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[D-I] mass kernel udeb update and preparations for RC1



(Reply-to set to debian-boot; please only add relevant port if needed.)

Dear (d-i) porters,

First mass upload of kernel udebs
=================================
Today I have uploaded kernel udeb updates to 2.6.17-9 _for all arches_.
This is the first time using the 'massbuild' [1] script I wrote recently.

Effectively this means that d-i porters won't really have to worry anymore 
about updating kernel udebs after uploads by the kernel team.
Only if the kernel major/minor changes will I request porters to do the 
upload themselves. For stable releases (including ABI changes) I intend 
to do these mass builds and do the uploads myself.

Hopefully this will help the speed with which kernel udebs are updated and 
allow you all to spend more time testing d-i ;-)

Of course porters are still responsible for maintaining which modules will 
be included for each arch/flavor. If you have changes between kernel 
major/minor releases you can either commit them and upload, or commit 
them as UNRELEASED and they will be automatically included in the next 
mass build.

The massbuild script can be used for single-arch builds too. Its main 
advantage is that kernel images don't need to be installed and the 
certainty that the correct kernel version will be used. Feel free to 
contact me to help you get started.

Some comments on today's upload:
- I have used the last released version of kernel-wedge and will normally
  do that in the future too
- I have not really checked or tested the udebs [2], so there could be
  some surprises; please be alert for them
- m68k: I had to update the dependencies from kernel-image to linux-image


The road to RC1
===============
We are slowly moving towards RC1. I plan to post an initial planning later 
this week.
As we get closer to Etch, testing the installer for all arches gets to be 
more important. Any time you can spend on that is very much appreciated.

There are some issues that need attention:
* type of initrd used
  Some arches have already switched to using initramfs for d-i initrds,
  other arches are still using cramfs or ext2. Please check if a change
  could/should be made for your architecture.
* 2.4 support now officially dropped
  Starting with RC1 d-i will no longer support 2.4 based installations.
  All arches have been switched now and some cleanup has been started;
  more cleanup is expected and this may cause unexpected breakage.
* support for non-devfs device names
  Colin Watson has committed a series of changes to make d-i support
  non-devfs device names. We will be slowly moving away from using
  devfs names, but the most intrusive work will be postponed until
  after Etch. Please check for unexpected breakage though.
* partman-auto using LVM and crypto
  partman-auto-lvm now has been available for some time, but is still
  not available for all arches. LVM support is a prerequisite for
  partman-auto-crypto support which will be uploaded soon.
  Note: swap on LVM should be possible now and is even required for
  partman-auto-crypto.
  If you would like to add support for it, please see [3]. Feel free
  to contact me or David Härdeman (Alphix) for help.

* mips: keyboard issues
  We've had a report about a dead keyboard on installation (#382983).
  This needs to be investigated.
* powerpc: oldworld boot problems with recent kernels

If there are other architecture specific issues that we should be aware 
of, please let me know.

Cheers,
FJP

[1] http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/d-i/people/fjp/massbuild?op=file&rev=0&sc=0
[2] The script does have a number of sanity checks though.
[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2006/01/msg01054.html

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