[Mageia-discuss] Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250

[Gary Montalbine]

On 06/04/2011 11:57 AM, Hoyt Duff wrote:
> On 6/3/11, Gary Montalbine<gmontalbine at cox.net>  wrote:
>
>>
>> I got the firmware from the IVTV site and copied  it to /lib/firmware
>>
>
>
> But that is a band-aid, a kludge, that gives you a cobbled-together
> system, not to mention it does not really solve the problem for the
> distro and the wider user base. And every time you need to install
> Mageia on that hardware, you'll need to apply the kludge again and
> again.
>
> The goal should be to have a distro that 'just works'. Solving the
> problem by copying files from outside the repositories may point out a
> deficiency in Mageia repos, but not if the solution can be found
> within.
>
> And this brings up a point of having the tainted repos as "opt-in".
> This thinking comes from a philosophy of some kind of "pure" Linux
> which eschews non-free licensed software.However, some hardware can
> only be useful with non-free software and it's unrealistic to pretend
> that such hardware does not exist nor that those using such hardware
> will have the knowledge and skill to enable the tainted repo.
>
> I realize that the purists among us have decide to disable the tainted
> repos by default, but those same people are the ones most likely to
> have selected hardware that does not depend on non-free software and
> they are also skilled Linux users. The opt-in approach serves to
> advance their political agenda at the expense of having a distro that
> 'just works' for the average to non-technical user.
>
> It may be more sense to enable the tainted repos by default and
> provide an opt-out screen during the installation: "Repositories
> offering access to software that have non-free licenses are enabled by
> default. To keep your Mageia system unencumbered by software with
> restrictive or non-free licenses, please un-check the box. Certain
> hardware may not function without such non-free software and if you
> are unsure, leave the box checked."
>
> That gives users a choice, makes Mageia a 'just works' distro for the
> average user and reduces the number of requests for assistance that
> can be solved by using non-free software.
>
I had the tainted repos installed since initial installation. The 
firmware I needed was not there. At least not according to the software 
manager.

Gary