Need help with writing a yum plugin

[Ankur Sinha]

Hello,

I'm trying to write a yum plug-in: wait-for-kmod

For quite a few users, the kmods from RPMFusion are a must. Take
broadcom wireless for example. Now, the kmods generally lag the kernel
updates by a few hours: people who do update their systems in this
interval are left without wireless/display etc. on reboot. 

We see this issue regularly in #fedora, each time a kernel update is
pushed. The plug-in will make yum skip a updating the kernel if it sees
that the corresponding kmods are not yet available for update. 

I think this needs to be added in the postresolve slot, but I'm not
adept enough at the yum API yet. I have looked at the API: I spent most
of yesterday doing it. I think tsInfo is the way to go: 

- Get the currently running kernel
- Get a list of installed kmods
- In postresolve hook
	- check if the transaction set has kernel marked for update
	- if yes, check if all installed kmods have updates too
	- if all kmods aren't being updated, remove kernel from transaction
set. 

Could someone please confirm if this is the way to go? I'd be grateful
if any implementation specifics could also be given. (I was referring to
the fedorakmod plug-in in the yum-utils, but it seems to be grossly
outdated API wise)
-- 
Thanks, 
Regards,
Ankur: "FranciscoD"

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
http://dodoincfedora.wordpress.com/

[Ankur Sinha]

On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 14:51 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
>  Hello,
>  
>  I'm trying to write a yum plug-in: wait-for-kmod
>  
>  For quite a few users, the kmods from RPMFusion are a must. Take
>  broadcom wireless for example. Now, the kmods generally lag the kernel
>  updates by a few hours: people who do update their systems in this
>  interval are left without wireless/display etc. on reboot. 
>  
>  We see this issue regularly in #fedora, each time a kernel update is
>  pushed. The plug-in will make yum skip a updating the kernel if it sees
>  that the corresponding kmods are not yet available for update. 
>  
>  I think this needs to be added in the postresolve slot, but I'm not
>  adept enough at the yum API yet. I have looked at the API: I spent most
>  of yesterday doing it. I think tsInfo is the way to go: 
>  
>  - Get the currently running kernel
>  - Get a list of installed kmods
>  - In postresolve hook
>  	- check if the transaction set has kernel marked for update
>  	- if yes, check if all installed kmods have updates too
>  	- if all kmods aren't being updated, remove kernel from transaction
>  set. 
>  
>  Could someone please confirm if this is the way to go? I'd be grateful
>  if any implementation specifics could also be given. (I was referring to
>  the fedorakmod plug-in in the yum-utils, but it seems to be grossly
>  outdated API wise) 
Before someone points it out: I've only posted to the devel list because
the yum mailing lists appear to be down.

-- 
Thanks, 
Regards,
Ankur: "FranciscoD"

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
http://dodoincfedora.wordpress.com/

[Seth Vidal]

On Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:22:12 +0530
Ankur Sinha <sanjay.ankur(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 14:51 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
>  > Hello,
>  > 
>  > I'm trying to write a yum plug-in: wait-for-kmod
>  > 
>  > For quite a few users, the kmods from RPMFusion are a must. Take
>  > broadcom wireless for example. Now, the kmods generally lag the
>  > kernel updates by a few hours: people who do update their systems
>  > in this interval are left without wireless/display etc. on reboot. 
>  > 
>  > We see this issue regularly in #fedora, each time a kernel update is
>  > pushed. The plug-in will make yum skip a updating the kernel if it
>  > sees that the corresponding kmods are not yet available for update. 
>  > 
>  > I think this needs to be added in the postresolve slot, but I'm not
>  > adept enough at the yum API yet. I have looked at the API: I spent
>  > most of yesterday doing it. I think tsInfo is the way to go: 
>  > 
>  > - Get the currently running kernel
>  > - Get a list of installed kmods
>  > - In postresolve hook
>  > 	- check if the transaction set has kernel marked for update
>  > 	- if yes, check if all installed kmods have updates too
>  > 	- if all kmods aren't being updated, remove kernel from
>  > transaction set. 
>  > 
>  > Could someone please confirm if this is the way to go? I'd be
>  > grateful if any implementation specifics could also be given. (I
>  > was referring to the fedorakmod plug-in in the yum-utils, but it
>  > seems to be grossly outdated API wise)
>  
>  Before someone points it out: I've only posted to the devel list
>  because the yum mailing lists appear to be down.
>   


The yum mailing lists are down?

seem up to me

http://lists.baseurl.org/mailman/listinfo/yum

-sv

[Ankur Sinha]

On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 12:12 -0400, seth vidal wrote:
>  
>  The yum mailing lists are down?
>  
>  seem up to me
>  
>  http://lists.baseurl.org/mailman/listinfo/yum
>  
>  -sv  
Ah! I'll head there. I tried both the devel and users lists yesterday
and got "site not responding" for them. (I had even come down to #yum
about this). 

Thanks Seth.
-- 
Thanks, 
Regards,
Ankur: "FranciscoD"

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
http://dodoincfedora.wordpress.com/

[Richard Shaw]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 4:21 AM, Ankur Sinha <sanjay.ankur(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  - Get the currently running kernel
>  - Get a list of installed kmods 
- Or installed akmods
>  - In postresolve hook
>         - check if the transaction set has kernel marked for update
>         - if yes, check if all installed kmods have updates too 
      - Or if the
appropriate akmod is installed
>         - if all kmods aren't being updated, remove kernel from
> transaction
>  set. 
I think this is a great idea but my yum-fu isn't good enough either.
Thanks for taking this on.

Richard

[Adam Williamson]

On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 14:51 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
>  Hello,
>  
>  I'm trying to write a yum plug-in: wait-for-kmod
>  
>  For quite a few users, the kmods from RPMFusion are a must. Take
>  broadcom wireless for example. Now, the kmods generally lag the kernel
>  updates by a few hours: people who do update their systems in this
>  interval are left without wireless/display etc. on reboot.  
That's what the akmods are for...
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | identi.ca: adamwfedora
http://www.happyassassin.net

[Ankur Sinha]

On Tue, 2012-03-27 at 11:03 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote:
>  
>  That's what the akmods are for...  
Maybe, but the akmods are not usable in all cases. For instance, you
don't want akmods on servers, specially since it pulls in GCC. The
akmods do fail once in a while, when the changes between kernels is more
than what they can handle. I'd like to spare users the agony of
debugging a failed akmod. Debugging "no display/wireless/whatnot on
reboot" is quite a handful in itself. 

Kmods, if fail during builds, fail on RPMFusions servers, not on the
users' machines. 
-- 
Thanks, 
Regards,
Ankur: "FranciscoD"

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Ankursinha
http://dodoincfedora.wordpress.com/

[Richard Shaw]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Adam Williamson <awilliam(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Sun, 2012-03-25 at 14:51 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm trying to write a yum plug-in: wait-for-kmod
> >
> > For quite a few users, the kmods from RPMFusion are a must. Take
> > broadcom wireless for example. Now, the kmods generally lag the kernel
> > updates by a few hours: people who do update their systems in this
> > interval are left without wireless/display etc. on reboot.
>
>  That's what the akmods are for... 
Well yes, but they're not perfect either. If an akmod fails to build
it can't stop the kernel from updating (since the transaction is
already one) so you can still run into issues and this does happen for
various reasons, most recently when some includes got moved for the
3.3 kernel. Although this plugin wouldn't fix that, it would make it
easier for most people who don't want to deal with the added
complexity and just go back to using kmods.

Richard

Richard