No more kernel-source(code) ??? (was: rawhide report: 20040623 changes)

[Trond Eivind Glomsrød]

tor, 24.06.2004 kl. 03.42 skrev Jeremy Katz:
> On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 16:01 -0700, alan wrote:
> > It is going to make life more difficult for those who need to modify their 
> > kernel for whatever reason.
> 
> The same argument could be made for every other package we ship.
> 
> > This does not appear to be a useful change.  It makes it more difficult to 
> > get to the source code, not less.
> >
> > Why was this change made?  It seems counter-productive to me.
> 
> It makes the kernel just like _every other package in the distribution_.

But it's not...

> There's no reason why building a custom kernel should be considered to
> be any different from building, eg, a custom glibc.

I'd bet good money on needing access to kernel source to build something
(typically  a driver, e.g. for the NVidia and centrino drivers) or
switch on-off some options being a couple of orders of magnitude more
common than building a custom glibc.

>   The "it's always
> been that way" argument doesn't really fly.  Especially since once you
> understand making the changes from within the package, that's actually
> easier, more reproducible and makes your life easier for maintaining the
> changes you want to make over the long term (or even in working towards
> getting those changes included in the upstream kernel source.

I fail to see how it makes it easier to send patches upstream... by
making it too annoying to work with, maybe?

I see how splitting off the kernel-sourcecode rpm makes it harder to
keep in sync than having it in the main rpm, so why not just go back to
that instead?