Improving Linux Driver Installation (O'ReillyNet) [LWN.net]

Improving Linux Driver Installation (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 13, 2004 17:18 UTC (Mon) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861)
In reply to: Improving Linux Driver Installation (O'ReillyNet) by mmarq
Parent article: Improving Linux Driver Installation (O'ReillyNet)

I don't follow your comment. My thought was to provide a pointy-clicky interface that would pop up a dialog saying "you need a driver; shall I get one from the Linux secure driver server?" If the user says yes, then _BEHIND THE SCENES_ it will download, unpack, compile, and attempt to insmod the driver. None of this need be visible to the user! He can watch a little progress bar, or something like that. If one of the above steps fails another dialog pops up saying "failed" with a Details button they can use to see the gory details (stdout/stderr output from the process for example). It can provide a website they can go to for more information. It can offer to send diagnostic info (kernel version, compiler version, and the transcript) to the central server, without any guarantee that anyone will look at it (just like you get with other OS's). Etc. etc.

At no time will the "intended audience" need to have their cushy existence disturbed by confusing compiler or module load error messages... unless they want to learn.

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Improving Linux Driver Installation (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 16, 2004 12:37 UTC (Thu) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]

" Why can't it just download the source to the driver, build it on the user's system, and install it? "

That is precisely the point. Dont take me rude to point you to the main article on O'Reilly... have you read it, until the end ?

The problem is driver source... DoD "should" always try to download a 'binary *thing* of some kind',... because that binary module could very well be, not the ones that he are used to now in the Linux kernel, but other kind more fit to deal with device drivers...

What has always been, open source drivers from poor documentation, years of trial and error and reverse engineering methods, simple can't keep up with the ever growing complexity... i belive you agree it was easier to chose the MOBO and build a Linux PC 5 years ago with PIII and the 1st Athlon than it is now.