Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]

[Nils Philippsen]

On Thu, 2008-01-10 at 21:30 -0600, Chris Adams wrote:
> Once upon a time, David Zeuthen <david at fubar.dk> said:
> > 
> > On Thu, 2008-01-10 at 12:45 -0600, Chris Adams wrote:
> > > And how do you know automatically that one of my USB-to-RS232 adapters
> > > is my UPS (should be /dev/ups), one is my GPS (/dev/gps0), and one is a
> > > cell phone (/dev/modem)?
> > 
> > Either we look at the USB device it's hanging off (vendor, product or
> > class id's), the driver or we provide a simple interface in
> > gnome-device-manager or similar (including command line apps) to set it.
> 
> Since they are all USB-to-RS232 adapters, you can't tell anything by USB
> info (they are all interfacing to RS232 devices).  Two of them use the
> same driver, and annoyingly, the chip vendor for that USB-to-RS232
> doesn't set a serial number, so the only way to distinguish them is via
> USB port.

I guess such a simple interface would tie the custom configuration of
such a USB device to its hardware info and the USB path where to device
is plugged.

> Also, some GNOME thing is not a solution, as I'd like my UPS and GPS to
> be active on boot (the GPS is used by NTP for clock sync), not some time
> later after a user logs in.

The resulting policy shouldn't depend on any desktop.

> > That's the answer to this (very real)
> > problem, not a silly program that generates udev rules.
> 
> So then we have to have two things running trying to name devices?  I
> thought udev was supposed to be "the" solution.  Using udev rules is
> easy, it is just that writing them is beyond the point-n-click user.

It might just be that the result of "a simple interface in
gnome-device-manager or similar" is a bunch of udev rules (which
ironically would belong into /etc instead of /lib/udev as this is the
exceptional case where we talk about configuration, not working around
omissions in udev rules).

Nils
-- 
     Nils Philippsen    /    Red Hat    /    nphilipp at redhat.com
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
 Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."  --  B. Franklin, 1759
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