Re: Packaging a library that requires cross-compiled code

[Shachar Shemesh <shachar@shemesh.biz>]

David Anderson wrote:
> Therefore, question: how should I get from this situation to having a
> working .deb (including the cross-compiled driver), while at the same
> time playing nicely with Debian packaging policies?
>   
In the general case, the problem is much wider. Let me give you an example.

We currently package Xen and other free virtualization solutions. Some
of them can even run proprietary OSes, such as Windows. Now, suppose
that one would like to improve the way Windows runs under Xen by
writing, say, a custom mouse driver for Windows that para-virtualizes
the mouse on Windows. Such things are quite common in todays' world.

The problem is that this driver is a kernel level driver for Windows. If
it were user space we could still claim it could be compiled with
cross-mingw, but this is not the case here. Setting up an environment
for compiling Windows kernel drivers merely so we can build this tiny
blob seems out of proportion.

I think we need a change in policy for handling cases where free
software requires free software in order to compile which is, non the
less, non buildable on the same platform.

Shachar