[Debian-eeepc-devel] Fw: Bits from the Debian Eee PC team, autumn 2008

[Ben Armstrong]

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:35:16 -0300
From: Ben Armstrong <synrg at sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>
To: debian-devel-announce at lists.debian.org
Subject: Bits from the Debian Eee PC team, autumn 2008


Also posted as http://syn.theti.ca/2008/10/13/

   Some brief highlights of the last three months of Debian Eee PC
   development.

Thermal and ACPI breakage resolved in 2.6.26-7

   We're pleased to see that in the upload to Sid of
   linux-image-2.6.26-1-686 version 2.6.26-7, the pair of [1]2.6.26 bugs
   we've been tracking that have made it difficult for Eee users to
   upgrade their systems have been resolved. Since then 2.6.26-8 has
   been uploaded and is expected to enter Lenny this week due to a
   freeze exception. Once the new kernel has migrated we will move
   quickly to build and release a new installer that includes it.

Ath5k wifi works on Eee PC in Linux 2.6.27

   Jean-Christophe reports that [2]ath5k works in Linux 2.6.27 on
   the Eee PC 701, and just needs a [3]small patch to work with our
   eeepc-acpi-scripts package. This is good news for those of us with
   models 701, 900, 900A and 1000HD who have been wanting to get off of
   the non-free Madwifi drivers and onto DFSG free drivers.

New Eee PC model 701SD wifi support in the works

   Users of the new Eee PC Model [4]701SD have just started showing up
   looking for support in mainstream Linux distros. Martin Filtenborg
   confirmed using our [5]Eee PC Live image with the GPL'd rtl8187se
   driver from Realtek to demonstrate that we can at least use it to
   connect to an unencrypted AP, get an IP address and ping other hosts.

   Of course, it is one thing to have a working vendor-supplied driver
   and quite another to have mainstream support. We'll make do with what
   we have now, but will be seeking a mainstream solution as soon as
   possible.

   We're seeking more testers and developers to work on this. To date,
   an ITP has not been filed, as it is not yet clear who is going to
   carry this work forward.

Chasing the 5 second boot

   An interesting discussion on [6]Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok's work
   to get an Eee 901 to boot in 5 seconds took place this month. While
   the Debian Eee PC team is not making work on this a priority, we'll
   keep an eye on it to see if Debian can incorporate some or all of the
   techniques they used so that our users can benefit without making
   radical changes to their systems.

Working towards mainstream support for rt2860

   Our filing of an [7]ITP for rt2860 (the wifi driver for models 901,
   1000 and 1000H) was followed by discussion about how to separate out
   the GPL'd driver from the embedded non-free firmware so that it can
   at least go into contrib. Glenn Saberton has been working on
   rewriting the build system around kbuild and separating out the
   firmware.

Numerous improvements to ACPI scripts

   Since my last progress report, there have been numerous improvements
   to the eeepc-acpi-scripts package to deal with all of the various
   [8]models we now support and make the scripts more robust and
   flexible. Check out the [9]changelog for details.

References

   1. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Bugs/2.6.26
   2.
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-eeepc-devel/2008-October/001301.html
3.
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-eeepc-devel/2008-October/001338.html
4. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Model/701SD 5.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Live 6.
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-eeepc-devel/2008-October/001324.html
7. http://bugs.debian.org/497200 8.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Models 9.
http://git.debian.org/?p=debian-eeepc/eeepc-acpi-scripts.git;a=blob;f=debian/changelog;h=da8639cc3ca8431724061008c79d70d5379b18f6;hb=e7224bd56207ffb7746a5abe49a1ec7fccd9f17e

Ben
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