Bugzilla Bug 120521

Hi,

I have a rt2500 pci card in my box. I have too eth0 but I can't connect any
cable to eth0 because physically the box is so far from router. This router is
wireless router and I have enabled DHCP with my rt2500 pci card.

This is my _only_ way for connect my box to internet

I download the Minimal installation CD 2005.1, thinking that it detects my pci
wireless card (in ra0 device for ex.) and so I could install all I want. But it
isn't. So I can't use this media

I report this bug because I think that wireless drivers (rt2500 and others if
exist) should be included in default kernel and should be detect during CD
boot. So any user with only wireless card connection could use gentoo CD.

With my best intentions,
Xan.

The rt2500 driver is not built-in on the kernel, but is a separate kernel
module/package.  This package is not marked stable in our tree, and we do not
add any testing packages to our releases.  This particular driver is on my list
of things to add whenever it eventually goes stable.

Anyway, I am marking this as WONTFIX.  Fell free to REOPEN this once the driver
goes stable.  My only other solution for you is to perform a networkless
install, as that is what it is the purpose of it.  You can add the rt2500
drivers yourself by unmasking it and copying the sources to your machine, but
Release Engineering policy forbids it being on our release media until it has
gone stable in the tree.

(In reply to comment #1)
> The rt2500 driver is not built-in on the kernel, but is a separate kernel
> module/package.  This package is not marked stable in our tree, and we do not
> add any testing packages to our releases.  This particular driver is on my list
> of things to add whenever it eventually goes stable.

Why not it's not stable?. Of what it depends for?
Can I find/make any unstable branch in which this modules is present? Is there
any "unstable" version of gentoo?

> 
> Anyway, I am marking this as WONTFIX.  Fell free to REOPEN this once the driver
> goes stable.  My only other solution for you is to perform a networkless
> install, as that is what it is the purpose of it.  You can add the rt2500
> drivers yourself by unmasking it and copying the sources to your machine, but
> Release Engineering policy forbids it being on our release media until it has
> gone stable in the tree.
> 

I think your point of view is a few radical in sense that all people with only
wireless connection could not install gentoo with minimal CD. Without blame, I
revise this policy. At least for me, it makes me abandon the try to install
gentoo in my box as distro.

Thanks,
Xan.

(In reply to comment #2)
> Why not it's not stable?. Of what it depends for?
> Can I find/make any unstable branch in which this modules is present? Is there
> any "unstable" version of gentoo?

There is our testing branch, but there is no "testing" release media.

> I think your point of view is a few radical in sense that all people with only
> wireless connection could not install gentoo with minimal CD. Without blame, I
> revise this policy. At least for me, it makes me abandon the try to install
> gentoo in my box as distro.

It is not my point of view.  It is our policy.  If the Gentoo developers that
maintain the package do not feel that it is stable enough to be marked stable
in our tree, it does not go on our release CD.  As I have said before, there is
a method for installing Gentoo without a network connection.  If this is
unacceptable to you, I'm sorry.  This is one policy in which we will never be
changing.

Now that there is a bug for rt2500 going stable, I'm going to REOPEN this.

curious.  I just updated to latest rt2500 and it no longer contains the
RaConfig2500 utility, which I found super-useful.

I don't see anything in the enclosed ChangeLog about removing it.  Was this a
mistake?

epm -ql rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909
/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/net/rt2500.ko
/etc/modules.d/rt2500
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/README.gz
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/TESTING.gz
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/THANKS.gz
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/iwpriv_usage.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/FAQ.gz
/usr/share/doc/rt2500-1.1.0_pre2006050909/CHANGELOG.gz

For now, I guess I'll just copy it from my other box which hasn't been updated
yet.  Or I might downgrade if necessary.

This is on the AMD64 and x86 2006.1 media, if it goes stable on other arches,
feel free to file bugs for them separately.