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ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com (Ubuntu Documentation Project)

Credits and License

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu documentation team (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam). For a list of contributors, see the <ulink url="../../libs/C/contributors.xml">contributors page</ulink>

This document is made available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.5 License (CC-BY-SA).

You are free to modify, extend, and improve the Ubuntu documentation source code under the terms of this license. All derivative works must be released under this license.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AS DESCRIBED IN THE DISCLAIMER.

A copy of the license is available here: <ulink url="/usr/share/ubuntu-docs/libs/C/ccbysa.xml">Creative Commons ShareAlike License</ulink>.

2008

Ubuntu Documentation Project

The Ubuntu Documentation Project

Your computer consists of a number of connected devices, which are collectively known as computer <emphasis>hardware</emphasis>.

Ubuntu normally configures your hardware automatically, but there may be occasions when you need to make changes to hardware settings yourself. This section provides information on tools which can be used to configure your hardware.

Restricted drivers

Some devices attached to your computer may need restricted drivers to be installed in order to work properly.

Why are some drivers restricted?

Restricted drivers are drivers for your hardware which are not freely available or open-source.

Most of the devices (hardware) attached to your computer should function properly in Ubuntu. These devices are likely to have <emphasis>unrestricted</emphasis> drivers, which means that the drivers can be modified by the Ubuntu developers and problems with them can be fixed.

Some hardware does not have unrestricted drivers, usually because the hardware manufacturer has not released details of their hardware which would make it possible to create such a driver. These devices may have limited functionality or may not work at all.

If a <emphasis>restricted driver</emphasis> is available for a certain device, you can install it in order to allow your device to function properly, or to add new features. For example, installing a restricted driver for certain graphics cards may allow you to use more advanced <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:desktop-effects">visual effects</ulink>.

Restricted drivers are often maintained by the hardware manufacturer, and so cannot be modified by Ubuntu developers if there is a problem.

Enabling a restricted driver

To use a restricted driver for a device:

You will be asked to confirm that you want to enable the driver. Press <guibutton>Enable Driver</guibutton>

The restricted driver may have to be downloaded and installed

You may need to restart your computer to finish enabling the driver

Disabling a restricted driver

If a restricted driver is causing problems, or you would just like to turn it off, follow the procedure below:

Find the driver which you would like to disable and uncheck the box in the <guilabel>Enabled</guilabel> column, next to its name

You will be asked to confirm that you would like to disable the driver. Press <guibutton>Disable Driver</guibutton>

You may need to restart your computer to finish disabling the driver

Disks and partitions

This section provides instructions on how to handle disks and drives, such as removable hard disks.

partition

partitions

partitioning

formatting

mount

unmount

filesystem

file system

Checking how much disk space is available

Advanced disk-usage analysis

See the <ulink url="ghelp:baobab" type="help">Disk Usage Analyzer Manual</ulink> for more information.

How can I free-up some disk space?

There are several simple ways of making more disk space available:

To create a new partition: <placeholder-1/>

Formatting a partition

To format a partition, do as follows: <placeholder-1/>

Pressing <guibutton>Apply</guibutton> will cause all of the files on the partition to be permanently deleted.

To format a hard disk, device or partition means to prepare that particular device to be used for storing data.