Re: Bits (Nybbles?) from the Vancouver release team meeting
David Nusinow wrote:
[snip]
> > > If you have a single source package for 12 different architectures
> > > that's great, because when you have a security fix you can take
> > > care of that more easily. That's awesome.
> >
> > We have that already.
>
> Great to hear. Then what is this new plan that the kernel team
> has? I'm definitely confused.
For sarge, kernels are built in a two-stage process. First is to create
a dsfg-free .deb from the upstream source which contains a source
tarball, second is to build kernel images from another (arch-specific)
.deb which build-depends on the source .deb. In the second stage,
arch-specific patches can be added.
Post-sarge, it will be a one-stage process, which builds all kernel
images from a single package.
> > > But then you'll be trading off for the same problems that every
> > > single other packge faces: namely that if a kernel on a single arch
> > > has an RC bug then it affects the kernels on every arch. This strikes
> > > me as being very problematic, and the only way I see around it is
> > > to downgrade actual RC bugs, which isn't really a solution at all.
> >
> > Most kernel security bugs hit either generic code, or all architectures
> > equally.
>
> Yeah, but I'm talking about non-security RC bugs. From what
> little Sven has described I feel like the new kernel plan will
> make it so these platform-specific bugs are problematic for all
> architectures. Does the new integration from upstream take care
> of this and if not, how does the kernel team plan to deal with
> this issue?
Those bugs are felt to be seldom enough, especially for already
released kernels. For active development, there's a constant stream
of fixes anyway, platform-specific things won't make much difference.
Thiemo
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