Custom kernels

[Hans Engelen]

Anyone notice btw (or is it old news) that the RHN-applet issues this warning 
when running a custom kernel : 

You are running kernel-xxxcustom, but it is not installed in RPM format. It is 
highly recommended that you run the official Red Hat Linux kernels. By 
running a custom kernel, you will miss out on any security fixes and 
functionality enhancements provided by Red Hat Linux, and your configuration 
is unsupported.

Must be an aprils fool joke right ?

I mean come on ... The great strenght of Linux is that you can configure and 
customize the kernel options to your personal needs. Am I to understand from 
this warning that Red Hat will refuse support to people that do so ? I can 
understand not wanting to get blamed for instabilities that might arise from 
kernels patched with unstable/untested 3rd party patches but customizing 
your .config (and recompiling) on an otherwise unalterd kernel source tree 
should be allowed no ?

Just my two cents worth.

[Valery Suhomlinov]

В сообщении от 1 Апрель 2004 16:39 Hans Engelen написал(a):

>  I mean come on ... The great strenght of Linux is that you can
> configure
>  and customize the kernel options to your personal needs. Am I to understand
>  from this warning that Red Hat will refuse support to people that do so ? I
>  can understand not wanting to get blamed for instabilities that might arise
>  from kernels patched with unstable/untested 3rd party patches but
>  customizing your .config (and recompiling) on an otherwise unalterd kernel
>  source tree should be allowed no ? 
Calm down, cowboy. :) I've just installed kernel*src.rpm, changed .config and 
made new rpm and this way I have no annoying messages like yours :)

-- 
Valery Suhomlinov,
Developer, SPN Digital			mailto: goodguy(a)spndigital.com, goodguy(a)spn.ru

...
Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you,
and just before you realize what is wrong with it.

Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

[Hans Engelen]

On Thursday 01 April 2004 15:15, Valery Suhomlinov wrote:
>  Calm down, cowboy. :) I've just installed kernel*src.rpm, changed
> .config
>  and made new rpm and this way I have no annoying messages like yours :) 
Making an RPM from it might make the message go away but doesn't change 
sentiment held within it. The sentiment as I understand it from the message 
quoted being : No support unless you use the kernels as compiled by Red Hat 
i.e. Official Red Hat kernels. If I am misunderstanding the message by all 
means forget I mentioned it.

[William Hooper]

Hans Engelen said:
>  On Thursday 01 April 2004 15:15, Valery Suhomlinov wrote:
> > Calm down, cowboy. :) I've just installed kernel*src.rpm, changed
> > .config
> > and made new rpm and this way I have no annoying messages like yours :)
>
>  Making an RPM from it might make the message go away but doesn't change
>  sentiment held within it. The sentiment as I understand it from the
>  message
>  quoted being : No support unless you use the kernels as compiled by Red
>  Hat
>  i.e. Official Red Hat kernels. If I am misunderstanding the message by all
>  means forget I mentioned it. 
Since the same rhn-applet code is used in RHEL, yes it means you
invalidate your RHEL support when installing a non-RHEL kernel.

Since this is a Fedora list, and not supported by Red Hat anyway, I'm not
sure what the issue you have with it is.

-- 
William Hooper

[Hans Engelen]

On Thursday 01 April 2004 16:11, William Hooper wrote:
>  Since this is a Fedora list, and not supported by Red Hat anyway,
> I'm not
>  sure what the issue you have with it is. 
You gave the answer yourself, it ends up in RHEL too ... I know fedora is not 
supported. I merely disagree with the notion of invalidating support (if you 
have any to begin with) on the basis of using a custom kernel. In some cases 
it's even unavoidable.

[William Hooper]

Hans Engelen said:
>  On Thursday 01 April 2004 16:11, William Hooper wrote:
> > Since this is a Fedora list, and not supported by Red Hat anyway, I'm
> > not
> > sure what the issue you have with it is.
>
>  You gave the answer yourself, it ends up in RHEL too ... I know fedora is
>  not
>  supported. I merely disagree with the notion of invalidating support (if
>  you
>  have any to begin with) on the basis of using a custom kernel. In some
>  cases
>  it's even unavoidable. 
> From a practical standpoint it is impossible to support J. Random
> User's 
custom kernel.  What patches did they add?  What compiler did they use?

Red Hat supports what they patch, build, and test.  I don't see why they
should support what they don't patch, build, and test.  If building a
custom kernel is "unavoidable", then your hardware probably isn't on the
supported list anyway.

I'm sure you will get a better perspective on the Taroon-list.

-- 
William Hooper

[Dave Jones]

On Thu, 2004-04-01 at 13:39, Hans Engelen wrote:

>  I mean come on ... The great strenght of Linux is that you can
> configure and 
>  customize the kernel options to your personal needs. Am I to understand from 
>  this warning that Red Hat will refuse support to people that do so ? I can 
>  understand not wanting to get blamed for instabilities that might arise from 
>  kernels patched with unstable/untested 3rd party patches but customizing 
>  your .config (and recompiling) on an otherwise unalterd kernel source tree 
>  should be allowed no ? 
Sure it's allowed, but if you find bugs in an upstream kernel, you
should report them to upstream, not Red Hat. It's that simple.
The rhn applet is basically telling you "don't tell us about it if it
breaks".

	Dave

[Jesse Keating]

On Thursday 01 April 2004 06:39, Hans Engelen wrote:
>  You are running kernel-xxxcustom, but it is not installed in RPM
> format.
>  It is highly recommended that you run the official Red Hat Linux
>  kernels. By running a custom kernel, you will miss out on any security
>  fixes and functionality enhancements provided by Red Hat Linux, and your
>  configuration is unsupported.
>
>  Must be an aprils fool joke right ?
>
>  I mean come on ... The great strenght of Linux is that you can configure
>  and customize the kernel options to your personal needs. Am I to
>  understand from this warning that Red Hat will refuse support to people
>  that do so ? I can understand not wanting to get blamed for
>  instabilities that might arise from kernels patched with
>  unstable/untested 3rd party patches but customizing your .config (and
>  recompiling) on an otherwise unalterd kernel source tree should be
>  allowed no ? 
You're reading too much in this.  RH will offer no support/updates for your 
KERNEL, not your entire system.  Just kernel packages and related.  Calm 
down.

-- 
Jesse Keating RHCE      (geek.j2solutions.net)
Fedora Legacy Team      (www.fedoralegacy.org)
GPG Public Key          (geek.j2solutions.net/jkeating.j2solutions.pub)
 
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