Re: [OFFTOPIC] Re: *** next draft - press release ***
Ian Eure (ieure@crosssound.narrows.com)
Mon, 18 Jan 1999 13:33:15 -0800
On Sat, Jan 16, 1999 at 01:14:18AM +0000, Riccardo Facchetti wrote:
> Eva,
>
> > IMHO it is not only important to have a competent GUI desktop for linux
> > to make it more popular for home PC users. What I think is missing for the
> > not-so-experienced PC user is an easy to configure installation tool for
> > the kernel configuration. The make menuconfig is not sufficient
> > as it still requires a lot of knowledge about hardware chips and card
> > definitions, IRQs and such which isn't common knowledge to a new PC user.
> >
> > I don't know if that's an issue or of anybody else concern in this
> > disussion, just would like to know if it's addressed anywhere in general.
> > Some distributors try to address the idea but the solution is
> > proprietary to the distributor.
>
> Are you referring to some kind of autodetection during kernel
> configuration ?
>
> I ask this because all the config options alredy have useful help that
> explain the meaning of every single option and give some hints about the
> choice the user should make.
>
> The only way to automate the configuration process is some kind of
> autodetection ... I am thinking at some user-level program that is capable
> of detect the hardware it is running on and generate a .config file.
>
> main() {
> ....
> detect_processor();
> detect_ide();
> detect_scsi();
> detect_audio();
> ....
> generate_config();
> }
>
> Obviously every single device supported by the kernel should be probed.
> Not a short thing to code :)
> And I am not sure all the devices supported by linux can be probed in user
> space.
>
Well, a lot of the work can be done for us by the kernel. As long as the kernel
supports PCI, all devices on the PCI bus are reported via /proc/pci and/or
/proc/bus/pci. The CPU type is already in /proc/cpuinfo. And something like
pnpdump from the isapnptools can help quite a lot as well. That should be enough
to take care of around 75% of all the systems running linux, and for the rest
you could implement an expert mode where they could select non-pci/isapnp and/or
advanced options (fbcon, serial terminal, etc) with a standard (perhaps more
informative in places) help system.
Another approach would to have pre-set "kernel options profiles" for certain
makes/models of computers for, say, a user-type person switching a box they
bought at Computer City from Windows to Linux.
> And I have never heard about something like this.
>
That's just because nobody has done it yet. :)
--
______________________________________________________________
| ian eure, network admin, freelance security consultant, and |
| manically depressed paranoid schizophrenic, at your service. |
; <ieure@minion.org> - http://minion.org ;
: raw speed = 105.6 wpm with 4.5% errors :
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