Bug#363331: Fwd: Re: Bug#363331: installation-reports
On Tue, Apr 18, 2006 at 10:17:36PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Tuesday 18 April 2006 21:49, Digby Tarvin wrote:
> > I suppose 'change your hardware to something better supported' is
> > always going to be a possible solution to an installation problem,
> > but won't be much help to the next person who tries the same
> > combination.
>
> Well, if you can find out why d-i is not working with that hub and tell us
> what we'd need to change to support it, such help is of course always
> welcome. It's just that it won't be given any kind of priority otherwise.
Didn't mean it to sound like I was complaining. I appreciate the work you
and the other maintainers have done on it and am impressed at how you
manage to support such a wide range of poorly documented hardware..
Its just the Ubuntu seemed to do even better, and if I am using
Debian I hate to have another distro which is working better.
Given that universal compatability is such hard thing to achieve,
it would be nice to think that Debian can learn from Ubuntu's
experience and vice versa...
Under the circumstances I think documenting the few combinations that
don't work is an acceptable response, especially if workarounds can
be suggested. I am happy to carry out more experiments to try to narrow
down what specifically the installer doesn't like about my network.
I could probably find another 10/100 router I could borrow to test the
theory that it some problem with the driver for my nic when connected
to a 10Mb only hub is that would help.
Other thing I could do is try to find a better workaround - maybe there
is a kernel option to force the NIC to 10Mb during the install etc.
But as far as finding a fix is concerned, it would probably take some
time before I could become familiar enough with the installer to help
with that directly - and the things which don't work after the
install are for the moment a higher priority for me - so long as
I am able to find a way to get the initial install to complete.
> We get very few reports about network problems.
It is pretty rare that I experience them ;)
> FWIW, the Ubuntu installer is, where it comes to network configuration
> completely or virtually identical to Debian's installer. So the most
> likely explanation is a difference in the kernel drivers for your NIC if
> both installers use different kernel versions, which again makes it
> something we (the team working on the installer) cannot influence.
Except that it works in Debian *after* the installation, which suggests to
me that the kernel drivers themselves are ok. Unless the Etch installer
is contrained to using an older (or newer) kernel than the one it is
installing for some reason...
On reflection, whilst I understand the Debian policy on not providing
out of the box support for hardware which unacceptable licensing etc, I
think most people will bite the bullet and install anyway once they are
stuck with the hardware. In really only inconveniences the users, rather
than achieving the desired effect of rewarding good manufacturers and
providing an incentive for the others to improve their game...
What would be better would be something like an install CD which just
autodetects hardware and lists what it finds and gives it a Linux
approval rating, culminating in an overall 'hardware open source
support rating' that anyone can use to compare machines in a shop.
If such a thing became widely known and used, there would be a real
incentive for oems to use open source friendly devices, and hence
device manufacturers to become open source friendly..
But that is probably getting off the topic of installers a bit...
Regards,
DigbyT
--
Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com
http://www.digbyt.com
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