Modular Kernel Packaging for Cloud

[Josh Boyer]

On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Don Zickus <dzickus at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 07, 2014 at 09:50:37AM -0500, Josh Boyer wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Don Zickus <dzickus at redhat.com> wrote:
>> > On Fri, Mar 07, 2014 at 08:23:15AM -0500, Josh Boyer wrote:
>> >> On Fri, Mar 7, 2014 at 2:16 AM, Sandro "red" Mathys
>> >> <red at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
>> >> >>> I think Josh is mostly there.  He has 58MB + 5M vmlinuz + <similar?>
>> >> >>> firmwre.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Firmware is owned by linux-firmware, not the kernel package.  I didn't
>> >> >> include it in my kernel numbers for that reason.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>> He just has to cut 35MB or so from /lib/modules/.  We can probably nickel
>> >> >>> and dime and review a lot of cruft to get there, but what is that 35MB
>> >> >>> really doing to get us anything?  I am sure half of that can be removed by
>> >> >>> re-examining the minimal-list he sent (I can even help there).
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Right.  Considering the bloat elsewhere in the distro, I think we can
>> >> >> start with what I have and work from there if needed.
>> >> >
>> >> > Excellent progress there. So 35MB are already gone and I figure
>> >> > (re)moving graphics, sound and other obvious things will gain us quite
>> >> > some more MB. Nice job.
>> >>
>> >> No.  62MB are already "gone".  The 35MB was what is needed
>> >> additionally to get to comparable numbers with ubuntu.  Sound I could
>> >> see dropping.  Graphics, not so much.
>> >>
>> >> Really, I'm likely to start with what I have and if there are major
>> >> reasons that get brought up (with data) to trim further, we can look
>> >> at it.
>> >
>> > I agree too.  I think you did an awesome job Josh.  Most of the fat is
>> > trimmed. :-)  Anything more should really come with some numbers/data.
>>
>> Don't get too heavy on the praise yet.  This still needs to be done at
>> the packaging level.  The changes to kernel.spec might make you want
>> to poke your eyes out or something ;).
>
> Oh, I thought you had the package split already into kernel-common and
> kernel-drivers?

I have the basics to create those packages and the kernel metapackage
done.  Right now they contain strictly /boot for kernel-core and
/lib/modules for kernel-drivers.  What I don't have done is the
swizzling around of certain modules to be in kernel-core yet.  The
numbers gathering was just hacking a local VM on the filesystem
directly.

So the next step is to translate that to the proper %files entries and
build/test.

> But yes I would be interesting in seeing those changes because that
> filters to RHEL eventually.  I can already see RHEL developers whining
> about extra packages to install... ;-)  Though all the kernel-tools stuff
> seemed to have gone smoothly...

Right.  As soon as I get something that seems like it boots in a VM
when you install it, I'll post the changes here for review.  The
current stuff I have done is in a COPR if you are _really_ itching to
see it:

http://copr-fe.cloud.fedoraproject.org/coprs/jwboyer/kernel-core/

DO NOT INSTALL THAT.  It's stale, won't boot, hasn't been tested, etc.
 I'll be building there for now as I work through things, but until
further notice it only exists to make sure things build.

josh