[fedora-arm] adding fake-kernel to repository

[Jon Masters]

On Wed, 2011-06-08 at 16:27 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 08, 2011 at 11:14:56AM -0400, Jon Masters wrote:
> 
> > Folks: we currently don't have a kernel package in Fedora ARM. Several
> > people are working on fixing this by working on kernel images that
> > support various targets, and it will be excellent to get to a point
> > where we can ask you to endorse a couple of subpackage ARM kernel
> > variants like -omap perhaps by having a branch on the official kernel
> > package that can carry some of the bits being worked on in a more
> > official capacity than them living in separate packages, eventually.

> You want a distribution that can't be supported by the standard kernel 
> package?

Nope. Where did I say I want that?

What I said was that there is no official kernel package for Fedora ARM
systems at the moment, so everyone rolls their own. We've got a test
kernel package in the works for omap systems, and will add perhaps one
or two more before ultimately upstream efforts at devicetree allow for a
single kernel image to be properly supported. Depending on timing, I
would like to have e.g. an official kernel-arm-omap subpackage on the
main kernel, just with the OMAP config options turned on.

The current test kernel is just a stock F15 kernel with a few config
changes, and a single patch to fig a power regulation bug. I think it
won't be too long before we can ask to get an official subpackage of the
main Fedora kernel to carry these bits rather than the interim test
status they have at the moment. But none of this was really why I sent
the mail :) We'll get to a point where Fedora ARM can use a single
standard kernel binary in due course, but until then (and for other use
cases) I think there's value in perhaps considering having a fake
provides kernel subpackage for those systems that need "kernel" deps but
aren't going to or cannot run the stock Fedora kernel.

> That sounds like an absolute security nightmare.

It's no different than you building a test kernel and posting it out for
people to play with. Fedora ARM is a secondary arch. There is no
official kernel (yet). We want to change this. It doesn't get changed
unless test kernel images are built and things like device tree setup
are figured out prior to eventually requesting a merge into the official
Fedora kernel config. I'm all for pushing bits into the official kernel
as quickly as possible, but it's just not quite ready for this yet.

Jon.