having read your comments Rahul, i see the troubles. I can also see that
more work needs to be done to show the native drivers, and the cards they
work with. Many users just buy NIC's and have to use ndiswrapper, or other
technology. I see the drivers list is growing for support for wireless, but
can these guides be made more availble, and put in some section of its own.
Please forgive me if this is already the case, but after a very short search
(so apologies if im wrong) it seems there is little to help show me what
devioces are allowed, and what can be used nativly, and thus what i should
buy as a wireless NIC to have full native support as standard.
Forgive my outburts also. It is a hot day here, and the lengthy process
takes its toll on many a user at times. I have used ndiswrapper for a long
while, and it is far from great, hence the need for such guides, but i also
am keen to see the development of open source native drivers, so perhaps
guides to this degree and to this point should be made, and amalgamated into
one section suitable for publication in its own wiki pages, and avaiable on
the main fedora websites??
NTFS, guide could still be done then, if written correctly, am i right in
assuming this?? I think i need help, before ploughing into documentation,
with such complex legal, or patent encumbered policies, and apologies for
the seemingly rediculous arguements i have amde, it is simply just not
enough to have aone or two docs on the subject, we need guides and
recomendations on where to get this stuff (native drivers i mean) and if
they are shippe,d how to active them.
Mr Adam L Moreland (MAniX) | Registered Linux User: #417406
BA (Hons) Media Studies, 2nd Year, UoN
WEB: http://www.manix-place.co.uk
BLOG:http://www.2welshmen-and-a-sheep.co.uk
****
System: Pentium 4 SKT478 2.8GHz Precott, AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+ | GPG Key:
AC230C32
****
pub 1024D/AC230C32 2006-05-21
Key fingerprint = 14F4 50F5 806C 25A5 B33C C2BF 982C 87B7 AC23 0C32
uid Adam Moreland (MAniX)
sub 2048g/A471FCE7 2006-05-21
****
From: Rahul Sundaram <sundaram@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: For participants of the Documentation Project
<fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: For participants of the Documentation Project
<fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Wireless Guide / NTFS Guide / New writing
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:00:15 +0530
Adam Moreland wrote:
I am for such a thing. Also can i ask for some verification, as as far as
i know, fedora dfoes ship with supports for some wireless NIC's and
ndiswrapper is an open source program. In fact can i ask for clarification
on the definition of wireless ebing restricted and prohibited.
The usage of ndiswrapper is to allow proprietry software to intergrate
into the kernel, but this seems not to be an issue in other distros and in
fact fedora ships with support for some Intel wireless cards already.
Surely for the sake of fedora this type of distinction (of wireless being
forbidden) is rediculous.
Wireless is not forbidden. Ndiswrapper is.
After all it is an open source solution, using open source materials, to
allow the open surce communtiy to have legal access to the drivers they
already paid for once they purchased the wireless NIC.
I cannot see how a guide on the usage of ndiswrapper (which is open
source) cannot be achieved, so long as the guide doesnt explicitly promote
the proprietry software. After all isnt this the point?? To intergrate the
open source to merge the experience into one community solution?? Wireless
is still a massive problem for Linux users, but i have guides for both
SUSE 9.x/10.x and FC5.
Please can i have clarification as to the reasons that ndiswrapper cannot
be used in the fedora etras repo, and why the use of ndiswrapper
contradicts the policy of fedora-docs on the use of proprietry means. I
read the policy as meaning that you cannot use nVidia, as they make it,
but ndiswrapper is a middle man, and is open source. We (linux community)
have used the same workarounds to get Logitech keybaords, HP devices, most
printers, laptops, speakers, sound cards, and other methods. The user need
not support proprietry means, because by using the open source
ndiswrapper, they are surely curcumventing the need to be protected by the
policy on forbidding proprietry terms.
I can see the huge gap caused by the lack of clarification from fedora on
the use of such means like wireless, and also NTFS. The confusion is
unwarrented surely. Cant there be a solution where the NTFS modules can be
brought into fedora extras, and a guide be used accordingly. FAT32 is
supported, and other forms and file systems, so why not NTFS, which has
had a long history with fedora and is clearly completly open source.
The explanation is given here at
http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-beta-list/2006-March/msg00395.html.
There are other technical reasons such as the issue of 4k stacks being the
default (http://lwn.net/Articles/160138/). Many of the windows drivers
would not work with Ndiswrapper since they require more than 16 k stacks in
the kernel. The only purpose of ndiswrapper is to enable the loading of
binary only modules within the kernel from a different platform. Fedora
will not formally support or endorse such efforts.
If you the read the forbidden items page you would know that Fedora does
not provide any software that is patent encumbered. Merely having the
source does not satisfy all our requirements for inclusion.
Rahul
--
fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list
_________________________________________________________________
Be the first to hear what's new at MSN - sign up to our free newsletters!
http://www.msn.co.uk/newsletters
--
fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe:
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list
