Know Any Hardware Needing Better Linux Support?

Dev Null writes "The Linux device driver project has hit something of a snag: they have lots of developers, but few devices to work on, so they're looking for input concerning which devices aren't well-supported in Linux. If any of you know of devices that could use better support, you can help out by listing them on the project's wiki."

DPMS support

[Blaskowicz]

Maybe that's an X thing rather than a Linux thing but why is it so that in 2007 that feature looks broken? most times any flavor of win9x or NT correctly detects the screen and allows to choose res and refresh according to the monitor limits. I'm part of an association that builds PC from parts donated or lying in the streets, we use more or less crappy CRTs.

Editing the xorg.conf and tell bullshit about frequency ranges to get 1024x768 85Hz gets boring. Also PCs with improperly blanked screens aren't a rare sight. There are many computers labs full of them at the university (X terminals, diskless VIA C3 PC with 17" CRT), wasting a ridiculous amount of energy displaying black rather than being stand by. That should be urgently fixed.

Audio and MIDI hardware

[mochan_s]

For example, Presonus Firebox and Firepod. Not just support but proper latency support I guess ( if I can so bold to demand them )

The USB keyboards ( like M-Audio keystations and others ).

It would be really sweet to work on audio in Linux for us CS geeks ( write scripts for audio effects rather than knobs and bars in weird custom interfaces ).

Re:And watch the card get discontinued

[Anonymous Coward]

Got an example of this having ever happened? Because frankly, that sounds like somebody's cop-out.

Wireless

[OverflowingBitBucket]

Wireless.

The current driver space for wireless components in Linux is an odd hodge-podge of ndiswrapper, madwifi (two versions), beta drivers external to the mainline kernel, minimal built-in support and blind luck. Cleaning this up should keep a good number of people very busy.

Intel Intergrated Graphics

[bendodge]

Almost all PIII-era Intel Integrated Graphics chips won't allow Live CD's to start. They just hang when you try to load the kernel.

It would be nice to put all those old boxes to use.

This is why the human race deserves to be extinct

[gambolt]

What's it going to take to get people to see that technological ignorance is NOT OKAY? Any technology can cause damage if it's used by people who don't know how it works. I'm not saying people should know how to code, but you don't know the difference between a client and server, stay the fuck off the net until you're read your first "for dummies" book.

Here's how to get rid of botnets: license computer users. If you don't know enough about the technology to keep from harming the rest of society, you don't get to use it. If you can't keep your computer secure, you get to use snailmail, POTS and get your videos at Blockbuster.

Quit making excuses for people who don't want to learn how their computers work. They are the cause of may of the problems that people who want to use appropriately

When I got my first net access in 1988, the ISP owner interviewed me personally to make sure I'd use the resources responsibly. We should go back to that.

Don't make excuses for idiots. If Joe Sixpack doesn't want to learn how his computer works, take away his keyboard.

Re:Full Support

[xenocide2]

This sounds like exactly the sort of thing that Launchpad was written to handle far better than a wiki page. Launchpad has some support for linking bugs to upstream. It's not quite finished, as each upstream is possibly it's own special tracker, but you'd at least get a better picture of what's in progress, what has an upstream and when upstream isn't being very responsive.

MORE != BETTER

[whackco]

Just because there aren't enough new driver requests doesn't mean they don't have shit to do. I have installed Gusty Gibbon on a number of systems and found that what does work, only works in a half decent way.

What they need to do is take these guys, go back about 2 years worth of hardware and update and make the existing hardware better.

Once my Touchpad works without freezing in psmouse.c randomly, and sound, video, and all the other issues are fully resolved and solid, then please don't waste our time making more hardware barely work!

Broadcom

[nilbog]

I don't know what the current state of broadcom built in wireless cards is, but they were the source of endless frustration when trying to install linux on my last (HP) laptop. I had to use NDIS wrapper and it was never much fun.

Re:First

[mce]

A general linux user does not care how the distro has been put together. He or she just wants it to work.

I respect anyone's choice to work only in kernel-land if they so desire, but collecting hundreds of people who say "I only can or want to do kernel" only to then complain that these folks don't have enough work to do while on the other side of the wall there are Himalayan mountains of work left over is just plain ridiculous. What's even more ridiculous, is to claim that "the linux driver problem is overstated" simply because of this kind of self-selected mismatch.

To follow up on your analosy: a Windows developer can not go fix an Epson driver even if he wants to, but a Linux kernel developer can help fix a userspace driver problem if only he wants to. That's the big advantage of Open Source.

PS: Before flaming me for being ignorant about linux and kernels, read my sig.

If you've got the time, I've got the ...

[UberDude]

Coverage of webcams is patchy at best. I've got a Creative Live Motion, pretty much the cheapest PTZ cam you can get, and there's absolutely no support for it. But then Creative are (in)famous for their poor support on non-Windows systems.

Re:Stabilize the API

[thue]

I won't bother submitting this driver to the free driver project because it's kind of useless without the $3000 piece of hardware it works with (and that's not counting the crates full of minicomputer hardware needed for testing). I need mine and I don't picture these folks buying their own no matter how much they care.

I seem to recall that one of the main kernel developers said they accept any drivers, and had a driver in the kernel with only a single known user. So it seems to me that they would accept your driver, since you seem to have many users.

If you get your driver in the kernel then I assume the developers who change the interfaces would update your code automatically.

Re:First

[DaedalusHKX]

This seems to me like you are the one misallocating resources. How about you write them a FAT check that WONT bounce to write you your precious printer driver. I'm sure if you weren't bitching about how they don't fix what YOU want them to fix, and gave them what they might want (MONEY, free hardware, a few kegs of beer a week, etc) then perhaps they'd get on it and give YOU what you want. I wager these guys have work outside of doing shit for free, and as usual, instead of contributing you're a bunch of whiny punks.

If anyone in the OSS groups does something it is because they damn feel like it.

Go pick up a copy of Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" and figure it out. A lot of his writing still applies to most of these guys. Unless someone is allocating a check to them each month, I don't see why they're indebted to you. In fact it's more like the other way around.


--I would PERSONALLY suggest support for the NFORCE network chipsets so they actually run at full speed instead of 100Base. Also while talking on the NFORCE NICS I would suggest finding a way to support that supposed "hardware" firewall they supposedly have built into those NICS. (I hear in Windows you have to install the nvidia drivers which include Apache to be able to log into the NIC's server.)
--I'm sure a bit more support on the radeon drivers wouldn't hurt.
--the BCM line of laptop wireless chipsets found in the DV5000 series of HP laptops were still needing a LOT of work back when I still used 'em, and I doubt its been fixed yet. Support is okay for now, but I'm not entirely pleased.
--While discussing the DV5000, I'm sure those particular laptops (and the 8000 as well) could use a bit of tweaking on those radeon drivers for the ATI mobile 200M. That videochip had about as many supported 3d rendering modes as the old Nvidia TNT. I've got a Matrox G450 that outperformed it at both completion of rendering AND speed. And the Matrox card had a mere 64 megs and was several years older than the whole laptop at the time.

Re:First

[PopeRatzo]

But you shouldn't ask person A to do Person B's job.

When you speak of "Linux developers" I assume you are referring to the many "hobbyists" who strive to advance Linux as an operating system to be used widely.

Well, until we can do everything a computer can do with Linux, it's not going to be as widespread as it should be.

I'll have to explore this term, "userspace" because it's not familiar to me (I'm just a Ubuntu Studio user, and a fairly new one at that. I'm not a Linux expert like many of you here), but whatever this "userspace" is, it sounds like it's something that someone in the Linux development community ought to handle.

Maybe the difference between a successful OS and one that's not so successful is how well it integrates the "userspace" experience.

But I'm just guessing.

And before you tell me to RTFA, It's only 6:30am and I'm waiting for the coffee water to heat up. I'm not R'ing any F'ing A until I've had one or two cups, thank you very much.

Re:First

[shenanigans]

It's a wiki, right? Why not just put up a note that says "we do not handle printers or scanners, but you can write them up anyway", and then share the data with the CUPS and SANE people?

300 lazy bums

[Per Abrahamsen]

Do you honestly believe that there are 300 people in the project with nothing to do beside waiting for a new device that needs a driver? All of them have a life (of some kind) with other stuff to do, and most of the are likely involved in other development projects. They just feel they have the expertise and surplus to also work on a device driver, should the need arise.

The original message was hardly a complaint, just a way to make hardware manufactures aware of the possibility of having this group write drivers for their devices.

Re:Yes! Get power management to work!

[owlstead]

Yes, and don't forget that power issues are not for laptops alone anymore. I can see that it's hard to get around all this ACPI stuff and such, but this feature is too important not to get right. I am running a VIA EPIA mainboard, and I can currently not go to hibernation or suspend due to USB driver problems. So there you go: fix USB for VIA CN700 motherboards (it uses a VIA VT8237A South Bridge, also found on some laptops I head, so this fix might be for both laptop as well as "desktop" users).

Fortunately it was designed for an always on system. Currently it is off because of display problems after upgrading from feisty to gutsy.

Re:Ha ha

[runderwo]

Uh, 3D acceleration may not be a kernel issue (for the most part -- the kernel is still responsible for securing concurrent DRI access), but the rest of GP's list most definitely is.

What trash

[SalsaDoom]

I wish your kind would just shut up and go away forever. "Linux will never be mainstream," you begin, "Until it magically supports all the hardware -- even when the makers of said hardware keep its operation a secret." Great. That's good news, then you continue, "Oh, and it has to work instantly will all the proprietary codecs, especially the ones that you need licenses to ship." Oh yeah dude, we'll get right on that. Perhaps you think we should just, ignore the law. No problem, we'll just get our massive team of lawyers to change the laws so we can get our way.

And how the hell do you think we are going to manage all this impossible stuff? Do you have any useful input? At all? Or are you just complaining. How anyone modded you insightful, exactly, because honestly, your statement was just empty trash about stuff that EVERYONE knows already. Pay attention: WE CANNOT SHIP CODECS WITH DISTROS WITHOUT PAYING A LICENSE FEE. Microsoft pays these people. The programs for windows that you buy, pay these people -- or they are illegal. Its that simple. Thats why Ubuntu doesn't ship with a bunch of proprietary codecs, because they don't charge anything for the distro, they can't pay the company who owns the codec. Now that I have made this clear, please stop making impossible demands. Just go on and decide all on your own that linux will never be mainstream, its not like you had to pay for it after all, did you.

We are doing the best we can with what we have and if thats just not good enough for you, then you can keep using windows, see if anyone cares.
--SD