Re: [gentoo-user] Determining hardware on Dell Vostro 1520

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On Thursday 20 August 2009 22:44:10 Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 3:16 PM, Yoav Luft<yoav.luft@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I got a Dell Vostro 1520 laptop as a present, and I am trying to build
> > a kernel for it. I can't determine what hardware I've got on it, since
> > the specs
> > (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1520/en/SM/specs.htm)
> > say it could be installed in a few different configurations. What drivers
> > do I need the bluetooth (connected by a mini-card, don't know what it
> > means), touchpad, camera and fingerprint (if there are any, of course)?
>
> Luckily, I think all of those (except for fingerprint reader -- no
> idea about that) are very generic kinds of devices.

Thinkfinger deals with the fingerprint reader, the docs tell you which module 
to use. It's easy to set up and use, it's very hard to configure it *exactly* 
right - it always involves getting low down with PAM.

For instance, I have one and it logs me in fine. But I run a local IMAP server 
for my mail (to use multiple mail clients) and dovecot uses PAM auth. Every 
minute when kmail checks the inbox, dovecot (pam actually) silently waits for 
a finger swipe.

I reckoned it was much easier to unload the reader module and type a password 
once into a wallet than to deal with pam. Everyone I know has to re-learn 
everything about pam all over again every time they go near it...

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com