Re: Kernel dependencies
'Christoph Lameter wrote:'
>
>On 20 Dec 1996, Michael Alan Dorman wrote:
>
>mdorman >> Are we here not here defying the very principles Debian was build
>mdorman >> on?
>mdorman >
>mdorman >Unfortunately, without distinct names for different kernel images,
>mdorman >there is no way to have multiple kernels on a machine. I don't know
>mdorman >about you, but I like being able to install a new kernel image and be
>mdorman >sure that, if there's some show-stopping problem, I can always do
>mdorman >linux.old at the LILO prompt.
>
>There are several package that need to be present in multiple versions
>since they have different kernels they depend on. How can that work with
>the current scheme?
>
>Would it not be simpler to just allow installing multiple version of
>the same package? The same is true for the libraries. F.e. we have two
>dependency schemes for libc one through the major supplied in the name
>libc5,libc6 and another in the version number. Unifying the dependencies
>would simplify a lot of things.
Kernel configuration is a real tough problem. I'm inclined to agree
with Red Hat that one can't have both A) seemless upgrades of all
packages (say via an automated dselect run including an upgrade of the
kernel from base) and B) a guarantee that the kernel will work
correctly. Due to a lack of vision I don't see a solution. So as an
interim solution I suggest that all kernel-related package put a big
warning in the preinst: installing this package could make your system
upbootable. If you don't know what you're doing abort now!
I do all my kernels custom. I think we need to make it easy for users
to learn custom kernel configuration (I NEED to learn the
kernel-package as I think that is the right abstraction). Maybe the
dosemu and other kernel-dependent packages should do something like the
kernel-package package. I suspect it is the only way to guarantee
system integrity (without doing what Red Hat does: require a boot disk
for upgrades which IMO is a horrible solution).
--
Christopher J. Fearnley | Linux/Internet Consulting
cjf@netaxs.com, cjf@onit.net | UNIX SIG Leader at PACS
http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf | (Philadelphia Area Computer Society)
ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf | Design Science Revolutionary
"Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller | Explorer in Universe
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