I agree with Simon. The GUI Device Manager based on HAL may be a good choice for the desktop users.
Now the Gnome-device-manager can show the devices well as GUI based on the HAL, including much devices and bus information. Meanwhile, HAL can provide more device info to users than some current tools (e.g. prtconf and others). The device information files (fdi) is a very useful feature. It makes HAL merge new or adjust existing properties of a device object according vendor ID and device ID. The amount of fdis is increasing quickly. It can be seen by often-updating hal-info package in HAL community. Although the HAL is one-way(presenting devices only) now, I think that the adding devices access and management will probably be one of the following development goals on HAL. We shall cooperate with the HAL community for the goal archievement. HAL is a good platform for desktop environment application that want to talk with devices. When a new tool like this is developed for desktop users, HAL should be considered. Regards, Strony simon.zheng : > Vijay Upreti wrote: >> Hi Simon, >> >> Thanks for your response. >> >> The requirement I am putting forward need not have HAL database >> association. As mentioned that most of the H/W device information can >> be easily obtained using existing commands or teaking little bit more >> with system to get the output as needed. >> >> I haven't yet tried gnome base device manager tool, but if the work >> is exactly same as mentioned in the requirement then of course its >> going to be a duplicated effort. >> >> Just to understand the roadmap for gnome-device-manager, is that >> planned to be incorporated in the future Navada builds? or is it >> going to be just an extra tool to play with? I am only aiming to have >> a Navada based feature which can reach to larger user community due >> to its simplicity and effectiveness. > Yes. Putting g-d-m into Nevada is our desire too. Strony and me did > some investigation and made a simple prototype several month ago. > Because we haven't enough resource, it was going slowly now. Anyway > Strony is working hard for HAL improvement. Once Solaris HAL and > gnome-device-manager GUI mature further, this tool is easily > integrated. My idea is we should invest more resource to develop > gnome-device-manager on HAL community and then port to Solaris. It's a > good chance for you to participate in their archeticure design. > > Thanks, > -Simon >> >> >> Do you have any demo for the gnome-device-manager? >> >> Vijay >> simon.zheng at sun.com wrote: >>> Hi Vijay, >>> >>> Thanks for your proposal. I'm totally agree with the importance of this >>> project. But I have some concerns. >>> >>> The current trend of UNIX desktop device management is based on HAL, >>> which is a well-designed hardware abstract layer independent of special >>> OS. http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal >>> >>> For OpenSolaris, Aterm and other guys has done a lot of job for porting >>> HAL to Solaris. Please see project page. >>> http://opensolaris.org/os/project/tamarack/ >>> >>> The popular way is HAL stores all device info in its database, and >>> desktop applications operate device through HAL. More and more >>> application are doing like this, e.g. gnome-power-manager. >>> >>> Since HAL (Solaris-special backend) has considered a lot of >>> Solaris-special features, such as RBAC, auditing. If we develop a new >>> GUI tool without HAL, many jobs that HAL done have to repeat. I think >>> it's a backward. So I suggest we should think over again for this >>> proposal. >>> >>> Furthermore, HAL community has also made some effort for managing >>> device >>> tool. Before HAL 0.5.9, a GUI tool called hal-device-manager is shipped >>> with HAL, which is able to list and update all devices info on system. >>> But unfortunately it can't add/remove device. So for this reason, a new >>> GUI called gnome-device-manager is created when HAL 0.5.10. This >>> tool is >>> already available on our SFE repository. You can build and try. >>> >>> Currently we're trying to port gnome-device-manager to Solaris. Atem >>> and >>> Strony from HAL team are working for supporting more Solaris devices in >>> HAL, and JDS team are getting involved in GUI development on HAL >>> community. >>> >>> Regards, >>> -Simon >>> >>> >>> On Fri, 2008-02-01 at 07:17 +0530, vijay upreti wrote: >>> >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> I am submitting a one pager to have project proposal on Device >>>> Manager tool. Aim is to reach to desktop users, who need to add, >>>> upgrade or troubleshoot driver. Currently if you need to have these >>>> in place you have command line options to get this done. The GUI >>>> will make it easy to get this done. >>>> >>>> I appreciate your comments and views on the project one pager. >>>> >>>> Many thanks in advance. >>>> >>>> >>>> Regards >>>> Vijay Upreti >>>> Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd. >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> desktop-discuss mailing list >>>> desktop-discuss at opensolaris.org >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> desktop-discuss mailing list >>> desktop-discuss at opensolaris.org >>> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> desktop-discuss mailing list >> desktop-discuss at opensolaris.org >> >
