Fedora 7

[Jack Tanner]

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.