Windows-based driver support checker for Ubuntu?

[Todd Deshane]

Hi,

On 7/24/07, xt knight <xt.knight at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The IdeaPool had an idea about a "checker" that would notify the user
> of Linux's support of his devices.  (
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IdeaPool#head-840a946630b2112c0d2ca651b11d8a52171564fe
> )
>
> I decided to attempt to implement this.  How it works right now is
> that a modules.pcimap file is provided from /lib/modules/`uname -r`/
> and a few WinNT APIs are used to get a list of PCI IDs from the host
> Windows PC.  Then, the computer's PCI IDs are checked against that
> pcimap file for Linux support.
>
> Support for USB could probably be added easily with modules.usbmap.
> Likewise for ISA by means of modules.isapnpmap, Firewire, etc...
>
> The Windows Device Manager keeps a cache of devices that "have been"
> plugged in, so the user would not need to plug anything additional in
> to check support for every device he has used in the past on that
> system.
>
> As far as I can tell this should work perfectly.  As it stands, this
> should work under Windows NT 4 and up, AFAIK.  The way it is
> implemented right now, different APIs must be used for Win98.  I'm not
> sure about Vista but I think it's fine there also.
>
> My main question(s): Is this wanted, or needed, for Ubuntu?  I heard
> there was talk of a Windows Ubuntu installer.  I've never personally
> inserted a Ubuntu CD into Windows myself so I have no idea where we're
> at in that stage right now.


this might be the installer that you refer to:
http://wubi-installer.org/index.php

How would this be presented to the user?  Should it pop up before the
> installer wizard?  Should it be in the installer wizard, and if so, at
> which stage?  What programming language should it be coded in to
> ensure compatibility?  How would localization be handled?


Do you have a prototype of this that we could test?

Seems like a neat idea.

Thanks,
Todd


Thank you for your time.
>
> Andy Matteson
> xtknight on IRC, xt.knight at gmail.com
>
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