problem with a USB serial chip device

[Derek Broughton]

Nils Kassube wrote:

> bill purvis wrote:
>> I'd much prefer a good basic install and the add in the extras, rather
>> than install almost everything (expect the bits I want).   8-)
> 
> I think we don't agree here. It reminds me of my very first Linux
> installation. It was a slow 386 machine and I was asked for every single
> package if I wanted it installed. I had a good knowledge of my hardware,
> but for many packages I didn't know if I needed it or not. Therefore I
> probably installed much more than necessary - it took nearly an entire
> day until the installation was finished because of those many questions.
> I think it is much better to install a lot more than necessary without
> any questions, especially if the distribution wants to be usefull for
> people who don't already know anything about Linux.

But it would be even nicer if it could make some reasonable guesses about
what is needed by checking the hardware, and ask some simple questions
like - do you need support for more than one language?

I've just solved my ekiga problem by installing libpt-plugins-v4l2 - which
_isn't_ installed by default, because ekiga only needs one of the video
plugins, and v4l2 is the last choice.  Since the webcam is built-in to the
laptop, it _could_ have known that the plugin was needed in the first
place.  (Note, it's entirely possible the Ubuntu install really _would_
have done this, because I installed ekiga over Kubuntu - so it's just an
example, but I've seen similar problems on install, and this is also needed
_after_ the install to get real plug-and-play)
-- 
derek