updating hardware and usb id in Linux

Updating your hardware IDs
When you plug in new hardware and USB devices, Linux identifies them via their unique IDs and is able to report their human-readable English names via a set of files that detail the manufacturer and model.

While most any hardware you plug in will be recognised, it helps to update both your USB IDs database and PCI IDs database, especially for recently released hardware. Linux distributions will occasionally update to the latest versions before shipping, but this isn't always the case - Ubuntu Natty's files are actually a year out of date. You can manually update to the latest definitions with two simple commands:

sudo update-usbids
sudo update-pciids

http://apcmag.com/how-to-tweak-ubuntu-1104-natty-narwhal-part-3.htm

 

Nice! If the title of the thread was something like "Ubuntu tweaks", I could add this:

Code:

ps -ef | grep compiz | grep $USER

tells you if Unity is 2D or regular. A response of any kind indicates it's regular.
(http://askubuntu.com/questions/62001/am-i-using-unity-or-unity-2d)

 

Great tip vasa1.

 

Quite late in the day but -http://ubuntuone.com/1vgBXexnyHqfw4nc6k591c- links to a pdf file describing the Ubuntu Software Center as present in 11.04.

 

Nice intro for the software center, I am still a dino and use cli but the software center is excellent for definition of programs, one doesn't need to search the web for the particulars.

 

Very good information, thank you. When should I update these? Monthly?

 

Once every six months is fine, thats what I do.

 

I just set it to monthly via sudo cron.

 

A very good idea, I might do the same for the office machines running Ubuntu.