Public SourceMage Discussion List

[nealbirch <nealbirch AT attbi.com>]

Jason Flatt wrote:
> This was sent to the list a few months back.
> Subject: [Sgl-Discuss] Hardware autodetection
> Date: 09 Jul 2002 23:50:02 -0700
> From: Aaron Brice <abrice2 AT cox.net>
> To: sgl-discuss AT sourcemage.org
>
> So I've been thinking lately that hardware autodetection and
> configuration would be a handy thing.  I remember installing SGL and
> having trouble figuring out what kernel module my D-Link ethernet card
> should use 

agreed!

> However, attached is a script that is a first attempt to duplicate some
> of the functionality.  It depends on lspci from the pciutils spells, and
> the hwdata spell that I just submitted to sgl-spell-submit.  It only
> checks the PCI bus, but can give you the kernel modules needed for a
> category of hardware.
>
> For example, instead of asking the user what module to use for the
> ethernet card, you can put:
>
> MOD=$(devlist.sh --module --category NETWORK_ETHERNET)
>
> For the alsa-driver spell, instead of using the dialog to let a user
> select the audio module, you could do:
>
> CARD=$(devlist.sh --module --category MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO)
>
> Again, as far as I know this only works for stuff on the PCI bus.  I
> don't have any ISA cards or ISA slots for that matter, but I assume
> lspci will not display ISA cards.
>
> Before I go any further I'd like to see if anyone else has opinions on
> the subject.  Maybe kudzu would be the way to go, or maybe there's an
> easy-to-configure autoconfiguration utility out there somewhere that I
> wasn't able to find..
>
> # CLASSFILE is the file containing the class id definitions
> CLASSFILE=/usr/src/linux/include/linux/pci_ids.h
> # MODFILE maps the device id's to linux modules
> MODFILE=/usr/share/hwdata/pcitable
>8 snip! 8<
>         -m, --module
>         	display *only* the kernel modules required for the specified 
>                 categories (or all modules if no category is specified).  
>                 Output is one module per line
>
>         -c, --category
>                 Used to specify a certain type of PCI device.  For example,
>                 specifying --category NETWORK_ETHERNET will display only the
>                 ethernet card, if found.  The categories are found in
>                 /usr/src/linux/include/pci_ids.h and start with PCI_CLASS_
>         -h, --help
>                 This message
>8 snip!8<
>   if  [ !  -e  $MODFILE ];  then
>     echo "Must cast the hwdata spell first"

WHERE IS THE HWDATA SPELL!!!! argh! This is great! did it just fall 
through the cracks or what?!

MY problem with most of the ways to figure the info was 
cross-referencing the data we can pull by polling the equipement with a 
(at the time I thought not-available to us) list.

Good job, Aaron! And Thanks Jason for bringing it back to our attention!

neal


--
"You can fool some of the people all of the time
--and those are the ones you have to concentrate on!"
GW Bush-- from the N.Y. Times