Re: Debian non-x86 kernel arches

[Thiemo Seufer <ica2_ts@csv.ica.uni-stuttgart.de>]

Troy Benjegerdes wrote:
[snip]
> Testing is probably the biggest issue. How is this currently handled?
> How do you verify a new package is okay?

By actually using it.

> Is there any way to automate
> this.. or at least make it semi-automated? Obviously if if something
> fails, a machine probably needs to be reset. But if everything is
> working (which should be the normal case), what would prevent an
> automated system to boot the latest kernel and run some set of tests
> after bootup?

Availability of hardware. The mainline hardware is (relatively) easy to
come by, and pretty much non-diverse in comparision. Mips is probably
the perfect counterexample: The current mipsel buildds had a production
run of 50 units, and the range of systems starts from wireless routers,
goes on with PDAs, prototype development boards and old Workstations,
and ends with big SMP machines. Of course, every of them needs its own
kernel.


Thiemo