Re: Bug#219582: ITP: linux -- Linux 2.4 kernel

[Robert Millan <zeratul2@wanadoo.es>]

[ Please keep CC to 219582@bugs.debian.org ]

On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 11:57:28AM -0500, Michael Poole wrote:
> 
> Having options for the sake of having options is, frankly, a hideously
> stupid design doctrine.  Whose life will this package make easier?  As
> a user, I have never been confused by Debian's "normal" Linux kernel
> packages.  What specific benefits would your proposed package offer?

There are (at least) the following benefits:

 - Easy understanding of the package. Developers looking at the package will
   find every piece in the place Debian packages normaly put it. The binaries
   are in .deb, pristine upstream sources are in .orig.tar.gz, the debian/ dir
   is in .diff.gz

   I could finaly work out where everything is, but the current situation is
   confusing. In my apt database, there are 136 packages that match "kernel-*",
   from which 19 are "kernel-image-*", 7 are "kernel-source-*", 14 are
   "kernel-headers-*", and 70 are "kernel-patch-*".

  - Handled by autobuilders, which means new versions are compiled automaticaly
    for all Debian architectures. Normaly, users of non-i386 would have to
    wait untill a maintainer for each port compiles it manualy for their CPU.

    This is specialy important for security updates. Remember DSA-358 and
    DSA-336, for which the security team had to build the Linux kernel manualy
    for all our architectures, delaying the advisory?

 - Automatical major updates (the x in 2.x.y). When 2.6 is suitable to be
   the default version, a simple change in -defaults package (ala gcc) would
   enforce updating on all existing systems that use this method. This prevents
   us from encountering ABI incompatibility problems, like this recent one in
   Glibc:
     #215010: Illegal instruction with 2.2 kernel

   This is not unusual. IIRC, Woody's Glibc wasn't supported by Linux 2.0 (I
   once tried an upgrade from Slink after the Woody release)

   Note: as pointed by Andreas, this doesn't apply to minor updates

-- 
Robert Millan

"[..] but the delight and pride of Aule is in the deed of making, and in the
thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he
gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work."

 -- J.R.R.T, Ainulindale (Silmarillion)