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Slut med hardwareproblemer på Linux?
Som mange, der har forsøgt at installere Linux på en PC med en moderne eller eksotisk eller blot "uheldig" hardwarekonstellation, har erfaret, kan man godt risikere, at det godt kan være svært at få det hele til at fungere - også Citizen havde således problemer, der som det oftest går dog endte med at blive løst.
Før jeg nu får skræmt alt for mange væk, må jeg hellere skynde mig at tilføje, at moderne operativsystemer som Ubuntu og OpenSUSE vil understøtte de fleste hardwarekonstellationer uden problemer - men visse ting giver erfaringsmæssigt problemer.
Det drejer sig primært om SATA-diske, visse typer trådløse netkort, softmodems og de nyeste grafikkort - og sidst, men ikke mindst printere.
Problemet skyldes dog ikke så meget manglende vilje hos Linux-udviklerne som manglende vilje hos hardwareproducenterne til enten selv at levere software (såkaldte drivere), der kan få Linux til at snakke med deres hardware, eller fortælle andre, hvordan man kan gøre det.
Men nu er der måske en løsning i sigte: Linux-udviklerne tilbyder nu gratis at udvikle Linux-drivere til alt hardware, hvis blot producenten vil sende dem specifikationer på, hvordan det skal gøres.
Kerne-udvikleren Greg Kroah-Hartman skriver således på sin blog:
Så ... det ser ud til, at en løsning er på vej - i det mindste ad åre! Det kan i hvert fald være svært at komme i tanker om flere undskyldninger for ikke at tilbyde Linux-kompatible drivere til sine produkter, når man ligefrem kan få arbejdet gjort gratis ...The Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine which one is the closest to what you need to do.
All that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your device works, or the email address of an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while. A few sample devices might be good to have so that debugging doesn't have to be done by email, but if necessary, that can be done.
In return, you will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. The driver will be written by some of the members of the Linux kernel developer community (over 1500 strong and growing). This driver will then be automatically included in all Linux distributions, including the "enterprise" ones. It will be automatically kept up to date and working through all Linux kernel API changes. This driver will work with all of the different CPU types supported by Linux, the largest number of CPU types supported by any operating system ever before in the history of computing.
As for support, the driver will be supported through email by the original developers, when they can help out, and by the "enterprise" Linux distributors as part of their service agreements with their customers.
If your company is worried about NDA issues surrounding your device's specifications, we have arranged a program with OSDL/TLF's Tech Board to provide the legal framework where a company can interact with a member of the kernel community in order to properly assure that all needed NDA requirements are fulfilled.
Now your developers will have more time to work on drivers for all of the other operating systems out there, and you can add "supported on Linux" to your product's marketing material.
This offer is in effect for all different types of devices, from USB toys to PCI video devices to high-speed networking cards. If you manufacture it, we can get Linux drivers working for it.
Se i øvrigt også de forskellige lister af Linux-kompatibelt hardware - f.eks. linux-drivers.org. Det kan være fornuftigt lige at checke, før man køber ny printer.