Linux Driver Project Status Report as of April 2008

[Robert M. Albrecht]

Hi,

> Include information about "works perfectly out of the box" would be usefull
> to know the hardware is linux compatible and how to solve an installation
> problem in some distros.

This information is in the database, kind of. If you send your 
smolt-profile the tools display an url and a password. On this url you 
can rate your hardware: works out of the box, needs a third party 
driver, does not work, crashes the system, ...

Im not sure, how this data is actually used.

> This is fundamental. For this, we can use
> http://smolts.org/wiki/Category:Works_out_of_the_box in the wiki. And use
> documentation from other GFDL wikis and webpages, hardware with the Linux
> logo (Tux) and so on, to create and improve the Linux compatibility database

I don`t think a wiki-page is the right solution. It should be a database 
with a webfrontend:

I want to buy: "DropDown"	<Search>

DropDown could include: printer, scanner, graphics card, laptop, ...

Wiki-Pages should be used for additional informations on specific 
devices for links to vendors, faq, ...

>>> The idea was discussed to link this data to wiki-pages, so users can
>> contribute to a hw-database: drivers, howtos, status reports, ...
>> Has that happened?
> This is an interesting question. If no, we can talk here or in the wiki
> about how to create it using the same wiki.

Yes, I posted the links.

>> Mapping pci id to a physical device sitting in a box is an almost
> impossible task.  Same goes for USB devices (are you going to be able to
> tell the difference between two different versions of a device
> properly?)

This could be done by wiki fulltext search functions.

> How Windows does it?. When there is not a driver for a hardware, it opens a
> help webpage about how to obtain it.

Yes, Greg was thinking about a guy shopping in a store as asking 
himself, if he should by this gadget.

But I think this use-case is more a question of user-interface usable 
for mobile devices.

As more and more people mailorder their hardware from Amazon I don`t 
think this is utterly important.

> In any case, we could link the hardware with the Kernel drivers (i.e. the
> driver for Huawei E220 can be used as an example). What is the best way to
> do it?

It`s not only the kernel. I would even say, the kernel is the least 
problem. Kernels drivers are quite complete and installation of modern 
Linux distributions is very easy.

The hard tasks are sitting on top the kernel: x.org, printers, bluetooth 
cellphones, ...

There could be a gui-tool like Windows hardware-wizard. If the basic 
operating systems is up and running this tool assists the user in 
configuring his additional devices.

cu romal