discover(8)

NAME

discover - hardware detection utility

SYNOPSIS

discover [options] [devices]

DESCRIPTION

discover is a command-line hardware detection utility.

OPTIONS

In each of the following options, BUSES is a comma-sepa

rated list of bus types to probe, and DEVICES is a blank-separat

ed list of device types. The following bus types are current rec

ognized: pci, isa, pcmcia, usb, ide, scsi, parallel, and serial.

The following device types are currently recognized: bridge,

cdrom, disk, ide, scsi, usb, ethernet, modem, sound, and video.

The word 'all' may be given as a device type to specify each of

the possible devices.

-f FORMAT, --format=FORMAT

Print results in the specified format. The format

string FORMAT is parsed in the style of a printf(3) format

string, with %V expanding to the vendor name, %M expanding to the

model name, %m expanding to the module name, %d expanding to the

device file path, %S expanding to the name of the X server, %D

expanding to the name of the X driver (for the XFree86 4.x X

server), and %i expanding to the device ID. This option is use

ful for those who want to process the output of discover, since

only one of the vendor, model, module, device, xserver and xdriv

er options can be specified. Do not forget that a '0 must be

specified at the end of the format string if a trailing newline

is desired.

--enable=BUSES

Enable detection of devices on the bus types BUSES.

--enable-all

Enable detection of devices on all supported bus

types.

--disable=BUSES

Disable detection of devices on the bus types BUS

ES.

--disable-all

Disable detection of devices on all supported bus

types.

--vendor

Print the vendor name(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'3Com Corporation').

--model

Print the model name(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'3c905C-TX [Fast Etherlink]').

--device

Print the device path(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'/dev/hdc').

--module

Print the module name(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'3c59x').

--xserver

Print the X server name(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'XFree86').

--xdriver

Print the X driver name(s) of the devices (e.g.,

'ati').

-h, --help

Show summary of options.

-v, --version

Show version of program.

HOW TO ADD NEW INFORMATION TO THE HARDWARE DATABASE

In version 1.x of discover, there is no supported mecha

nism for the individual site administrator to add data about

hardware that discover does not already recognize. The unsup

ported method is to edit the .lst files in /usr/share/discover,

however this approach has obvious limitations as /usr may be a

read-only mounted filesystem, and any upgrade of the

discover-data package will overwrite the hardware list files un

less special steps are taken by the administrator.

It is, however, possible to report information to the au

thors for inclusion in a subsequent release of the discover-data

package. The Debian utilities bug(1) and reportbug(1) are the

best ways to make such a report. By far the most common requests

are for unrecognized PCI and AGP devices. For such devices,

please include the following information in your report:

PCI vendor ID

This information can be retrieved via the lspci(8)

utility. Take note of lspci's -n flag, which reports the numeri

cal value. Both the numeric ID and the string (if available) are

required.

PCI model ID

As PCI vendor ID, above.

PCI device class

As PCI vendor ID, above.

name of corresponding kernel 2.4.26 module, if any

This is the name of the kernel module you would

load with, e.g., modprobe(8) to support the device. If the de

vice is a VGA-compatible display controller (PCI class 0300), re

port the XFree86 server information instead (see below).

name of X server binary, if any

If the device is a VGA-compatible display con

troller (PCI class 0300), report the name of the XFree86 server

used with it. In most cases, this is the XFree86(1) X server,

but it could be one of the version 3.x X servers such as

XF86_SVGA

name of X server driver module, if any

If the device is a VGA-compatible display con

troller (PCI class 0300), and the X server is XFree86(1), report

the name of the video driver module used to drive the card, such

as ati or nv.

Finally, include any notes or remarks you have about the

hardware. The full output of '/sbin/lspci' and '/sbin/lspci -n'

is always appreciated.

SEE ALSO

discover.conf(5),lspci(8).

AUTHORS

Eric Gillespie, Jeff Licquia, Ian Murdock, and Branden

Robinson for Progeny Linux Systems, Inc. and Debian GNU/Linux.

Based on detect by MandrakeSoft SA. Original authors in

clude: Alexandre Dussart, Bernhard Rosenkraenzer, Felipe Rivera

Marquez, Jamie Fifield, Philippe Chauvat, Andrew Post, Stefan

Siegel, Dan Helfman, Balazs Scheidler, Christophe Romain, Eric

Dumas, Michael Vogt, Pablo Saratxaga, and Martin Mares.

2002-05-24

discover(8)