[Fedora-packaging] Re: kmdls: very good support for custom kernels (was: kernel-module packaging discussing ...)

[Axel Thimm]

On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 01:11:57PM +0300, Ville Skyttä wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-08-17 at 13:36 +0200, Axel Thimm wrote:
> 
> > I have added this argument to the wiki. kmdls allow you to bolster
> > your oen kernel package called my-special-kernel-2.6.18-111 and
> > support it with kmdls.
> [...]
> > kmdls fully support custom kernel rpms.
> 
> This is one new example about the inaccuracies/omissions of the current
> Wiki docs and belongs in the area I don't think makes sense to even
> discuss at the moment, but because "FUD" appeared in one of the
> responses to my previous message, I'll bite:

FUD appeared due to making vague statements against something w/o
backing them up. You yourself described that as "sucks".

> And kmods don't because they require specific Provides from the target
> kernel?  Requires: /boot/vmlinuz-* is a no go, it's non-portable
> (example: ia64) and not arch-qualified (example: possible i586/i686
> modules/kernel mismatch).

arch is no issue, it's the same mechanism as for the kernel itself (so
if it is an issue you have much bigger problems to worry about - still
even then the kmdls would arch-match with the kernel), and ia64 has
yet to become an official FC distribution. Currently it is banned onto
the shoulders of IBM. BTW I've been asked to rebuild ATrpms for ia64
and maybe they'll even ship ia64 hardware to me.

The current choice covers all sensible archs and all sensible
distributions including RHEL3 and even RHL7.3-RH9 (probably even
earlier). It also covers Mandriva, SuSE and most other rpm
distributions. Yes, who cares about RH9, but a lot still care about
RHEL and allowing access to other distributions increases the
cross-distribution acceptance and make chances for a common standard
even better.

And to cut to the chase: Ever tried to support special kernel rpms
like swsusp2 or ccrma's low-latency kernels? I did and know it works
for kmdl and will fail with kmod.

> If the argument is that implementation of the kmdl macros can be changed
> according to what's available in the target system, so can kmodtool and
> the related macros.

W/o a src.rpm/userland rebuild including evr bumps and w/o having to
split src.rpms per distro? That's a very big difference. You can use
kmdl src.rpm today on RHEL3 or SuSE w/o a change. And on any arbitray
custom kernel package, which was what this point is about.
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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