd finds that module name is snd-emu10k1 (which is correct) - notice that - is replaced by _ in /proc/modules.

rasat · 2004-06-08 17:28:56

lanrat wrote:

notice that - is replaced by _ in /proc/modules.

That's was not fair.
I fixed the bug in hwd-2.2-4

lanrat · 2004-06-08 21:53:16

I should periodically run hwd upgrade from cron :-) I really don't want to be unfair ;-) With the newest hwd I get

Sound:
       Sound card   : SB Live! EMU10000
       OSS module   : emu10k1
       ALSA module  : snd-emu10k1
       Remark       : OSS driver not compiled as a module.
                    : ALSA driver compiled as a module.

       If drivers are not compiled as module, run 'dmesg' to check if built in
       kernel.

This is perfect now 8)

BTW I advised someone on irc to use hwd to detect alsa module for his onboard AC97 soundcard and hwd found that this should be i810_audio but this is the name of a module for 2.4 kernels not 2.6 (he was using arch's 2.6.6). The new module name should be snd-intel8x0 - it seems that hwd now doesn't use the info from /usr/share/hwdata/upgradelist which includes the proper mapping (i810_audio AUDIO snd-intel8x0)?

rasat · 2004-06-09 05:20:37

lanrat wrote:

This is perfect now 8)

I am concluding the system (not hwdata) is now bug free and will be updated in staging.

Next developments will be the hwdata.... to have a bug free pci.ids (and pcitable) file as a base comparing with the latest sourceforge.net/pci.ids snapshot. After merging the two updated with ~/hwdata/upgradelist.

oldtimer · 2004-06-21 01:57:13

Targets: hwd-2.2-s1

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n] Y

checking package integrity... done.
loading package data... done.
checking for file conflicts...
error: the following file conflicts were found:
/etc/sysconfig/floppy: exists in filesystem

Anyone have a solution for this problem?

famavolat · 2004-06-21 04:24:20

oldtimer wrote:

Targets: hwd-2.2-s1
Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n] Y
checking package integrity... done.
loading package data... done.
checking for file conflicts...
error: the following file conflicts were found:
/etc/sysconfig/floppy: exists in filesystem
Anyone have a solution for this problem?

Try the force option...

pacman -Sf hwd

rasat · 2004-06-21 04:37:12

If stagging package (hwd-2.2-s1 based on 2.2-4) not yet updated, download hwd-2.2-5
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html

punkrockguy318 · 2004-06-21 04:39:18

HWD detects everything on my machine, except for my quickcam, and my USB game controller. My quickcam uses qc-usb drivers not includied in the kernel, but I have no idea how to get my controller to work. Also, It says I had firewire, but I don't.

One idea: Maybe for the config file: A check to see if the nvidia module is on the system. If it is, and the person is using nv, then add the nvidia module to the xf86config.

oldtimer · 2004-06-22 04:18:16

If stagging package (hwd-2.2-s1 based on 2.2-4) not yet updated, download hwd-2.2-5
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html
_________________
Markku

hwd-2.2-5 requires usbutils, which gives a smilar error:

Targets: usbutils-0.11-4

Proceed with upgrade? [Y/n] Y

:: Retrieving packages from current...
usbutils-0.11-4 [################] 100% 55K 101.7K/s 00:00:00

checking package integrity... done.
loading package data... done.
checking for file conflicts...
error: the following file conflicts were found:
/usr/sbin/usbmodules: exists in filesystem

???????????????

LMK what's the best way to fix this problem!

oldtimer · 2004-06-22 04:27:24

Decided to just force the hwd in stagging. Works now!

rasat · 2004-07-10 08:38:14

rasat wrote:

Next developments will be the hwdata.... to have a bug free pci.ids (and pcitable) file as a base comparing with the latest sourceforge.net/pci.ids snapshot.

I tried but its too much work to make manually a bug free base, so I added instead a new option (-d ).... Default - if update gives errors, load default hwdata.

Few users requested for test purpose, to know if devices work, to load temporally some of the main modules.... no permanent configure. In hwd-2.3 sound, ethernet and system usb modules are loaded. Its quite handy to test if sound or usb mouse are working. Maybe hwd could run a wav file? How to make a script testing the mouse?
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html

lanrat · 2004-07-12 19:28:30

Just to let you know before the forum will be flooded with this question :-).
After last hwd upgrade it also removed /usr/sbin/usbmodules which causes hotplug to display errors during startup (nothing really serious).
This is because of the forced upgrade of previous hwd version which included /usr/sbin/usbmodules (conflicting with usbutils). The newest hwd version doesn't include usbmodules so after upgrade it removes this file and hotplug can't find it. The solution is to reinstall usbutils with pacman -S usbutils.

rasat · 2004-07-13 02:58:57

Hwd still depends on usbutils. If along the latest upgrades /usr/sbin/usbmodules got removed, run "pacman -S usbutils" to re-install.

rasat · 2004-07-22 14:21:39

hwd-2.4-1 supports Devfs and Udev, and XFree86 and Xorg.
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html

punkrockguy318 · 2004-07-22 14:25:25

rasat wrote:

hwd-2.4-1 supports Devfs and Udev, and XFree86 and Xorg.
http://amlug.net/new-projects/hwd/hwd.html

hwd is really awesome! i appreciate all your work!

Is there any way users could contribute? Maybe hardware specs and the modules they use? hwd doesn't detect my webcam, but i know what modules it needs. So how can we help?

Arch Linux

#51 2004-06-03 10:43:17

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#52 2004-06-03 12:28:27

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#53 2004-06-04 02:27:32

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#54 2004-06-04 05:15:33

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#55 2004-06-04 11:00:38

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#56 2004-06-06 15:16:37

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#57 2004-06-06 22:55:52

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#58 2004-06-07 07:08:12

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#59 2004-06-08 01:02:54

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#60 2004-06-08 11:44:04

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#61 2004-06-08 13:43:27

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#62 2004-06-08 17:28:56

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#63 2004-06-08 21:53:16

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#64 2004-06-09 05:20:37

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#65 2004-06-21 01:57:13

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#66 2004-06-21 04:24:20

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#67 2004-06-21 04:37:12

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#68 2004-06-21 04:39:18

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#69 2004-06-22 04:18:16

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#70 2004-06-22 04:27:24

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#71 2004-07-10 08:38:14

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#72 2004-07-12 19:28:30

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#73 2004-07-13 02:58:57

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#74 2004-07-22 14:21:39

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

#75 2004-07-22 14:25:25

Re: Hardware detect manager for AL (hwd-4.x)

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