best way to determine devices with drivers

[Dave Jones]

On Thu, Jun 24, 2004 at 10:34:48AM +0100, Jono Bacon wrote:
 > This is the main question. I suspect that for some kernels it will work
 > and for some it won't. Then again, I get the impression that a
 > 2.x.x-custom kernel from a distributor simply has certain things turned
 > on and off and code has not been modified. Maybe some Red Hat and SuSE
 > hackers on the list can enlighten us. :)

For the Fedora Core 2 kernel (and hopefully future FC kernels)
we've taken the decision not to add *any* drivers that aren't
in mainline. So if it works with a vanilla kernel, it shouldn't
have any problems withe the Fedora kernel. (natch various
binary only modules).

 > From what I can see, so long as we can tie together a module safely
 > with a device, it is simple. The main challenge is determining if a
 > single module will work across distros and how to make the modules
 > available in a safe manner - we don't want this to be a means of some
 > loser owning the module repository and everyone getting infected with a
 > virus.

One area where this does get complicated is that the various
enterprise distros sometimes ship multiple versions of the same
module, with slightly different names.  Such deviations could
(and should) be maintained in the HAL packages for those distros IMO.

Just making things work with a mainline kernel should cover 99%
of cases. The other 1% can probably figure it out themselves.

		Dave


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