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Home > Archive > Debian Developers > August 2005 > I need to know how to create and use Driver Update Disks
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| Author |
I need to know how to create and use Driver Update Disks
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| Allyn, MarkX A 2005-08-01, 5:54 pm |
| Hello:
I will be needing to create driver update disks for some device drivers
that we have in development.
I also need to know how to use them.
Can anyone please provide me with a pointer on where I can get
instructions
on creating and using driver update disks?
Or are they simply a collection of .deb files for device drivers?
Thank you
Mark Allyn
| |
| Kevin Mark 2005-08-02, 2:57 am |
| On Mon, Aug 01, 2005 at 01:51:10PM -0700, Allyn, MarkX A wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I will be needing to create driver update disks for some device drivers
> that we have in development.
>
> I also need to know how to use them.
>
> Can anyone please provide me with a pointer on where I can get
> instructions
> on creating and using driver update disks?
>
> Or are they simply a collection of .deb files for device drivers?
>
> Thank you
>
> Mark Allyn
Hi Mark,
In the windows words, 'Devices' need 'Device drivers' (maybe dlls). In
the uni*x world we have a kernel that uses kernel modules for 'hardware'
devices. If you have a piece of hardware that is not functioning, it
needs the correct kernel modules and the kernel modules has to be
compatible with the kernel. If you give details of what hardware you
need supported, someone can suggest which kernel you need and what
kernel modules are needed to support it.
Cheers,
Kev
--
counter.li.org #238656 -- goto counter.li.org and be counted!
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| Allyn, MarkX A 2005-08-02, 6:06 pm |
| Thank you Rob.
Here is the situation that I have:
We have some patches that have already be open sourced (ICH7) and are in
the=20
2.6.11 and above kernels.
What we need to do is to provide a Driver Update Disk so that someone
who is
using the 2.6.8 kernel supplied by the stable release (Sarge) can do an=20
install on a ICH7 based system.=20
The current un-ICH7 patched 2.6.8 kernel on Sarge will not install on a
ICH7
system. The kernel used by the installer, as well as the kernel that is
installed, need to have the ICH7 patches applied.=20
We fully understand that the patched files must be loadable modules that
can
be loaded into an already running kernel.
We anticipate this to be a stopgap measure until the 2.6.11 kernel goes
into
production (when Etch takes the place of Sarge). At that point, this
need
should go away.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Taylor [mailto:robtaylor@floopily.org]=20
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 8:28 AM
To: Allyn, MarkX A
Cc: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: I need to know how to create and use Driver Update Disks
On Mon, 2005-08-01 at 13:51 -0700, Allyn, MarkX A wrote:
> Hello:
>=20
> I will be needing to create driver update disks for some device
drivers
> that we have in development.
>=20
> I also need to know how to use them.
>=20
> Can anyone please provide me with a pointer on where I can get
> instructions
> on creating and using driver update disks?
>=20
> Or are they simply a collection of .deb files for device drivers?
can you be more specific? are you developing closed source kernel
modules, or are these drivers open source? If you can open then (and I
*heavily* recommend you do, otherwise you will spend many tens of
thousands of dollars playing catchup with every kernel in every
distribution), then you should inquire on the linux-kernel mailing list
who the best person is to deal with your patches.
If you are producing closed-source kernel modules, and have chosen which
distros you wish to support - I presume you wish to support Debian
Sarge - then you need to produce packages with that kernel module,
compiled against the kernel(s) used by that distribution.
For sarge, i suggest you investigate module-assistant and other packages
that use module-assistant (can someone else help with a good example?)
Thanks,
Rob Taylor
| |
| Rob Taylor 2005-08-02, 6:06 pm |
| On Mon, 2005-08-01 at 13:51 -0700, Allyn, MarkX A wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I will be needing to create driver update disks for some device drivers
> that we have in development.
>
> I also need to know how to use them.
>
> Can anyone please provide me with a pointer on where I can get
> instructions
> on creating and using driver update disks?
>
> Or are they simply a collection of .deb files for device drivers?
can you be more specific? are you developing closed source kernel
modules, or are these drivers open source? If you can open then (and I
*heavily* recommend you do, otherwise you will spend many tens of
thousands of dollars playing catchup with every kernel in every
distribution), then you should inquire on the linux-kernel mailing list
who the best person is to deal with your patches.
If you are producing closed-source kernel modules, and have chosen which
distros you wish to support - I presume you wish to support Debian
Sarge - then you need to produce packages with that kernel module,
compiled against the kernel(s) used by that distribution.
For sarge, i suggest you investigate module-assistant and other packages
that use module-assistant (can someone else help with a good example?)
Thanks,
Rob Taylor
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| |
| Frans Pop 2005-08-02, 6:06 pm |
| | |
| Rob Taylor 2005-08-02, 6:06 pm |
| On Tue, 2005-08-02 at 18:03 +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 August 2005 17:35, Allyn, MarkX A wrote:
>
> I think the best thing to do is to contact the Debian kernel team at
> debian-kernel@lists.debian.org and discuss the options for the stable
> kernels with them.
>
> The Debian package system does not really like packages (your driver
> update) replacing files that belong to another package (the official
> Debian kernel-image package). This means the best option would be to get
> the patches included in an update of the 2.6.8 kernel (which is being
> prepared at the moment).
If he produces a new kernel module to add support for this hardware,
there's absolutely no reason why it should conflict with linux-kernel.
Given that it's not a security fix, would he really have much luck
getting a patch into stable's kernel?
Rob Taylor
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| |
| Daniel Burrows 2005-08-02, 9:02 pm |
| | |
|
| On Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 06:03:50PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 August 2005 17:35, Allyn, MarkX A wrote:
>
> I think the best thing to do is to contact the Debian kernel team at
> debian-kernel@lists.debian.org and discuss the options for the stable
> kernels with them.
>
> The Debian package system does not really like packages (your driver
> update) replacing files that belong to another package (the official
> Debian kernel-image package). This means the best option would be to get
> the patches included in an update of the 2.6.8 kernel (which is being
> prepared at the moment).
Yes, please send them to the kernel team. It looks like non-security
kernel updates are going to be handled using volitile. And driver fixes
that are already upstream are fair game for inclusion IMHO. In the
slightly longer term we are thinking of puting something like 2.4.12
into volatile, I assume this would cover the changes you are after.
Actually, better still grab the kernel tree from svn and start adding
them locally to your copy of that. If you can get that working it
makes it a lot easier for the kernel team to drop in your changes.
> The other team that should be involved is the Debian Installer team (at
> debian-boot@lists.debian.org). Getting out a separate driver update does
> not mean it will automatically be usable by the installation system;
> again getting the patches into the offical Debian kernels would be best.
> The installer team is currently working on a new version of the
> installation system using the 2.6.12 kernel, but it is not yet sure if
> users will be able to use that to install Sarge.
>
> It very much depends on the nature of the patches if they will be accepted
> for Sarge.
I am fairly dubious about being able to do non-security updates to sarge.
Rather I think volatile might be the best avenue for these kind of fixes.
--
Horms
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