Diagnose a problem

From Mandriva Community Wiki

Contents 1 Diagnosing Hardware Problems 2 Identification By MCC 3 Identification on the Command Line 3.1 Graphics Card 3.2 Sound Card 3.3 Network Hardware 3.3.1 Ethernet 3.3.2 WiFi 3.4 Webcam

Diagnosing Hardware Problems

It is very helpful to join a support forum or IRC channel to solve problems when your system has a problem, still it is necessary to identify the problem and the hardware correctly in order for someone to help you.

Before asking for help gather information about:

• the tutorials you have used
• information acquired by the methods below

You can also consult the Mandriva support forums

• Graphic, video Cards
• Printers and Scanners
• Sound Cards
• Networking
• Various Hardware
• and, of course, this wiki under Hardware

Identification By MCC

Open Mandriva Control Center (menu Tools> Tools system> Configure your computer), click on "Hardware" in the column on the left, then click on the icon "Explore and configure hardware". Then, choose the type of equipment you are looking for.

Identification on the Command Line

Useful commands for it are (execute as Root):

• Specific to Mandriva, the lspcidrake command will give you the list of all peripherals attached to the computer (in USB, PCI and PCMCIA), as well as ther drivers. The option '"-v"' adds "vendor" and "Device" to the output which can be useful in identification ('"Device"' identifies the hardware in question specifically. This is useful because different hardware can be sold under the same name, so this option allows a user to differentiate them).

• lspci, lists all peripherals PCI and PCMCIA

• lsusb, Lists all peripherals connected via USB

Graphics Card

Allows the identification of your graphics card.

Sound Card

Network Hardware

To identify the network peripherals on your computer, use:

Ethernet

WiFi

To find the corresponding drivers in your system or ask for help, it is necessary to know precisely the model of hardware is in question. Equipment must, of course, be connected. Enter following command in a console (as user konsole):

(to achieve root permissions)

Enter your Root password, then:

This order will give you the normal list of peripherals (PCI, PCMCIA and USB) associated with the wifi system. You should so be able to identify your equipment precisely (notably with the '"vendor"' and '"device"' options).

Example for a chipset ipw3945:

ipw3945: Intel Corporation|PRO 3945ABG Network Connection [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:8086 device:4222 subv:103c subd:135c

But it is also possible that your equipment will not appear during this search. You can then launch:

And try to identify concerned equipment by vendor, name, etc.

Thanks to these commands, you can generally identify your wifi peripheral.

Webcam

The identification of the webcam is explained in the article about installing the Logitech Quickcam.