Promethean KB

[drjturner]

Hi

 

Just to let you know that last week we went live with the knowledgebase. We are populating it all the time. So if anyone has any questions about the product, here is the link.

 

http://portal.knowledgebase.net/?cid=10121&c=7723&cpc=breuIgTTO7r8U3OW3SEV5Hc07vRa1lo8ja4dp5CcwW8HdL

[CyberNerd]

where are those linux drivers.

About 6month ago they were 'in progress' but with no release date.

any news ?

[tarquel]

And the USB drivers that dont need manually installing(i.e. manually having to tell windows to use the right one) would be nice too via msi

 

Any progress on that? it has been a fair few years hehe ;)

 

Nath

[drjturner]

Hi

 

Finding out about the Linux drivers, The driver is with microsoft as we speak so any day soon.

 

Should be certified 2k, XP, Vista and 64bit variants

[Geoff]

Please don't do anything 'wierd' with the Linux drivers either. As well as tarballs, RPM and Deb repo's need to be avaible so the various distro's package mangement tools are able to keep it up to date with minimal user intervention.

 

Also (and I know I'm going to get flamed) what about open sourcing your driver and getting it in the OfficialLinux kernel. That way you don't need to worry so much about maintaining it.

[plexer]

How about getting some more and helpfull customer service staff. See my blog for rants about promethean I feel we've been severly let down by you this summer.

 

Ben

[drjturner]

Hi Ben

 

I have sent you a pm asking for more details. I am getting our Corporate Support manager to investigate what has happened.

[CyberNerd]

Also (and I know I'm going to get flamed) what about open sourcing your driver and getting it in the OfficialLinux kernel. That way you don't need to worry so much about maintaining it.

 

nah - Allowing the OSS community to improve and maintain all their work would make sense, they'd never go for it, esp while in negotiations with MS for WHQL

[Geoff]

I was expecting the 'we have 3rd party licensed technology in our driver' response actually. As it is, I'm just being ignored.

[drjturner]

Geoff

 

I am still awaiting the reply from the development dept, so sorry if you thought you were being ignored. They are busy finalising AS2.5 for Mac, which is looking very nice.

[Ric_]

@Geoff: Perhaps they are taking time to consider it, rather than ignoring you

[Geoff]

I am still awaiting the reply from the development dept, so sorry if you thought you were being ignored.

 

Ok. But I would of thought it would be more the legal departments area.

[drjturner]

Hold on, hold on

 

I have not heard back yet on eta of when the driver will be with us so it is not at the legality stage at the moment.

 

Please be patient and I should get back to you tomorrow with hopefully all the answers to your questions.

 

Best Regards

 

Dan

[Geoff]

Sorry, we run on Internet time round here.

[webman]

Surely not the "Internet Time", Geoff? 8)

[grunthus]

Hi,

 

Any update to the promethean support situation in GNU/linux. I've been offered a promethean board, but looks like I'll not be able to use it.

 

I phoned promethean tech support this morning, they were polite but not really any help practically about getting their boards supported.

 

Is their software known to work with wine?

 

Thanks

[CyberNerd]

I didn't have any success with wine.

I suggest you keep hassling promethean, apparently there is someone working on it (unfortunately I don't remember his name) but it may have been stalled/scrapped ?

It would also be worth mentioning their competitors have a working linux solution that may fit your needs:

http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Support/Downloads/SBS/SBSv95Linux.htm

[grunthus]

Thanks for that. I will contact promethean again. If the name of the person who might be working on it comes back to you, let me know as that could be useful!

[CyberNerd]

Phil Simpson is the product manager of the linux driver. I had his name written on a Business Card at the bottom of my wallett.

[StuartC]

lol, I didn't even know about this thread. I manage/configure/populate the knowledgebase btw. As for the linux driver, look for something by the end of the year. As for how we are going to distribute it, I have no idea, at the very least we will provide packages for all the major distros.

[Geoff]

RPM for RH/SUSE

DEB Debian/Ubuntu

Source Tarball + Tarball for everyone else

 

Also consider submitting it for inclusion in the kernel tree, then you don't have to care about this problem anymore. Everyone will just have it by magic.

[StuartC]

lol, I think your first 2 options might be ok. We'll have to see about the tarball methods.

 

I think to start with the driver will just be for interaction, with a simple version of our software. voting/slates etc will follow.

[Geoff]

Just be aware that Redhat and Suse RPMs are different (mainly filesystem layout).

 

I really do encourage you to get a driver in the kernel (even if it's a basic one). What objections would you have to not doing so?

[grunthus]

Hmm, for my classroom I've just declined a promethean board offer meantime from our tech support, waiting for a SmartBoard which does have software support.

 

I will certainly want to try out any Promethean drivers on some of the promethean boards in the school.

 

Kernel patch for the essential communications would be nice. Source tarball would be excellent as I use Gentoo GNU/Linux (source tarball would extend coverage to all distros including BSD kernels etc)

[StuartC]

well guys, I'll pass on your comments to the driver development team, I'm sure they will value your opinions.