>
>El Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:23:11 +0000 (UTC),
>Dirk Steuwer <[email protected]> escribi?:
>
>
>> For a hardwaredatabase i like to see a structure. Kernel developers are
>> required to enter the support into the database, when submitting the
>driver.
>> Ongoing status will be logged there as well. Status and devices can only be
>
>> entered by kernel developers.
>
>[Please don't remove the CC list]
>
>This sounds like the typical nightmare that never is 100% accurate and
>needs lots of mainteinance (developers not updating the wiki, etc) as
>Lee Revell pointed out.
>
>IMO the one way of creating such database is automating it. If you
>could get a list of the device IDs supported by drivers you
>could (?) use the pciid/usbid/whatever list to build a user-readable
>database of the devices supported by the linux tree. Maybe it won't
>100% perfect but...
Yes, i can see the problem.
How about interconnecting it with the bugtracker?
If there is a bug, and if it is related to some hardware, it is logged in the database as broken for that kernel version. If the bug is fixed, support status is ok again.
All that needs to be done is entering the device once into the database, status is broken by default, and take it from there?
Then it gets some goals (similar to bugs) assigned if it is a complex device. i.e. for a graphic device:
* 2d graphic support
* 3d graphic support
* framebuffer
* vesa
one can close goals similarly to bugs, and if a second tester find something broken, it gets filed as a bug.
As i see it the system has to be simple to use and if used, provide an advantage to kernel developers. This makes sure it will get used and could provide an instant status about linux hardware support.
regards,
Dirk
El Thu, 08 Dec 2005 16:49:46 +0100,
[email protected] escribi?:
> How about interconnecting it with the bugtracker?
bugzilla is probably the best example of why human-managed "databases"
are never 100% accurate and need lots of mainteinance 8) (take a look
at mozilla's or kernel's bugzilla...). I'm tracking manually some
of the new devices supported in http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges
but there're so many changes under drivers/* that god knows how many
things I am missing. Expecting that people will maintain a wiki or a
buzgilla or anything similar properly is like expecting that people
will document or compile-test their patches before submitting them :P
I think that the infrastructure for building such database automatically
is already there: In the same way MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE is used by hotplug
& friends to load the right module you can use MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE to
build a database of the devices supported by a kernel compiled with
"make allmodconfig", parse it and put it in a web page.
On Thu, 2005-12-08 at 16:49 +0100, [email protected] wrote:
> Yes, i can see the problem.
> How about interconnecting it with the bugtracker?
> If there is a bug, and if it is related to some hardware, it is logged
> in the database as broken for that kernel version. If the bug is
> fixed, support status is ok again.
> All that needs to be done is entering the device once into the
> database, status is broken by default, and take it from there?
> Then it gets some goals (similar to bugs) assigned if it is a complex
> device. i.e. for a graphic device:
> * 2d graphic support
> * 3d graphic support
> * framebuffer
> * vesa
This is a grave oversimplification of how it would work. Look at sound
hardware, vendors come out with new devices so fast that it would be a
full time job to keep that ALSA wiki 100% accurate. At least half the
bugs that users report aren't real bugs. There are gazillions of small
variations of the same device. Vendors are deceptive at best and lie
through their teeth at worst. A "Sound Blaster Live! SB0410" could use
a COMPLETELY different and VASTLY inferior chipset to a "Sound Blaster
Live! SB0350". They release two devices with identical PCI ids but
different hardware. And they don't tell us word one about their plans.
Often the users know a lot better than the developers do what devices
are supported to what degree. Etc.
If we followed your scheme 95% of supported hardware would be listed as
broken.
Lee