[Fedora-livecd-list] wireless and liveCD

[David Zeuthen]

On Tue, 2007-01-02 at 18:48 +0100, Tony Grant wrote:
> Le mardi 02 janvier 2007 à 12:20 -0500, David Zeuthen a écrit :
> 
> > Rahul already explained why we cannot include this software on the live
> > CD; it's really no different from why we can't include it in Fedora. 
> 
> You just read slashdot? =:-D
> http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/01/142251
> 
> It isn't practical for a distributed liveCD because ndiswrapper needs
> (on top of 16k kernel stack size) the Windows driver of the particular
> card.

Not sure whether one can even redistribute said Windows drivers but if
you can it's possible to include it on a live CD; just package it up as
RPM's and build your own live CD image. It's definitely not something
you can call an official Fedora live CD though. 

(We probably need to have some guide lines on such live cd's if people
start creating them; most likely something for the FAB to consider.)

> 
> I am a week into using ndiswrapper on FC6 and FC5 machines with two
> different USB WiFi adaptors. It is quite easy thanks to the 16K stack
> kernels provided by linuxant (for the Linksys card on FC6).
> NetworkManager and some modified scripts et voila!

Except what happens when that kernel needs a security fix?

And why is it reasonable for users to use "some modified scripts"?
Networking should just work out of the box, if it doesn't file a bug in
Bugzilla against either NetworkManager or the kernel. 

As I stated earlier, most networking bugs are with the kernel drivers at
this point. It's really really easy: just get hardware with a working
driver and things "Just Work".

> I am having more problems with the Mac G3 in my sons room which will
> require an EN->WiFi bridge as simple solution.

Well, it's true that it's a royal pain to use binary drivers especially
with Fedora as we don't bend over (unlike some other distros who cares
more about their amount of users, much less about freedom) and include
these things with the OS. I know it's really easy to say "just buy
hardware that is supported by Linux" and, at this point, it's all we can
say. Sorry.

The Fedora Live CD is not different from normal Fedora installs and it
shouldn't be really. Hopefully in some star trek future most hardware
out there in the hands of consumers will just work. We're just not there
yet. 

Perhaps it would be good if Fedora (and others) were better about having
a compatibility list of the good stuff to buy.

     David