2.6.35.10-74 compilation (and build) problems

[Mr Dash Four]

>> The patch should be transferring my options - it doesn't, end of!
>>     
>
> It did and worked perfect.  The problem was you overrode CONFIG_STAGING
> which in turn disabled things that you cared about.
>   
It does not transfer the DRM_NOUVEAU group of options, among others, nor 
does it issue a warning, so from my point of view it is not doing its job.

OK, I now understand the reason for this - some bright spark (it wasn't 
you Jarod, was it?), for whatever reason, decided to put the entire 
group of nouveau drivers in the staging area for .35 and .37-2 kernels. 
I cannot understand why it was done, provided that the drivers were in 
the mainstream for .34 (and prior) kernel release, but the way I look at 
it I should have at least been given a warning that these options cannot 
be transferred over - not be silently ignored!

If I was warned I could at least tried to rectify this - by posting on 
here and asking some nice person - like Jarod for example - and get an 
answer to my query after a week or so.

>> If I am supposed to check every Kconfig file in order to see what
>> will be applied and what not, then I am better off ditching the
>> bl**dy patch and entering everything manually - why bother
>> otherwise?!
>>     
>
> Listen the tools Fedora uses are designed to help maintainers catch config
> options that are not specified.  They were never designed to help people
> swim through the sea of endless config options.
Precisely, and that is why I need to have been at least warned if I use 
the patch and, for whatever reason, some of my old options cannot be 
transferred over. It is also the reason why I always used the oldconfig 
target as it was a convenient way of merging old options with new ones, 
though that does not always help as evident from my posts on this thread.

If/When I transfer old options I expect to be warned if something is not 
right. At present that is not the case, no matter what tool/target I 
choose (make oldconfig or the patch). That, to me, is not acceptable!

What happens if further down the line someone decides to place some more 
drivers in the staging area - do I have to spent another week to ten 
days posting in this mailing list to find out what is going on?! 
Wouldn't you agree that it would be much easier for people like myself 
if there was a warning in place and I knew well in advance what has been 
silently ignored, or, for whatever reason, discarded during the kernel 
build instead of 'swim through the sea of endless config options' as you 
eloquently put it?

> The maintainers already
> go through the Kconfig files to see what options to select.  It sucks
> everyone knows that.
Damn right it does!

> This is why Fedora selects as many as possible and
> provides them.  This is why upstream has a 'make defconfig' option.
>
> Choose the options that are important to you and stick them into
> config-local.
As we already established that does NOT help me - if I 'stick' my 
DRM_NOUVEAU group of options in config-local they are, as it stands, 
silently ignored and I do not even get a warning!

> Let Fedora choose the rest for you.
>   
My past experience tells me that is, most often than not, not the best 
course of action - relying on Fedora to do my job is not always a good idea.

Anyway, activating the staging and build staging drivers options seems 
to have done the trick and I was able to successfully compile, build and 
install both .35 and 37-2 kernels last night, though I like the 37-2 
version of the kernel better (even though it is classified as 
'unstable'), not least because 1) it warned me that my DRM_NOUVEAU group 
of options will be discarded (!); and 2) it brought to live all my 
sensor drivers (lm90 and *all* of my nVidia fan/temp regulators) which 
were never recognised by any of the previous kernels, so I might just 
stick with 37-2 for the time being.

The build for 37-2 was successful without the patch and by following the 
standard procedure of make oldconfig and then rpmbuild. It also has a 
new make target showing/listing the new options (the difference between 
the old .config and the new one), which is of great help! I was also 
very pleased to see that some of my old patches made it to this kernel 
release at last, so there was no need to apply them any more.