Arthur Pemberton wrote:
The community would. For example:
1) I install F7
2) My tv card works immediately without any additional drivers
3) I pull the card info from available sources
4) I add it to the db if it isn't already there
The process would just need to have to peer review/dispute
Another exmaple:
1) I instal FC6
2) I try a sound interface card (Echo Gina 24)
3) I realise the drivers are in the FC6 kernel (gina24.ko)
4) I realise that I need firmware not availabe in the official fedora
repos to get the device to work with alsa
5) I gather the info on the card (including the fac that it is a
discontinued model)
6) I add it to the db if it isn't ther
All I'm asking for a Fedora blessed infrastructure to be put in place,
not for any one person to be responsible for populating it
The benefit of this being that next time I'm buying hardware, I can
scurry over to the db and check what the best options are.
Since we're talking pie in the sky, I give to you Hardware Buddy.
1) Install FC7+
2) Opt in to "Automated Fedora-Compatibile Hardware Reporting" (in
firstboot?)
3) for every piece of hardware that's ever detected on this machine,
including removable devices like USB keys, etc.
a) Hardware Buddy compiles a report on the device
b) checks that the device hasn't been reported from this machine
c) asks user to confirm if device is working correctly
d) submits the report to some wiki with optional user comments
In the wiki, such votes are automatically analyzed by kernel/etc
version, and percentage working device reports out of all reports.
(B) would cut down on duplicates. Although the definitition of "machine"
can be foggy, we could operationalize this as just a file in /var that
keeps a log of what's been reported.
(C) is crucial, because just being able to detect a device isn't the
same as being able to confirm that it works. Some confirming could be
automated (it's easy to tell if a network card or a USB drive work),
some would have to be manual. Ideally, one would present the user with a
suggested testing scenario, e.g., for a printer, does this test page
look OK?
For devices both working and non, Hardware Buddy could automatically
collect info like the output of lspci, etc.
For bonus points, the wiki can automatically cheer Linux-friendly
manufacturers (lots of compatible devices), and jeer unfriendly ones
(lots of incompatible hardware) on its front page.
Lots of interesting questions remain. If a new kernel comes out with new
drivers supporting some piece of hardware, what happens to old reports
in the wiki? Perhaps they expire after some time. Or perhaps not, since
we can just keep them as cumulative statistics. What if some device is
"partially" supported? But it seems like this could be a fruitful direction.
--
fedora-devel-list mailing list
fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list
