selecting a kernel to install

[David A. Marlin]

I've encountered an issue with the kernel selection when building disk 
images using livemedia-creator.

Note: I am working with ARM systems.

The issue is, when making an image and passing "None" as the armPlatform 
(base kernel install), it seems to pick the wrong kernel.  The correct 
choice in this case is kernel-3.6.10-8.fc18.armv7l, but instead 
kernel-kirkwood-3.6.10-8.fc18.armv5tel is installed.

I'm not sure why a 'kirkwood' kernel (flavor) would be selected over the 
base kernel of the same version, but I suspect it has something to do 
with the arch (armv7l and armv5tel).  Both are Soft-Floating Point 
kernels, but only a base kernel should be installed if the armPlatform 
is "None" (at least, that is the intent).

This issue does not arise on Hard-FP systems (it works as it should), 
but all Hard-FP kernels are the same arch (armv7hl).

If anyone has ideas why this is happening, or has suggestions for 
debugging the issue, I would appreciate your feedback.

For reference, the command line I'm using is:

livemedia-creator \
     --make-disk --no-virt --image-only --keep-image \
     --armplatform=None \
     --ks=<PathToKickstart>/F18-vexpress-xfce-sfp.ks

The kickstart file does not specify any specific kernel or version.

Thank you,

d.marlin

[Brian C. Lane]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 05:13:59PM -0600, David A. Marlin wrote:
> I've encountered an issue with the kernel selection when building
> disk images using livemedia-creator.
>
> Note: I am working with ARM systems.
>
> The issue is, when making an image and passing "None" as the
> armPlatform (base kernel install), it seems to pick the wrong
> kernel.  The correct choice in this case is
> kernel-3.6.10-8.fc18.armv7l, but instead
> kernel-kirkwood-3.6.10-8.fc18.armv5tel is installed.
>
> I'm not sure why a 'kirkwood' kernel (flavor) would be selected over
> the base kernel of the same version, but I suspect it has something
> to do with the arch (armv7l and armv5tel).  Both are Soft-Floating
> Point kernels, but only a base kernel should be installed if the
> armPlatform is "None" (at least, that is the intent).
>
> This issue does not arise on Hard-FP systems (it works as it
> should), but all Hard-FP kernels are the same arch (armv7hl).
>
> If anyone has ideas why this is happening, or has suggestions for
> debugging the issue, I would appreciate your feedback.
>
> For reference, the command line I'm using is:
>
> livemedia-creator \
>     --make-disk --no-virt --image-only --keep-image \
>     --armplatform=None \
>     --ks=<PathToKickstart>/F18-vexpress-xfce-sfp.ks
>
> The kickstart file does not specify any specific kernel or version.

I think this depends on what yum picks. Take a look at kernelPackages in
packaging/__init__.py  and the use of it in packaging/yumpayload.py