Hello John That is what this patch is attempting to do, solve the problem of hunting for drivers on the net. This patch is changing anaconda so that it automagically looks for drivers in USB storage embedded inside the box loads and installs it. Maybe not for the old hardware that you already are using but for the upcoming servers. regards, sandeep. -----Original Message----- From: anaconda-devel-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:anaconda-devel-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Summerfield Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:18 PM To: Discussion of Development and Customization of the Red Hat Linux Installer Subject: Re: [ PATCH ] RFC: Search and load drivers automatically fromusb-storage media Sandeep_K_Shandilya@xxxxxxxx wrote: > Hello > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: anaconda-devel-list-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Bill > Nottingham > Sent: Mon 3/17/2008 8:13 PM > To: Discussion of Development and Customization of the Red Hat Linux > Installer > Subject: Re: [ PATCH ] RFC: Search and load drivers automatically > fromusb-storage media > > Sandeep_K_Shandilya@xxxxxxxx (Sandeep_K_Shandilya@xxxxxxxx) said: >> 2) Automatic mounting of partitions with no way to opt-out can lead >> to problems over time <sandeep> Do you have any specific areas in the >> anaconda loader that you are referrring to? >> we will anyway unmount the partition after copying the driver updates >> to ramfs. > > Imagine trying to search 500 SAN partitions for driver updates. > <sandeep> We only search usb-storage devices. > >> 4) What's better about doing this automatically as opposed to >> actually having the user specify that "yes, I have a driver disk" >> <Sandeep> Think about it this way, Suppose the drivers with new >> hardware support are placed in a utility partition (OEM will prepare >> this on the >> system) on an embedded USB storage device, or thinking a little bit >> more into the future the driver may reside on the internet Dell is >> already pursuing this and Dell servers to be released in future may >> have embedded usb-storage with drivers, diagnostics etc... > > Right, but what good does embedded usb-storage with drivers do you for > the next OS release a few months later? > <sandeep> > 1. The same is with hardware and firmware which keep upgrading every few months. > 2. OEMs like Dell have baselined to, say, version RHEL 5.0 Every time the hardware/firmware changes > which calls for a new driver then we will qualify the new driver and release it on our support > page. It will be a very exhaustive effort to qualify all new drivers for every update that Redhat releases. > 3. The Embedded usb-storage could also contain other applications Eg diagnostics and the user to boot into it > to test the hardware on the server. > 4. These drivers will be used at install time to recognise new hardware and in the post install phase of anaconda > a dkms rpm (http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#dkms) of the driver will be installed. The changes to backend.py > in the patch. _I_ maintain the computers for a small school; typically our computers are bought at auction, and they're a pretty mixed lot. It seems Dell was doing well a few years ago, so most of the computers we've bought in the past year have been Dell gx240s, gx260s and gx270s. One thing I really hat is chasing all over the Internet for drivers for the Dells, the Acers, and the HP-Compaqs we have. Oh, and some whitebox systems built on Intel motherboards. Since Dell's listening, I especially don't like it that the drivers are distributed as self-unpacking exes and that their file names do not (so far as I can tell) reflect the contents. My idea of an ideal install is I boot the computer off the LAN, make a few choices and leave it to run. Linux is better than that, and I will not willingly chase all over the Internet for Linux drivers. If it doesn't work with standard RHEL5 or SLE{S,D}10 or Debian or whatever I'm trying to run, then it does not work at all. > > Bill > > _______________________________________________ > Anaconda-devel-list mailing list > Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > > _______________________________________________ > Anaconda-devel-list mailing list > Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list -- Cheers John -- spambait 1aaaaaaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Z1aaaaaaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- Advice http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375 You cannot reply off-list:-) _______________________________________________ Anaconda-devel-list mailing list Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list _______________________________________________ Anaconda-devel-list mailing list Anaconda-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list
