Chapter 6. Printers and Other Hardware

Ah, hardware . . . "I hate hardware!"

Part of the personal computer experience seems destined to be an eternal battle in getting your current system to talk to the latest and greatest devices. There's always a new, hyper-fantastic, 3D video card; mind-blowing stereo sound system; or hair-trigger game controller out there. Then there are everyday devices, such as modems, scanners, and printers. Getting all these devices to work with your system is something that has caused us all grief over time, regardless of what operating system we were running.

We are used to assuming that anything works with Windows, but even that isn't true. From time to time, even Windows users must visit hardware vendors' Web sites to download a driver. One of the things that sets Ubuntu Linux apart is its intelligent and accurate hardware detection and support. Most things will be automatically configured without a fuss. In this chapter, I'm going to give you the tools you need to deal with common issues and give you some tips on avoiding problems in the first place.