Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 13:45:53 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <PeterJeremy@optushome.com.au> To: Jim Pazarena <fhard@ccstores.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: hardware incompatibility list was:watchdog timeout Message-ID: <20051213024553.GB77268@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> In-Reply-To: <439DF9D9.2040507@ccstores.com> References: <439A576E.3070302@ccstores.com> <439DF9D9.2040507@ccstores.com>
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On Mon, 2005-Dec-12 14:29:45 -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote: >What I am getting at, is, that the Hardware Compatibility I am feared >is woefully out of date. It does state "Feedback, updates, and corrections to this list are encouraged." >I suggest that someone should attempt to validate all the listed >hardware in the recent releases so that the end user (like myself) >does not get stung spending money on new hardware which isn't >compatible with newer kernel releases. I've been bitten by a related problem. In reality, what you want can't happen - no-one has the money to buy all the hardware or the time to test it in all. A very rough count gives just over 1400 entries in 6.0R/hardware-i386.html. Add to that vendors' propensity to totally redesign the hardware without changing the model number so you still can't be certain that what you just bought as a WizzBang XY656JT bears any resemblance to the one that was tested. (Which could be the problem with your Specialix card). The real solution is for hardware vendors to either directly support FreeBSD or provide adequate details to allow someone to independently write a driver. The size of the FreeBSD market means that this is very unlikely to happen in general. >Perhaps a form can be created for end-users to fill in the blanks >(or pull-down from the list) to enter which hardware (they/we) are >using, which OS version, etc, so a new list can be verified? This isn't perfect but may help. There's a similar list maintained for laptops. If you believe this is a worthwhile approach, how about you put something together and announce the URL here. -- Peter Jeremy
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