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On Sun, 4 Feb 2007 12:30:53 +0000 Peter Lloyd-Jones <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi > > I have a Keyspan USB to serial adapter that I use with my Lappy. I would investigate an alternative serial connector. > I am about > to install Debian on it, I assume you mean that you are installing Debian onto the laptop via some form of CD drive or network install, not trying to install Debian across a serial connection? i.e. you are only concerned about whether the serial connector will still work AFTER Debian has been installed by other means, not whether the Debian installer will work with the USB->serial adaptor? http://www.keyspan.com/downloads-files/developer/linux/ If you are using a kernel v2.6, Keyspan firmware and drivers are in the 2.6.x. Please note that you may need to recompile your kernel if you did not install the Keyspan drivers when you first installed Linux. Note: Linux 2.6 includes full support for Keyspan USB Serial Adapters. In most installs, our drivers (and where needed, firmware) are installed. For most Linux distros (ie Redhat FC6), Keyspan support is enabled by default and your Keyspan USB Serial Adapter will work without you doing anything. However, certain Linux distros (primarily Ubuntu and Debian) choose to not include a complete install of our drivers and firmware due to philosophical issues with our license text. Although the majority of the Linux community is fine with our license, Ubuntu and Debian require you to install the Keyspan drivers manually. This usually involves downloading the latest Linux kernel for kernel.org and patching or recompiling your kernel to include the complete Keyspan installation. Keyspan does not have instructions for this process at this time. We recommend that you use other distros (such as Redhat). In the future, Keyspan may create documentation to help you in updating Ubuntu and Debian however this documentation is not available at this time. > but I understand that Debian does not support > Keyspan stuff. No, Debian considers Keyspan's licence as non-free because it the firmware is unmodifiable and can only be used with keyspan hardware. The answer is not, as Keyspan think, to choose a different distro, it is for Keyspan to make their drivers AND documentation into free software. Right now, it's "touch this and you die" software. The kernel team CANNOT support you if you use this driver because they are unable to fix bugs in the driver. Keyspan are also mistaken in thinking that other distributions are happy with the issues - non-free firmware is an increasingly important issue for all distributions and RH and SuSE are both concerned with how it can be removed. Currently, only Debian has taken a firm line on the issue and even then it is a compromise as far as Etch is concerned. Non-free firmware like that 'provided' by Keyspan is likely be removed from all distributions eventually. Isn't there some other way of enabling serial connections? BTW: USB->serial can be done WITHOUT non-free drivers, embedded devices commonly include serial and USB via the same connector. Such connectors still work with a 100% free software OS at both ends. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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