[Ilugc] Hardware Compatiblity
- From: sundaram@xxxxxxxxxx (Rahul Sundaram)
- Date: Wed Dec 21 17:59:11 2005
Hi
There is no style as such. They customize it, yes.
Sometimes, they don't even ship the sources in the
installation CD (was it FC3 or FC4?). So, when end
users try to build drivers, they are faced with
problems.
Not really. As mentioned in the release notes
(
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/release-notes/fc4/#sn-kernel) users dont
need a source kernel to build drivers in 2.6 kernel. Kernel drivers
need to be in the upstream kernel and not distributed in separate
packages ideally. Proprietary modules are one of the reasons why you
need a external drivers which the upstream kernel does not support. In
fact they are completely against the idea
http://lxr.linux.no/source/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt
If thats really needed it is one of the repositories anyway and if you
are looking for development. Whatever kernel headers required for module
builders is usually in the kernel-devel package.
#yum install kernel-devel and off you go
Ok, things are good with Ubuntu and its
hardware detection, its an exception.
More of these patches needs to be upstreamed.
Hence, its always good to use a stock kernel.
You basically invalidate all the QA done on a distribution kernel by
doing it.
We can't keep track of all changes that distro folks
do, hence, it is always _recommended_ that you get the
stock kernel (kernel.org), compile it and use it.
Distribution patch kernels not for fun. There are specific reasons why
thats required at times despite best efforts. Distribution schedule is
not in sync with kernel release schedule for example and patches pending
upstream might be in the distribution kernel. If the vendors patch for
feature enhancements then many of user space tools might depend on such
patches. fbsplash or software suspend for example.
Normally end users neednt be concerned with distribution specific
patches. If they really need to its trivial to check the repository. For
Fedora thats
http://cvs.fedora.redhat.com.
--
Rahul
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