Time consumung: installing and updating new software or kernels..? [Solved]

[Arnox]

MX 23 comes with four dkms wifi drivers preinstalled (broadcom-sta-dkms, rtl8812au-dkms, rtl8821ce-dkms, rtl8821cu-dkms). You might need one of them for your wifi to work, but It's unlikely you need all of them. Removing the unused ones would speed up the compilation time.

Posting a QSI for your machine would let people here know which dkms driver you're using. And it might show that you aren't using any of them, in which case you could remove all of the dkms wifi drivers.

Thanks.

How is Ubuntu or Mini handling this without compilation?

I don't use that machine anymore. I just wanted to do a fresh install with the latest MX on a machine that does not need any of these drivers. Are they still aded and compiled every time?

ubuntu doesn't ship the drivers, leaving it to the user to compile them on their own if they are needed.

lol Another reason not to use Ubuntu I guess. There are certain drivers that, in my arrogant opinion, NEED to be present in every OOTB installation of a distro, and one of those categories of drivers are wi-fi drivers and LAN drivers.

[dolphin_oracle]

oh I don't know about that, but its why the drivers aren't there to slow down kernel updates.

of course if you need them, its pretty nice to have them.

[Arnox]

oh I don't know about that, but its why the drivers aren't there to slow down kernel updates.

of course if you need them, its pretty nice to have them.

Yeah, sorry. I edited my post later to clarify, but that's my point. They really need to be there. +1 to MX.

[Charlie Brown]

Actually in previous releases Forum was full of "Realtek" wifi questions / help requests . And we used to tell how to install them either from github or using the manufacturers' instructions (which were mostly according to kernel "3.2.xx" or so ... :) )

... and especially if that's a "Linux newbie" it may look scary to install them .. github etc...

Then MX devs decided to make life easy for owners of such devices, especially the mostly asked ones.. Shortly, it's a good thing by MX Team, just to make them "plug&play" even for Linux newbies... :)

[kmathern]

I wonder if there could be a dkms cleanup tool, or maybe a step during installation that could identify un-needed dkms packages and offer to uninstall them for those who don't need them?

Have it default to leaving them installed, and also explain the ramifications of removing them (positives -- less or no compile time during kernel updates with the un-needed dkms packages removed, negatives -- with the dkms packages removed you might not have working wifi if you make a snapshot and then want to use it on other machine(s)|hardware).

[Jerry3904]

I like that idea, Kent, and think it could be added to MXPI or mx-cleanup. Maybe they could be archived/pinned instead of removed @Adrian @dolphin_oracle ?

[CharlesV]

I wonder if there could be a dkms cleanup tool, or maybe a step during installation that could identify un-needed dkms packages and offer to uninstall them for those who don't need them?

Have it default to leaving them installed, and also explain the ramifications of removing them (positives -- less or no compile time during kernel updates with the un-needed dkms packages removed, negatives -- with the dkms packages removed you might not have working wifi if you make a snapshot and then want to use it on other machine(s)|hardware).

As long as this is an option, I love the idea. (better yet ... yes in mx cleanup tool.) Since I throw snapshots around like water on various machines, I would want to have them all available and on board on many of my loads.

[dolphin_oracle]

I like that idea, Kent, and think it could be added to MXPI or mx-cleanup. Maybe they could be archived/pinned instead of removed @Adrian @dolphin_oracle ?

If, and I stress if, we were to do something different with the dkms packages, I would actually just put the debs on the iso ahead of time and let people who need them install them, rather than trying to figure out what driver is in use and removing a package.

[Charlie Brown]

... Maybe they could be archived/pinned instead of removed ...

That's also not a bad idea however that will stop just the packages themselves from being upgraded.

[timkb4cq]

If, and I stress if, we were to do something different with the dkms packages, I would actually just put the debs on the iso ahead of time and let people who need them install them...

That makes sense to me, along with a tab in MX Network Assistant to make it easy to install them.