Let me first clarify that I wanted to build a production system for daily use, not an unstable test system where I could risk losing data so that is why I opted for a stable release.
Since Debian 7.3 was released in December I assumed that it supports hardware which hit retail in June.
Obviously, I was wrong about it but I couldn't find any detailed hardware compatibility list to check -- all I found was this:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch02s01.html.en It says the following: 2.1.6. Network Connectivity Hardware_Almost any_ network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; drivers should normally be loaded automatically. This includes _most PCI/PCI-Express cards_ as well as PCMCIA/Express Cards on laptops. Many older ISA cards are supported as well. [emphasis mine]
So if my assumption was wrong, so it will be everyone else's and you can only blame your own documentation.
As for your "Windows does it too" remark, in recent Windows (7, 8.1) there is no such thing as minimal network install ISO so I don't know why you are bringing it into this discussion, not to mention that your logic "others fail so it is ok if we fail too" eludes me.
Moreover, I was under impression that we are talking about network installer ISO here, not about stable distribution kernel.
AFAIK, network installer's job is to get the user into an environment in which they can install Debian over the network/internet.
In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason or excuse not to have working network drivers in network installer image.
If you go to: http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20131214 You will see: Updated Debian 7: 7.3 released December 14th, 2013 And if you go to: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=15817 You will see: e1000e-2.5.4.tar.gz Date 09/03/2013If the date format is m/d/y then that is September 3rd, three months before your release (the date in readme.txt is July so if we assume that the date on download page is incorrect, that means 5 months difference).
This driver (like any other Intel network driver) is open-source and it can be compiled as a stand-alone module against your stable 3.2 kernel to replace the three years old driver module you have in the network installer image.
Let me repeat that last part -- "three years old intel network driver module".
Did you ever think about the scenario where your mainboard fails and you have to replace it after 3+ years, but you are constrained to a stable linux distribution by some proprietary application and/or hardware? How do you install the same stable linux distribution on your new hardware (because you simply can't buy the same hardware again after so much time) if distro makers/maintainers won't periodically add drivers for new hardware to stable images?
Exactly what is preventing you to add new driver module which supports both old and new hardware?
With Windows you insert a CD from mainboard manufacturer and you install the network driver. What do you do here, find a Debian machine running the same kernel version as your network installer and compile the driver from the source then copy it over?
In my opinion that is not exactly user-friendly even for a geek like me, but if that is your idea of how things should work don't complain that nobody takes Linux seriously when it comes to desktop.
And before you say "you should have used Live DVD to check" or "you should have installed using full install DVD" the answer is -- network still wouldn't work with either of those, and I would have just wasted bandwidth and space.
Failure to support common hardware during install together with Debian maintainer's shameful handling of ffmpeg/libav situation is enough clues for me to pick up another distro which I just did so I don't really care if this get fixed or not.
Regards, Igor On 6.1.2014. 20:13, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
On Mon, Jan 06, 2014 at 05:21:30PM +0100, Cyril Brulebois wrote:Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> (2014-01-06):Debian stable means not changing things in general, so adding new drivers is not something that is done.Sorry, that's wrong. The linux kernel is regularly updated in stable to add support for new(er) hardware.Well if 3.2.x updates upstream add new drivers, then sure, but I don't recall ever seeing debian backport drivers to a stable release kernel.
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