Arch Linux

rand_x0r

Member

Registered: 2014-04-22

Posts: 17

Supported hardware system

I have a new idea I'd like to share with everyone.

A system that allows people to record how well arch works on their laptop.

The basic idea is as follows:

2.one  downloads a program that is used to report info
2.he makes an account in the program(will probably use http protocol to communicate with a php or a perl script on a server and some db as backend - sqlite or mysql)
3.when he decides he wants to, he starts it, it automatically records only the version of the software used(all packages) , whether it's on a custom kernel
and the laptop id(not serial number, but how the vendor identifies it - ex. my Lenovo E430 is 62714DG) and parts(cpu,mobo,vga,etc)
4.1 the user then selects buggy packages from the list and writes something about them OR
4.2 he just writes a short info about what doesn't work
4.3 also the user points what is the main usage of his system if he wants to(so others know if he has tested this or that)
ex. if I am programmer I probably have tested gcc,g++,make,etc.

This program can also collect info about power usage,boot time so people know if some updates are making their laptop last less or work slower(some daemon service i guess, of course with systemd integration)

That way people with the same laptops can share info about bugs, which packages work for them and know when it's okay to update and what breakage they can expect on their system.

I myself am a bit busy currently as I have a lot of work(end of the semester projects and stuff), but sometime in the future I may start this project(I am thinking of using QT as I am inexperienced with GTK)
Just wanted to know if anyone is interested in participating and what are everyone's views on this.

orschiro

Member

Registered: 2009-06-04

Posts: 2,136

Website

Re: Supported hardware system

Sounds like a nice goal but I think we already have a lot of valuable information about different laptops in the Arch Wiki, correct?

Wouldn't it be much easier to just have a well-developed laptop template so that the pages feature more or less the same and thus comparable information?

Furthermore, why would you want to read out all the hardware components? Aren't laptops to the largest extent standardised? Thus, if I buy laptop A.1, then I do not really choose from different components that could make it fundamentally different in terms of Linux compatibility from laptop A.2.

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@orschiro

clfarron4

Member

From: London, UK

Registered: 2013-06-28

Posts: 2,163

Website

Re: Supported hardware system

And then you have the issue that two people with exactly the same laptops on exactly the same setups can have completely different experiences. For example, I've installed Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon on my laptop and it works brilliantly, yet almost everyone else that I've seen with my model of laptop has had major problems with getting Mint 13 Cinnamon to work.

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Claire is fine.
Problems? I have dysgraphia, so clear and concise please.
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rand_x0r

Member

Registered: 2014-04-22

Posts: 17

Re: Supported hardware system

Well, the thing is, there isn't that much information in the wiki and also it's not up to date. The idea is to have the latest information, example - some driver might work for the older kernel, but now it may not.
And about the components - mostly you're right but some vendors like Lenovo have multiple laptops called with the same name - example there are at least 3 versions of E430 with different codenames, and they have different hardware, some are Intel based, others AMD based. Also often times you get to choose if you want discrete graphics as well, so that info is important. Some like me with Optimus graphics care about bumblebee support and the proprietary nvidia driver. Also some laptops offer the choice of different WiFi adapter which is important. Nowadays wifi drivers have stabilized and are no longer such an issues, but you never know..

So mainly it's most about hardware support:
bumblebee,other graphics drivers
wifi,ethernet drivers
sound drivers
temperature sensors/issues
power usage/power management
general kernel problems
hard drive/bootloader problems
efi

That is problems connected to the hardware which might not occur on other systems.
Now the idea can be extended, perhaps it could be integrated to report bugs to the Arch Tracker as well.
Also probably it's possible that the data can be used to generate templated pages in the wiki.

@clfarron4
Well, that maybe due to different hardware as I've mentioned in my post, just because the name is the same doesn't mean the components are. Otherwise it depends on configuration, if both people use the default settings I don't really see how they could have a different experience. Different partitioning can bring some issues through(ex. new users tend to have problems setting up LUKS or LVM partitions). Personally for me it's easiest to install arch, no need to think what the setup wants, It's all about what I want.

Last edited by rand_x0r (2014-05-02 21:20:02)