On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 11:24:55AM -0800, May Hwang wrote:
> Dear Margarita,
> 
> Can you resend Sean's email because I didn't receive his email?
> 
> Up to this point, we are offering binary package based on customer request,
> because binary driver package only support one specific kernel version.
> Hence it is inconvenience for customer and time consuming.
> 
> Please advice when is the next release update and which kernel version?

There is an "etch-n-half" planned pretty soon, which is to include a new
kernel with new drivers (at present, it is likely that this new kernel
will be 2.6.24). It would appear to me (though my opinion is in no way
authoritative in this matter) that a package with new HighPoint drivers
would be suitable for inclusion in etch-n-half, too. I'm sure people on
debian-kernel will be able to provide more insight into that matter.

Having said that: while a package with drivers for a hard drive
controller would easily allow a Debian user to *use* the system with
those drivers, it would not provide them with a way to actually
*install* the system yet. If your hardware cannot be used in a
"compatible" way, wherein the hardware will work, even if not at the
highest performance which it would support with those drivers, then this
is a problem that would need to be addressed by providing an updated
debian-installer image.

Luckily, this is not very hard; once you have a modules package with
your drivers, what you would need to do would include:
- creating a "udeb" (a debian-installer module) containing your
  additional drivers (this can be easily done with the "kernel-wedge"
  package and your modules package)
- building a custom debian-installer image which would include your
  udeb.

Your customers could then download the debian-installer image from your
website (or wherever), boot from that, and then install Debian as usual.
You might also want to modify your installer image so that it would, if
your hardware is detected, install the modules package; the
debian-installer environment contains sufficient software to make this
possible.

> Can I send you and Sean our Linux open source driver?

It's probably best if you put them online somewhere, and post a link.
Then those who are interested could, at the very least, help you get
started, or do the work.

Thanks again for your support of Debian,

-- 
<Lo-lan-do> Home is where you have to wash the dishes.
  -- #debian-devel, Freenode, 2004-09-22


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