# Knowing Knoppix/Identifying hardware

# Common hardware

Knoppix has built-in hardware identification. This means Knoppix can
identify the make and model of a huge range of common PC components,
such as processors, graphics cards, network cards, and so on. To
use the hardware identification:

1.  Click K Menu.
2.  Click System.
3.  Click Info Center.\
4.  The *Info Center* application will come
    up. On the left side are the various categories. Click a category to
    view the details.\

The most useful categories are:

-   Processor (Central Processing Unit).
-   Memory (Random Access Memory, or RAM).
-   Partitions (partitions on hard disks and other drives).
-   PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect cards).
-   PCMCIA (credit-card sized cards for laptops. PCMCIA stands for
    Personal Computer Manufacturer Interface Adapter).
-   Storage Devices (hard disks and other drives).
-   USB Devices (Universal Serial Bus peripherals).

Note :If you plug in a new USB device, and you are already on the USB Devices page, choose any other category and then select USB Devices again to refresh the list.

# Listing hard disks

To get a listing of the hard disk drives in the computer, including the
make and model of each one:

1.  Click the Konsole (bottom row, 6th from the left).
2.  Enter the following command, then press Enter.\
    `dmesg`
3.  The `dmesg` command shows the "kernel messages". You will get quite
    a lot of output. Scroll up about two-thirds of the way until you see
    lines like this:\
    `hda: ST320410A, ATA DISK drive`\
    `hdc: JLMS XJ-HD165H, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive`\
    `hdd: LITE-ON LTR-52327S, ATAPI CD/RW drive`\
    The example above is from a computer with IDE drives. It has one
    hard disk drive and two CD drives. The primary master (hda) is a
    "Seagate Technology 320410A" hard disk drive. "ATA" stands for "AT
    Attachment". The secondary master (hdc) is a DVD drive and the
    secondary slave (hdd) is a CD writer.

Tip
:   To see only the lines from `dmesg` that contain the letters "hd",
    enter:
:   `dmesg | grep hd`
:   The "\|" character is a vertical bar, not a capital "i".
:   On a UK keyboard layout, the vertical bar is on the key between "Z"
    and the left "Shift".

# Limitations

The ability to identify hardware is tremendously useful. However, there
are limitations you should know about.

## Hardware newer than Knoppix

The most important limitation is that Knoppix cannot accurately identify
PCI and PCMCIA hardware that is newer than Knoppix is. USB and Firewire
devices work differently and are not subject to this limitation.

This book comes with Knoppix version 3.3, which is dated September 2003.
Knoppix should be able to identify most hardware made before that date
(except the very old or very rare).

However, Knoppix version 3.3 may only be able to identify PCI and PCMCIA
hardware made after September 2003 as an "Unknown device". A newer
version of Knoppix may help. A newer version can be obtained from the
Knoppix web site and from other vendors.

## Winmodems

The vast majority of modems made these days are
winmodems. A *winmodem* is a modem that relies
on the CPU for some of it\'s communication routines. This is done to
save a few components and reduce manufacturing costs. *Winmodems* tend
not to work well with Linux. A common example is the Intel 537 series of
PCI internal modem cards.

Knoppix can only tell you what a winmodem identifies itself as, in its
hardware. Knoppix cannot tell you about the Windows-specific software
needed to get it working in Windows. For example, in the case of Intel
537 based winmodems, there are many different vendor-specific Windows
drivers, which may be incompatible with each other. However, these cards
will all be reported the same in Knoppix. That is more a limitation of
the hardware, rather than a limitation of Knoppix.

## Identified does not mean supported

Knoppix may not have driver support for all the hardware it can
identify. In other words, just because Knoppix tells you the make and
model of a device does not mean it actually works in Knoppix. For
example, the Intel 536EP internal modem PCI card is accurately
identified; but it is not usable because it requires proprietary
software that cannot be distributed with Knoppix.

## Not guaranteed

The identification provided by Knoppix may be wrong. This is because
Knoppix is not perfect (sorry). However, it is pretty reliable. For
example, in two years of using Knoppix every day, I have had only one
instance of wrongly identified hardware (a fairly obscure sound card).

The hardware identification strings are mostly provided by Linux users,
rather than the hardware vendors themselves. However, the hardware
vendors are not perfect either. Sometimes the Linux users\'
identification corrects mistakes made by hardware vendors!

