[Nix-dev] SVN commit: nix - r31502 - in nixos/trunk/modules: . hardware

[Eelco Dolstra]

Hi,

On 01/12/2012 06:40 PM, Peter Simons wrote:

>   >  +    hardware.enableFirmwareLinuxFree = pkgs.lib.mkOption {
>   >  +      default = false;
>   >  +      type = pkgs.lib.types.bool;
>   >  +      description = ''
>   >  +        Turn on this option if you want the set of firmware of the linux-firmware-free package.
>   >  +      '';
>   >  +    };
>
> most people (including myself) won't know what kind of drivers the
> "linux-firmware-free package" contains, and hence they won't know
> whether to turn on this option or not. Could you please provide a
> slightly more detailed description?
>
> Also, I'm used to placing firmware that I want installed into the
> hardware.firmware option, like this:
>
>    hardware.firmware = [ pkgs.firmwareLinuxNonfree ];

Yeah, in general having options to enable a single package is not a good 
idea.  However I think it would be very useful to have an option
‘hardware.enableAllFirmware’ (...Firmwares?) that enables all firmware 
packages (including pkgs.firmwareLinuxNonfree).  This would be very 
useful on the installation CD and for users who want things to Just Work.

If desired, there could also be a ‘hardware.enableFreeFirmware’ for 
people who don't want non-free firmware.

P.S. I suggested to Arie that we should use the Debian firmware packages 
in NixOS, since they've done the hard work of gathering all these 
firmwares and keeping them up to date.  These are:

   http://packages.debian.org/source/sid/firmware-nonfree

and

   http://packages.debian.org/source/sid/firmware-free

-- 
Eelco Dolstra | http://www.st.ewi.tudelft.nl/~dolstra/