feature request - pre installation tool ...

[Sundar Nagarajan]

CookieNinja wrote:
> I don't know where best to post this, but I think it's a very good
> idea!
> 
> 
> 
> It's also something that Microsoft are doing for people thinking of
> upgrading to windows vists.
> 
> 
> 
> "Microsoft is providing a beta of its Upgrade Advisor tool that will
> evaluate whether a PC is ready to run Windows Vista. The application
> scans the computer and creates a report of all known system and device
> compatibility issues, along with suggestions for resolution."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why doesn't Ubuntu have something like this ? Perhaps it is something
> that distributions could or should work together on. It would allow
> people to find out about known issues before they even start to install
> a linux distribution and it would only take them 5 mins or less.
> 
> 
> 
> Why ? Well, imagine a friend is thinking about trying linux. Instead of
> getting them to download or try a liveCD of distribution x, let them
> stay in their windows/mac comfort zone and run a windows utility that
> tells them how suitable their PC is for linux and where they are going
> to have problems. It could even provide them with solutions to print
> out and use when they start installing linux. It could also tell them
> what they should download and burn to a cd before they boot linux,
> which is VERY important when it comes network interfaces and
> dialup/adsl modems. Perhaps it could also report back the hardware
> configuration to a central store to see what unsupported hardware is
> causing people the most problems when they try to change over to
> linux.
> 
> 
> 
> Anyway ... I want to push this idea as best I can ... so WHERE is the
> best place to catch the attention of people who could make this happen
> ?
> 
> 

I think this is a good idea, but making it a Windoze utility is _NOT_. 
Here are my reasons why it would be hard / inappropriate to make it a 
Windoze utility:

a. Linux runs on several hardware platforms (e.g. Sparc) on which 
Windoze will not run _AT_ALL_. How will such a utility even 'sense' such 
a platform to make predictions about it? If such a utility were built, 
would it not make sense for it to cover the entire gamut of Linux 
possibilities, rather than just x86?

b. The utility will need to enumerate the devices detected and use some 
heuristics keyed on the detected identification string to make 
predictions on:
	- Is the device supported on Linux / Ubuntu?
	- Which features are not supported?
	- What special steps / software (firmware) / preparation
	  will be required?
The heuristic database could be hosted centrally over the net, 
accessible to all programs alike (Windoze or Linux). But the starting 
point for this is the enumeration of devices and the identification 
string of each device. In Windoze the identification string can be quite 
different - e.g. based on information on the manufacturer's driver file 
(.INF). Similarly, the different logical components of a single device 
may be treated differently in Windoze and Linux (thus making even the 
enumeration inaccurate to start with).

I believe it will be a great idea to develop such a utility within Linux 
to be run within a Live-CD (e.g. if the user has CTRL+SHIFT pressed 
while booting). By doing this we leave the DETECTION of devices to the 
kernel (where it belongs). Based on what _IS_ detected, one can use some 
central heuristic database to predict what will work and to what extent 
etc.

One problem that will remain will be: what will _NOT_ work in Linux 
(though it may work under Windoze). The user will get a list of devices 
that _WILL_ work even if only partially. The list of devices that will 
_not_ work is:
	1. List of devices detected but listed as not supported
		+
	2. List of devices known to be present but not detected

Today, AFAIK, _MOST_ devices (at least USB or PCI) are at least 
_detected_ (i.e. associated with a unique vendor_id / device_id). Thus 
this second piquant case may not be very prevalent.

Cheers,
Sundar Nagarajan