VGA external on OLPC

[Paul Fox]

martin wrote:
 > On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 3:40 AM, John Watlington <wad at laptop.org> wrote:
 > >  > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Remote_display#Binaries
 > >  Can you be more specific as to what USB video adapters
 > >  this might work with ?
 > 
 > It's packaged in most distros (F7, recent Ubuntus), so `man sisusb` or
 > `man sisusbvga` should give an passable overview. The author keeps a
 > good page:
 > 
 >   http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisusbvga.shtml
 > 


how would one go about influencing which driver modules, for
"accessory" peripherals like this, get built as a matter of
course for new kernels?

it seems to me that there's a (perhaps minor, but real) need for
builds of drivers that don't necessarily get packaged on every
XO, but which are available somewhere, for every kernel.  this
usb vga thing is a good example.  others which keep coming up on
the forums are things like bluetooth support, and the full set of
usb serial dongles.  i built and made available the bluetooth and
usb serial modules for the use of some G1G1 folks, but that
tarball will go stale pretty quickly when the kernel moves on.

there are other equally "optional" modules (like usb audio
support) which _do_ get built and installed by default.  seems like
there might be a win-win possible by separating "what to build"
from "what to install" -- the default install could shrink, and
the flexibility for users would go up.

(there may be a trac item already on this -- i admit to not
looking.)

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 53.6 degrees)