Driver detection and loading

[Haug Bürger <h.buerger@dokom.net>]

Hi,
this document is meant as support to improve the Debian distribution.

Installation feedback:

The installation of the base system worked fine with my
Gigabyte GA5AX board and K6-2 Processor. I selected the task
gnome workstation and was not very happy with it.

1. gnome doesn't start automatically
2. the login is the X login, not the gnome one
3. the default window manager is X-ish and X was never
   famous for it's good user interfaces
4. fonts looked ugly
5. can't shutdown the computer

If somebody uses easy installation, he/she probably
doesn't know about all the different window managers.
If somebody uses easy installation, he/she probably
has no Linux/Unix experience. He/she may have experience
with the most common system, like it or not, Windows.

Suggestions: Select a more Windows like window manager. That
  doesn't mean to copy the look, copy the feeling. If the window
  is blue, gray or whatever doesn't matter really.

Suggestions: Improve the view of the fonts, they're hardly
  readable. If i remember right changing one line in the X
  configuration improved things a bit. (using 100dpi fonts)

Suggestions: Create a shutdown Button.



After getting gnome running i tried to use all my hardware.
Trouble started with my 3com ethernet card. It seems to be
a very special one, 905 chip, because there is no driver
named for this card. Sorry but my imagination is not so great
to guess that i should use a 509 driver.

But it got even worse with my WinTV from Hauppauge. I'm used
to systems where i install one driver for every device. This
card needs more than one driver and to make it more interesting
these drivers support many chipsets and only one is mentioned
in the description. Same problem as with the 3com card.
Without knowing the name of the driver one has no chance to
get this card running because the is nothing like v4l or video
for Linux mentioned in the description. But i'm lucky i don't
need one of those drivers called no description available.
Wasn't there a quality assurance group?

I could continue setting up my ISDN and my sound card. But that
wouldn't help anybody. The driver installation needs a task feature
like the task packages for the deb archives and descriptions.
As fix one could modify the description that one could find
the right driver reading the description.

Suggestions: Much better would be a database with a PCI IDs and 
a driver and parameter set. That would make it possible to auto 
detect the hardware.

To improve the situation i'm willing to help but i need some 
information about the Debian development process.
Are there any projects to improve the the driver installation?
Who is responsible for the description of the driver?
Who makes the categories net, misc for example?
Who is responsible for the whole installation process?

Haug Bürger