Possibility for dependencies against specific kernel modules

[Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org>]

Hi folks

Because of some recent events, I thought about the possibility for
packages to depend against kernel module packages. As we don't want to
dictate the usage of Debian provided kernels, we need a last resort
fallback to the modules source.

My first solution was something like the following:

| Package: test
| Depends: test-modules | test-source
|
| Package: test-modules
| Depends: linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc | linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc64
|
| Package: test-source

Both apt and aptitude would always try to install test-modules. The
problem is that neither apt nor aptitude are smart enough to find the
best solution in the dependency tree, both only evaluate deps of depth 1
at one time.

I found a variant which seems to work, but produces dependency packages
for fun:

| Package: test
| Depends: test-modules-fallback
|
| Package: test-modules-fallback
| Depends: test-modules | test-source, linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc | linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc64 | test-source
|
| Package: test-modules
| Depends: linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc | linux-image-2.6.26-1-powerpc64
|
| Package: test-source

Now the question is clearly, do we want/need such a possibility? And if
yes, how should it work. If the answer is no, I have to refuse to build
modules like vbox[1].

Bastian

[1]: The virtualbox modules don't define a stable ABI, it actually
     changes for every release.
-- 
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