Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 18:17:26 -0800 From: richard childers / kg6hac <fscked@pacbell.net> To: paul beard <paulbeard@mac.com> Cc: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD-friendly laptops (was: laptop compatibility list) Message-ID: <3E73DEB5.E034ABE3@pacbell.net> References: <3E72A716.4070607@mac.com> <3E734CFC.5BBBA6F1@pacbell.net> <3E73AF21.6090201@mac.com>
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Perhaps it might be useful to develop the schema here, in public. What is it that people look for from a compatibility chart? (1) Clues. Has anyone else installed the OS on the model? (2) Chipset information. We'll talk about that more below. (3) Kernel configurations. Derives from (2). (4) X configurations. Derives from (2). This, at first hack, corresponds to four tables. (1) Text-based personal histories. (2) A precise inventory of chips used for certain common functions. (3) Kernel configurations. (4) X configurations. The personal testamonials, and associated kernels and X configurations, could all be treated as large, undistinguished chunks of text. More interesting, I think, would be to tease each piece of a kernel or X config file apart and to try to associate it, directly or indirectly, with a particular chip or set thereof. Most demanding would be the chipset database; I think it would be interesting to (as someone else suggested) expand the database to include other devices; however, because there would be little overlap between laptops and the systems that preceeded them, it would, in essence, be two databases occupying one schema. Chipsets really define the computer in question. There may well be databases already existent, known to those whom write device drivers, where these details are tracked - possibly for a fee. It would be interesting to build elements of such a resulting database directly into the distribution, as a form of expert system that attempted, after asking a few questions, to build kernel and X configuration files customized to the hardware and user. -- richard paul beard wrote: > richard childers / kg6hac wrote: > > There's already an XFree86 config library out there somewhere, FYI ... > > I wasn't clear, I think. What I was after was not yet another > bunch of config files on someone's personal site, but something > that lived and was maintained at freeBSD.org. One of the big > reasons I like FreeBSD to some of the other free unix-like > offerings is that it's "owned" in the sense of having a central > repository for source code, documentation, and mailing lists like > this. Typing > > So it makes sense to me for something like this to live at > freeBSD.org and just direct people to www.freeBSD.org/mobile or > /laptop and let that be a comprehensive repository of useful > information. > > -- > Paul Beard > <http://paulbeard.no-ip.org/movabletype/>; > whois -h whois.networksolutions.com ha=pb202 > > Think big. Pollute the Mississippi. > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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