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91 Comments
- schestowitz, on 10/29/2007, -7/+42FTA: "He also wondered if the problem of Linux device drivers has been overstated..."
Yes, of course. It's called FUD tactics. - dsymonds, on 10/27/2007, -2/+28The only Linux hardware driver pains I've ever had have been (1) 3D accelerated video cards, and (2) WiFi cards. Everything else has pretty much been plug-and-play, at least since the 2.0 kernel series which still required the odd manual 'insmod'.
- Hobo97, on 10/27/2007, -1/+17*cough*X-Fi*cough*
But that's more Creative's fault... - Fergy, on 10/27/2007, -0/+12That's because Creative IS a tool when it comes to linux.
- bratterscain, on 10/27/2007, -0/+12How about a driver for my Canon 8400f scanner? I also wrote Canon in a support note that I'll never buy one of their scanners again if there is no Linux support for it. No hard feelings but business is business.
- SteveMax, on 10/29/2007, -0/+12You are doing something very wrong if you can't print to a 4m. Gutenprint supports it perfectly; heck, it's a plain Postscript printer!
http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recn ... - gameforge, on 10/29/2007, -0/+12There's always those manufacturers that simply lie all over their website about future FOSS Linux drivers which they have no intention of releasing, ever *cough* CREATIVE LABS *cough*
- mtekk, on 10/27/2007, -0/+11Spend the dough for a HP and then you won't have those problems as HPLIP is pretty good now.
- mooninite, on 10/29/2007, -3/+14HP Laserjets use PCL or Postscript and HP printers even have their own OPEN SOURCE driver available. I've used a dozen HP Laserjets in Linux and they all work better than their Windows counterparts. You are a TROLL.
- SteveMax, on 10/29/2007, -0/+10I have one of those some rooms away from here. I can print flawlessly under Gentoo, Fedora, and whatever the other people may have installed to their computers. Other people have confirmed this (and other HP LaserJets) as working. So either you have something weird on your setup, or you're doing something wrong. Here, under Gentoo's KDE, I just have to type its IP and it prints the test page.
On your WiFi problem, "Still can't connect via wifi" isn't enough information for anything. - GMorgan, on 10/27/2007, -1/+9"Specifically, they want better support for printers, scanners, USB storage and Wi-Fi devices."
And therein lies the problem. Printers and scanners are most definitely userland drivers and there's an argument that non-generic USB storage should be handled via FUSE rather than built into the kernel. That leaves us with Wifi which has improved dramatically over the past year or so.
The question is does Linux need better driver support or does 'Linux' (what some call Gnu/Linux) need better driver support? This group focuses on the former when the problems are in the later. - LudoA, on 10/27/2007, -0/+8Post it on the wiki, not here. Article contains a link to the wiki page (and Greg's email address, which you can also use).
- baalzebub, on 10/29/2007, -0/+8do your research, before buying an new hardware it is best to check with hardware compatibility databases - there are a few around, just google for them, if i dont know with absolute certainty a hardware product will work on Linux i wont buy it...
- locodude, on 10/27/2007, -0/+8The only thing I've really had, and are still having, problems with is webcams. Can anyone point me towards a webcam that really works and has stable drivers for Linux? I'm on my fourth webcam now that won't work with my Linux-box.
The closest I've come is one Creative webcam that worked for a couple of minutes with Ekiga and then the driver crashed every USB-device attached to my computer. And that webcam I found on a list of cams that were supposedly guaranteed to work with Linux. What a suckfest. - bobbagoose, on 10/27/2007, -0/+7I've never had much of a problem in recent years except with ATI graphics, and Wi-fi, although Wi-Fi is almost there... XP however, fails to recognise my soundcard on a fresh install and Vista failed to recognise an MTP mp3 player. Each OS has it's fair share of ups and downs when it comes to driver support, just recently however, Linux has seemed to be more up than down....
- mooninite, on 10/27/2007, -0/+7Logitech QuickCam 9000 Pro. It is the *only* webcam you should put money on. It's a UVC camera (Universal Video Camera) that will work across *ANY* platform since it adheares to an open specification rather than a proprietary one. The Linux UVC driver recognizes mine without a problem. It even works with my PS3. It's also clear as crystal (960x720 resolution) and after you turn the RightLight 2 crap OFF it becomes very fluid.
- SteveMax, on 10/29/2007, -0/+6Linux supports basically every printer that OS X supports. Both use Cups as a interface, and the PPDs are the same. The main difference is that OS X ships with more PPDs than most Linux distros.
- steffl, on 10/27/2007, -0/+6You should make sure than, that your wishes are listed on the wiki-page: http://linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/ ...
The more people request, the higher is the chance your desired driver will be developed. - Fergy, on 10/29/2007, -0/+6If every printer works with windows, why not choose a printer that has good support under linux also? You may not use linux right now but you never know.
- edzilla, on 10/27/2007, -0/+6"also every linux distribution should automatically pickup all sata harddrives and setup the fstab with the logical rights"
Recent distributions(and I mean less than two year old...) add your drive, SATA or IDE to the fstab..
"Im talking about the windows to linux converts here, not the people that have the time to recompile their kernel for fun."
90% of people on linux don't recompile their kernel, that's an old cliche. - undauntedspirit, on 10/28/2007, -1/+6Printer drivers are MUCH needed.
- MonkeyFit, on 10/29/2007, -1/+6Really man, I have an Audigy 2 ZS and while it works alright, it seems like I don't get near the functionality out of it like I do in windows. And Creative seems to have no tools for Linux.
- Invid, on 10/27/2007, -0/+5Creative is a tool period. MX300 fo' evah!
- mooninite, on 10/27/2007, -0/+5i810? You mean the old i810 Intel chipset? Wow.... That's had Linux support for... 6-7 years? I love how all the trolls come out when there's a Linux driver article.
If you are fiddling with the kernel then you obviously wouldn't even get it working in Windows. You should *NEVER* have to "fiddle with the kernel" unless you have a brand new device made in October 2007. - LudoA, on 10/26/2007, -0/+5Post it on the wiki, not here. Article contains a link to the wiki page (and Greg's email address, which you can also use).
- MWeather, on 10/29/2007, -1/+6Linux works on more hardware than windows. Don't believe me? Install Windows on an UltraSparc or PPC platform.
- edzilla, on 10/28/2007, -1/+5Personnaly, I's like out of the box support for connecting windows mobile pocket pc.
- init100, on 10/27/2007, -1/+5"there's an argument that non-generic USB storage should be handled via FUSE rather than built into the kernel."
FUSE is a userspace *file system* interface, not an interface for generic drivers, such as hardware drivers. Why should hardware drivers be handled via FUSE? I'm not saying that they cannot be handled in userspace, but rather that they won't be handled by FUSE. Some time ago, I read about a generic framework for userspace hardware drivers, which may be what you were really thinking of. - edzilla, on 10/27/2007, -0/+4I would happily get a linux device equivalent in functionnality to the latest HTC TYTN II, but right now, that doesn't exist, or at least I know of no cellphone operator that offers one, so in the meanwhile, I'm stuck with windows mobile devices.
- geehossiphats, on 10/27/2007, -0/+4Hey thanks for the reference. Been thinking lately about getting a web cam for my sexy linux box. I'll get this one you recommended.
- Fergy, on 10/26/2007, -0/+4You do know that you provide no relevant information for other people reading your post? You don't tell what a i810 is, what it should do and what it doesn't do.
- Myztry, on 10/27/2007, -0/+3One quirk I found with the 8139too Linux WiFi driver is caused by a combination of Windows and Linux. The card will work fine under Linux if started after a hard power off (ie. Pull the power cord) but won't after Windows has been previously booted.
Apparently Windows leaves the card in an bad state for some reason, and the Linux drivers fails to re-initalise the card fully. Should be a simple fix but hasn't happened yet. - eatbeefjerky, on 10/27/2007, -0/+3"also every linux distribution should automatically pickup all sata harddrives and setup the fstab with the logical rights"
Recent distributions(and I mean less than two year old...) add your drive, SATA or IDE to the fstab.."
I'd like to point out that about 2 months ago, I did a fresh Ubuntu install to a brand new hard drive on my desktop. The hard drive was a 320GB WD SATA drive and it worked fine. Wanna hear the best part? The motherboard I was using didn't have native SATA support -- I had to buy a special SATA PCI card, and the Ubuntu installer detected it just fine, where my Windows installer did not. Pretty nifty, yes? I also use this computer as a music server for my laptop, and the only fstab file I had to change was the one on the laptop so it would mount the remote disk. Kthx...bai. - rusty0101, on 10/26/2007, -0/+3Oddly enough my greatest issue is with 'partially working' devices. For example the Shuttle Express and related devices from Shuttle partially work. Some of the buttons appear as mouse buttons, but not all. The jog wheel appears as mouse buttons, but handling is definitely not 'jog wheel' in nature. And the knob is not recognized at all. I understand one of the video editing tools for Linux knows how to use one of these devices, however to get that to happen, I have to tell hotplug or the related monitoring tool, not to load the device, and whatever video editing tool it is has to be compiled with the appropriate device included in it's configuration.
Camera's, mice, keyboards, etc. for the most part work without any extra work. Identifying printers on the network needs a bit more work, but seems to be progressing nicely. - ryanknapper, on 10/29/2007, -0/+3"So why is Novell's Greg Kroah-Hartman, a Linux kernel developer and head of the Linux Driver Project, having to ask people to tell him about devices that need drivers?"
Um, is it because he doesn't own everything and can't know what works and what doesn't? - Fergy, on 10/27/2007, -1/+4Or buy Samsung, their linux support is also great.
- chowmeined, on 10/29/2007, -0/+3Except the issue is, Microsoft doesn't have to put in any effort to get driver support for their platform at this time. With Linux, almost every driver needs to be fought for, reverse engineered, recreated using specs under an NDA, etc unless it happens to be an open specification (which unfortunately don't seem to be as common as one would like). Until the majority of hardware companies are ready to pull their collective heads out of their asses, then this will continue. If Microsoft had to go through the crap Linux does to get drivers, you can be sure they wouldn't be anywhere close to where Linux is now.
- scyon, on 10/27/2007, -0/+3Linux support? As if they'd spend the money on programmers instead of marketing. God, some of their printers don't even support Windows Server 2003.
- geehossiphats, on 10/29/2007, -2/+4Looks as if Novell has joined the anti-linux pro-microsoft fud campaign. But this doesn't surprise anyone cause Novell has a vested interest in making sure their sugar daddy stays happy.
- DrDabbles, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2The problem with recent Windows Mobile devices is that they use RNDIS- Reverse NDIS- to communicate over USB. Basically, they set up a network on a USB bus. The idea at first was to enable sync to a PC over WIFI. They quickly realized the security implication of that and stopped it dead. Naturally, because RNDIS is patented, they continued using the protocol. I do agree with you, though. Submit the idea in an email and perhaps a few developers will jump on it.
- Gavagai80, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2The point of this project is merging drivers into the kernel, which means the "configuration" involved consists of pressing the "on" button of your computer.
- cynyr, on 10/29/2007, -0/+2Pinter divers are in userspace, not the kernel. So Greg Kroah-Hartman isn't offering to write drivers for them. look at the cups project for that. Look at the wiki link on his blog post for more info.
- kickarse, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2Can we say ATI?!
- omababy, on 10/29/2007, -0/+2 how bout a driver 4 my AVerMedia AverTV Hybrid+FM PCI A16D, thats sitting her gathering dust
- MWeather, on 10/27/2007, -1/+3As is Xerox's support. CUPS server on the printer.
- MWeather, on 10/27/2007, -1/+3It needs a driver? How do you get into the bios?
- CarzorStelatis, on 10/29/2007, -1/+3Sure, Linux can run on more processors. Most users don't care to be honest. They care whether Linux can run on the computer they bought at their local store - which will almost certainly be Intel - so processor architectures don't matter.
- superyounan1, on 10/27/2007, -0/+2i remember reading an article about how they can't keep up, that must have changed quick. lame
- JonForTheWin, on 10/29/2007, -0/+1How about the specs? We're waiting..
- JonForTheWin, on 10/29/2007, -0/+1>But that's more Creative's fault...
Try ENTIRELY "creative"'s fault. -
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