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Re: xfree86 unbuildable on ppc



On Wed, Apr 03, 2002 at 09:42:24PM -0500, Jack Howarth wrote:
> Hello,
>    Could someone explain to me the point of releasing
> Xfree86 4.1.0-15 as is when clearly patch #065 was 
> going to break builds on most non-intel arches?

Actually, the patch was applied to FIX a problem with building xfree86
on ia64.  So your assertion is wrong.

The bottom line is that it's hit or miss as to whether you can compile
XFree86 or not.  It depends on what kernel flavor your libc6-dev was
compiled against.  BenC's last glibc release for i386 was built against
a kernel that omitted the SiS ioctl information from drm.h.  BenC also
says that it's completely up to the guys who build glibc for each
architecture what kernel headers they build against.

And Herbert Xu told me that I shouldn't ever depend on kernel headers
for anything, but encapsulate all information I need into my package.

So that's how we got where are today.  Somehow it's the
application-writer's job to know how the underlying kernel defines its
ioctls.  How this position is consistent with the very existence of
symbolic constants in C library headers is quite beyond me.

Apparently, if the Linux kernel driver guys renumber some ioctls, the
right thing is for everybody's apps to break instantly.

> I simply don't see the logic at play here considering
> we're supposed to be closing in on woody's release.

I entirely agree.  However, I don't have the power to tell Ben, the
glibc-architecture builders, or Herbert Xu how to do things.  My package
is at their mercy.

As I understand it, however, the real blame lies with the guys on the
linux-kernel list.  We wouldn't have this problem if the kernel headers
were the same regardless of what modules you decide to compile.

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |    You can have my PGP passphrase when
Debian GNU/Linux                   |    you pry it from my cold, dead
branden@debian.org                 |    brain.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |    -- Adam Thornton

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