Linux 2.4 and USB LinuxWorld.com 1/19/01 Nicholas Petreley, LinuxWorld.com All of the talk about the recently released Linux 2.4 kernel centers on the improvements that will make Linux a better operating system for the enterprise. I have not yet subjected the 2.4 kernel to intensive server testing. But I do have a lot of confidence in the 2.4 kernel for enterprise use, if for no other reason than because IBM and Oracle have already loudly endorsed it.

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Those are not hollow endorsements made solely for the purpose of promoting Linux. I've spoken to IBM, Oracle, and other major software companies about what they want from Linux. And I can say with confidence that the 2.4 kernel has satisfied a good portion of their wants and needs, though there is definitely more work to be done. But 2.4 has made very significant strides, and the kernel developers are busily filling the remaining gaps.

You can find a link to a general summary of the advances in 2.4 in the Resources section.

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As for my personal experience, 2.4 doesn't deliver what Linux needs in order to become the default desktop OS of tomorrow. Let me qualify that statement a bit, lest you get the mistaken impression that my complaint is with the kernel itself. It is not. But before I can properly place the blame, I need to explain what it is that the kernel lacks.

The 2.4 kernel integrates USB support. (Limited USB support has also been back-ported into some of the earlier 2.2 kernels, but you usually have to compile it into the kernel yourself. It is more convenient to simply use a 2.4 kernel if you want USB support.) But having USB support isn't enough. Linux needs broad support for the USB peripherals themselves. For example, I have two USB-enabled digital cameras, and neither of them works with Linux. They both work fine with my copy of Windows 98SE.

Now before you Linux geeks crank up your email programs to tell me how ignorant I am about using USB within Linux, let me assure you that I have already figured out a way to get my digital photographs onto Linux. I purchased a SanDisk (see Resources for a link) Compact Flash card reader with a USB connection. I enabled USB support in my 2.4.0 kernel, enabled USB storage devices, enabled SCSI disk support, and rebuilt the kernel. Now all I have to do is plug in a Compact Flash disk and mount /dev/sda1 to my chosen mount point, which happens to be /mnt/cf. Then I can access all the picture files on that Compact Flash memory disk. I also back-ported USB to my 2.2.17 kernels and did pretty much the same things to get it working on those systems.

I also read somewhere that you can get many digital cameras to work with Linux by using a program called gPhoto. But in most cases you have to compile the latest unstable version for that to work. I tried that on my Debian system and couldn't get anywhere. I suppose that if I put in enough effort, I could get it working. But that's my whole point. You shouldn't have to be a geek to download your digital photos.

Before I continue, I shouldn't let Windows 98SE off the hook regarding the SanDisk USB Compact Flash card reader. I also spent hours trying to get it to work under Windows 98SE. It turns out that the Adaptec EZ CD Creator program (for writing to CD-R disks) replaces some important Windows driver files with versions that create problems for the SanDisk device. Unfortunately, the backup copies that the Adaptec program created were out of date, because I had updated Windows 98SE since I had installed the Adaptec program. I could get the SanDisk device to work only by copying the latest version of the correct files from my wife's computer. In case you're interested, the files are: C:\Windows\system\iosubsys\apix.vxd and C:\Windows\system\wnaspi32.dll.

So in my case, it was actually harder to get the SanDisk device working with Windows than it was with Linux. But under most circumstances, people wouldn't have to resort to the SanDisk device. They'd simply plug their camera directly into their Windows computer, install a little software, and get up and running. And that brings me to my whole complaint about Linux and USB device support.

Commercial operating systems like Windows and (I assume) Mac OS may not include a large number of USB drivers by default. But when a new digital camera, printer, or scanner is released, it usually includes a driver for Windows and the Mac. So when you get your camera, scanner, printer, or whatever, you just pop in the CD-ROM, install a program or two, and you're ready to go.

You usually can't count on that CD-ROM to include a driver for Linux, or just about any other operating system for that matter. The catch-22 is that this situation probably won't change until Linux is more popular on the desktop. And Linux won't penetrate the desktop in large numbers until more USB drivers for consumer peripherals are available.

There is at least one way by which we may be able to avoid the catch-22. Linux could benefit from a group that puts pressure on vendors to include Linux drivers with their products. That group could coordinate an open source approach to providing drivers, or in special cases help the company create proprietary drivers. But the idea would be to work with vendors during the product development phase in order to make sure that the Linux drivers ship on the CD-ROM included with the products. That lends Linux greater credibility, and it reduces the burden on the consumer, who would otherwise have to download the drivers.

Better still, that group should encourage the vendors to make deals with companies that sell Linux software. For example, the group could encourage makers of digital cameras to include a copy of the digital content manager Compupic (see Resources for a link) with every camera, and work with Photodex to enable Compupic to download images directly from the camera. A product like Compupic would be ideal because it works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux, so the bundle wouldn't need separate programs for separate platforms.

What do you think? Any volunteers out there to help create such an organization?

Resources

• Danny Kalev talks about device drivers and other Linux hardware support in the Linux Software Development discussion:
  http://www.itworld.com/jump/lw-01-penguin_3/forums.itworld.com/webx?14@@.ee6b652/215!skip=159
• "Wonderful World of Linux 2.4," Joe Pranevich (Linux Today Jan. 5, 2001) -- a summary of advances from Linux kernel 2.2 to 2.4:
  http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-01-05-007-04-NW-LF-KN
• SanDisk homepage:
  http://www.sandisk.com
• Compupic information is available at the Photodex homepage:
  http://www.photodex.com

Nick Petreley is the founding editor of VarLinux.org (www.varlinux.org). Reach him at nicholas@petreley.com.