This blog entry is written as a continue of my blog entry “Weird Computer Errors“.
I had some spare money since months and I had no idea what to buy for it!
So I decided to buy toy hardware for my PC. What is Toy Hardware? (from now on called “TH”). TH is TH that you do not need really but you have it because it’s either:
1) Funny TH
2) Weird TH
3) Ridiclious TH (which I find a waste of money, so I do not have “RTH”)
4) TH which makes live easier.
So I have decided to go for:
a) A bluetooth USB stick (means it gives your PC bluetooth ability by plugging it into an USB port).
b) An external USB 2.0 case for 3.5″ IDE HDDs
c) A gameport/midiport (i.e. joystick port) to USB adapter
Why did I buy those?
a) I do not have an idea yet what to do with that one, but Christmas is soon 😉
And my “new motherboard” I have decided to go for, doesn’t have on-board bluetooth!
c) Because the new motherboard’s on-board sound chip won’t have a midiport and I love my QJ PC-Optix SV-205 with analog-digital combi technology!
b) Because a friend and IT expert has external HDDs and he was praising them very often 🙂
There have been so many crazy and interesting experiences with those 3 hardware bits, that I feel the need to write it here on my blog!
The joystick: It really works better now! Why you ask? Because it has switch-off-able throttle, and if I configured it as a flight stick (what it indeed it is!) and the throttle is switched off, the joystick won’t work (error message: “Device Not Connected!”), which makes you mad if you play a game and by accident move the throttle too much!
Thanks to the Rockfire USB-Nest Joystick Converter, the joystick now works as a flight stick (USB-Nest has 4 joystick modes you can select from, I have selected 1-2 axes, 4 buttons (Mode 3)) and I can switch off the throttle if I want, and the joystick will still operate as it should! 😎
The HDD: It can be set as boot device in BIOS settings of MSI 🙂 I have a HDD case with SILicon controller:
in my eyes: good bios support, when I once had a support question, I have got a nice answer, they are not as expensive as Promise controllers but not neccessarily worse than SIL. And Linux has a very good support of SIL controllers!
I have also mentioned earlier that I am using Mandriva Linux (Limited Edition 2005).
And so I was thrilled wether my new hardware would be supported eventhough it’s not listed in the Mandriva Hardware Database!
The USB-Nest Joystick Converter was detected but not supported by HardDrake
The USB 2.0 hdd case was deteced properly and works 🙂
And to my suprise, when I have plugged in the FreeControl Bluetooth mini-USB Adapter HardDrake told me: “Have to install gnome-bluetooth. YES/NO?”. Of course I said YES and there I went! 🙂 It installed it as “pegasus bluetooth”, well whatever works, right? 😀
There is a funny thing, though! You _must not_ boot up Mandriva Linux with the bluetooth adapter plugged in. If you do it though, one of the following things will happen:
1) Either it mis-detects it as USB printer and then Linux freezes (no error message)
2) Or it says on startup of a GUI “Server Not Found” and “No supported bluetooth device found”
So it only works correctly if you plug it in just when your GUI fully booted up! Then Linux will say “Bluetooth device found”
That’s it with my experiences so far 🙂
Technorati Tags: hardware detection, bluetooth, USB, Mandriva