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i2c and lm-sensors mess (update + RFC)



Hi all !

This mail is a bit long, if you don't have a lot of time, jump directly
to the end.

Some progress on the lm-sensors problem.

> 3) Ask for removal of old packages:
>    i2c-2.4.20-3-386, i2c-2.4.20-3-586tsc, i2c-2.4.20-3-686,
>    i2c-2.4.20-3-686-smp, i2c-2.4.20-3-k6, i2c-2.4.20-3-k7,
>    i2c-2.4.20-3-k7-smp
I have filed a bug for that, I am waiting for the removal.

> 4) File bugs to get all applications linked to libsensors2 to be rebuilt
>    against latest version of lm-sensors, so they will depends on 
>    libsensors3:
>     * xsensors
>     * wmsensors
>     * wmgtemp
>     * mrtgutils 
>     * ksensors
>     * hardware-monitor
>     * kdebase ??? (reenable support of sensors in ksysguard)
I filled bugs against these applications, new version of ksensors and
mrtgutils have been uploaded.

Still to be done:
> 5) Ask for removal of libsensors2 from Sid
> 
> 6) When all packages have moved to Sarge, ask for removal of libsensors1


Now, let's go back on the problem and the solution. The problem is that
lm-sensors/i2c >= 2.8.0 are uncompatible with kernel 2.4. That's why
there is currently three source packages in Sid (and soon in Sarge):
- i2c version 2.7.0, which provides i2c prebuilt modules and i2c-source
- lm-sensors-old version 2.7.0, which provides prebuilt modules and 
  lm-sensors-source
- lm-sensors version 2.8.5, which provides a library and some userspaces
  tools.

Basically everything works, however a lot of users are complaining that
they sensors are not supported by version 2.7.0 and ask me to switch
back to a version >= 2.8.0. It couldn't be done, because it will causes
kernel oops for people that are using prebuilt kernels or self-built
kernel with some drivers that uses i2c.

I am also not very satisfied to have packages that are outdated (more 
than one year) in Sarge, a distribution which would probably be the 
stable version in two years... Old packages also means that fixes are 
difficult to backport.


**********************************************************************
If you don't have a lot of time, start to read here
**********************************************************************

So here is my proposition to make the users happy:
- Keep version 2.7.0 of i2c and lm-sensors for prebuilt modules only
- Drop lm-sensors-source and i2c-source and instead provide patches in
  Debian packages of version 2.8.5 against Debian kernels.

The patches could be generated easily with a perl script included in the
upstream tarballs. The patches would give the same functionnalities to
the users as the -source packages. I admit that with the -source
packages you can build modules without having to build a kernel (using
the headers), however it is a bit silly as prebuilt modules are already
available in Debian packages.

I think that this changes have to be made very quickly as we are very
near from freeze. Moreover, the packages will need ftp-masters approval.
I think I could upload the package later tomorrow night.

Please give your comments.

Cheers,
Aurelien 

-- 
  .''`.  Aurelien Jarno	              GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
 : :' :  Debian GNU/Linux developer | Electrical Engineering Student 
 `. `'   aurel32@debian.org         | aurelien@aurel32.net
   `-    people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net

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