"System Info" utility very limited in Mint 19. No "Hardware Manager"?

[h2-1]

Yes, you're right, -x 3 does in fact work. I forgot, in perl option handling, if the long form accepts extra values, so does the short form. I just wouldn't use that since in general the reason to use -x is so you can pile up the options: -Fxxz and so on. If you number it, you have to put the x last in the list of options always, and it's really faster to type xxx than it is x3 since you have to move your fingers around the keyboard for the second one. But it can be done, same for any long/short form option that accepts further values. In this case though I'd avoid it because it creates a slightly confusing example for people, to me it's cleaner to show x as an extra thing in a string of things, where it's irrelevant where it's placed, than it is to make it required to be the last thing in the string then 3. So I'd avoid that, particularly showing it here in mint since it creates a touch of confusion possibly in end users, and doesn't really save any time. And if you put it separate, like -Fz -x3, then you aren't saving any typing at all.

[jopower]

Sorry to be away from my own thread... the old laptop I was using had a drive failure mid 2019 and I haven't been able to get another worthy machine for Mint experimentation for a while (old one given away to a needy guy with no $$$ but some DIY ability).

I appreciate all your answers and have just D/L'd Mint 20.2 "linuxmint-20.2-cinnamon-64bit.iso". I expect all you've said should be generally valid for this newer distro. I'll get back to you if any problems. Just want to say thanks to all!

[SuperJoker]

Incredible! After two years you came to say thanks! I would have forgotten my password!

[jopower]

Well, I use a ROLODEX for my site and password memory. I've got the big rotating type with dust visor with about 470 cards and they never die due to battery or power failure. Usually, the site dies or tosses my account due to inactivity before any card crumbles. Have cards back to 1st year of BBS dial-up. Before that the notes disappeared too easily. Started with a little 50 card holder and liked it. Found the big 600 card roller at a yard sale for a clam and love it.

Now back on topic... I'm trusting Mint 20.2 more now and am happy with it's ability to pick up most devices. Am assembling a query list and will get that on the appropriate thread. Still would like a GUI-based equivalent device manager easy to mouse around in.

[ricardogroetaers]

Still would like a GUI-based equivalent device manager easy to mouse around in.

There are graphical "device viewers", for example:
hardinfo
lshw-gtk

But a "device manager", that can effectively disable, remove, swap a driver, reverse a driver for hardware, I don't know about.

Consider that in Windows the drivers are in files in the operating system, in Linux they are in the kernel.