[Yum-devel] Re: [driver-updates] [RFC] Automatic driver package resolution

[Jon Masters]

Michael E Brown wrote:

> We also want to get this in for RHEL5.1, if possible. (And tweaked for RHEL6, of course).

We might be able to get a version of this into RHEL5 if you make a 
feature request and do the IT dance from your end :-)

> Ok. Where/how/who? Who are the right people to talk to in order to get the find-provides.modalias added to the distro? Also, there are:
>    /usr/lib/rpm/find-provides
>    /usr/lib/rpm/redhat/find-provides

I intentionally took over redhat-rpm-config so that I can do this stuff.

> Which is the "correct" one to add this to? 

Add it to the redhat/find-provides script and send me a patch, if you 
like :-)

> Next, where did you want to add a GUI for this? What did you envision it looking like? Can I help out on this one?

I envision a similar experience to that e.g. a Windows user could get 
when they insert a new device and get a dialog that walks them through 
finding a driver for it - this requires:

* A central online, independent database to provide "hints" about third 
party repo locations. I already planned for this to use modalias 
information, along the lines of your proposal - thanks for doing that 
work! We don't want to be in the business of hosting. I talked to Matt 
and a few others about this and will work on a proposed standard to kick 
of conversation on this in due course - I want to involve Dell, SuSE, 
IBM and others who have expressed an interest in being involved.

* Hooks for udev/hal. We need a client/server that listens to messages 
on the SYSTEM bus and notices when we don't have a driver for a device. 
If we don't have one, then we kick up a fuss with a dialog but split 
this in two so a GUI Desktop is not *required*. Think NetworkManager. I 
also want this tool later to allow configuration of depmod.d configs so 
we can override the search ordering of installed drivers and allow a 
user to replace one driver with another - think "hardware manager".

>> [0] I'm getting worse by the day here, not better. It might be mono or 
>> another nice virus...so bear with me. I'm taking up to 10 espressos a 
>> day at the moment to keep going.
> 
> Sorry to hear about that. I had mono a few years ago and it was not pleasant.
> The blood test for Mono takes about 10 minutes to do.

Yeah. First test was negative...but it might just be too early. My gf is 
positive for mono though and I've never had it before so... :-)

Jon.