The interface IS the source code [LWN.net]

The interface IS the source code

Posted Apr 20, 2006 20:46 UTC (Thu) by oak (guest, #2786)
In reply to: The interface IS the source code by elanthis
Parent article: Some notes on Linux and free drivers

> However, the very most recent stable Ubuntu release *wouldn't install*
> because various bits of the hardware had no drivers in the ancient
> (by Linux standards) kernel in the Ubuntu Breezy install disc.

Hm. What was preventing you from upgrading to newer kernel/modules
in Breezy repositories?

> The same went for the most recent Fedora release at the time. In short,
> it was impossible for me to install any of the OSes I want onto this
> machine without downloading and installing a beta/pre-release version
> of an OS (Ubuntu Dapper, in my case).

Or updating just the kernel from Dapper?

(I just installed Breezy on P166 and updated just the X server to Dapper
because Breezy's ATI driver was segfaulting because it was probing for
my PCI gfx card from the ISA bus.)

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The interface IS the source code

Posted Apr 21, 2006 17:35 UTC (Fri) by dododge (subscriber, #2870) [Link]

> Hm. What was preventing you from upgrading to newer kernel/modules
> in Breezy repositories?

He may have been talking about the installer kernel itself. For example
if the kernel that boots from the install CD doesn't have a recent enough
driver to be able to reliably access your SATA chipset, you're going to
have a hard time installing the base system onto a SATA drive in the first
place.

The interface IS the source code

Posted Apr 28, 2006 4:39 UTC (Fri) by turpie (guest, #5219) [Link]

How often does that actually happen?
I would think that usually you would be able to install an older distribution and then upgrade the kernel to get support for peripherals.