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Re: Bits from the kernel team



On Sun, 2009-12-20 at 17:22 +0100, Kurt Roeckx wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Now that we have a 2.6.32 kernel in unstable, can you updates us
> on the various things mentioned in this mail?
> 
> For instance, as I understand it, most other distro's recently
> had a release with a 2.6.31 kernel?

Fedora 12, Ubuntu 9.10 and openSUSE 11.2 have this kernel version.

> Do you know if there are 
> plans to have a kernel with backported drivers, one used by
> multiple distributions?

I've not heard of a general plan for that.  However there is a
compat-wireless project (covering Wifi and Bluetooth drivers) that I
think Fedora and Ubuntu are pulling from.  That might be something we
should do too.  I'm also keen to pull in nouveau if the X maintainers
are happy with that.

> > Kernel Mode Setting transition
> > ------------------------------
> > 
> > It was resolved that KMS will be enabled at build time but disabled at
> > run time by default.

Done.

> > The X packages will be able to use modprobe
> > config files to enable KMS at run time as required.

This is not for the kernel team to do.

> > Feature patches
> > ---------------
> > 
> > These are patches the Debian kernels have for major features which are
> > not upstream.
> > 
> > openvz
> > ++++++
> > 
> > Debian will continue to support this system with assistance from the
> > openvz developers.

In progress, I believe.

> > rt patchset
> > +++++++++++
> > 
> > This is apparently not ready for production use and will not be
> > present in Debian kernels.
> > 
> > vserver
> > +++++++
> > 
> > This feature will be present in squeeze but will be marked as
> > deprecated and a migration path to Linux containers investigated.

Don't know.

> > xen dom 0
> > +++++++++
> > 
> > This feature will be included in the squeeze kernel release subject to
> > ongoing stabilisation work. The feature will be marked as deprecated
> > and will not appear in future releases.

In progress.

> > IDE to libata decision
> > ----------------------
> > 
> > Debian will perform this transition using the udev packages in a
> > similar way to Ubuntu. The Ubuntu developers have offered their
> > assistance with this transition.

Since we also have a wide variety of bootloaders to update, we now
intend to do this separately from udev.  I have written an update script
(written in Perl) which I will be sending out for review shortly.

> > preemption
> > ----------
> > 
> > This feature will be enabled for the squeeze release.
> > 
> > OSS
> > ---
> > 
> > This has been a deprecated kernel interface for some time and will be
> > disabled for squeeze

Done.

> > with mechanisms put in place to deal with legacy users.

Er, not sure.

> > bug triage and tagging
> > ----------------------
> > 
> > The kernel team has a large number of bugs, many of which contain
> > inadequate information. The team decided that a policy for bugs and
> > patches will be produced and enforced. We will also be improving the
> > bug reporting by improving the reportbug usage.

See <http://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2009/11/msg00114.html>.  This
still needs to be incorporated into the kernel handbook.

> > Moving the Debian Kernel packaging to Git
> > -----------------------------------------
> > 
> > A robust discussion happened with several views and ideas
> > expressed. The final outcome was that the team as a whole favoured the
> > move to git and that further investigation and implementation would
> > occur.

Still to do; I think this may have to be post-squeeze.

> > Coordination with release team and D-I
> > --------------------------------------
> > 
> > Several issues were covered the main item from this session was an
> > investigation as to if udeb generation should be merged with the main
> > kernel source package.

No change as yet.

> > Out of tree modules
> > -------------------
> > 
> > After some discussion it was resolved to remove linux-modules-extra
> > and -nonfree as they are an impossible to support properly.
> > 
> > A few modules the project really must have will be placed
> > directly into the linux-2.6 source
> > 
> > The kernel team will endorse the use of dkms as a way for out-of-tree
> > module maintainers to get their modules auto-built.

Done.

> > Leveraging upstream .deb building
> > ---------------------------------
> > 
> > This became a discussion about the general kernel packaging and how we
> > might use the upstream provided facilities better. There was some
> > discussion we have way too many ways to build a kernel.
> > 
> > We will be rationalising this to two methods, an upstream merged "make
> > deb-pkg" target and the linux-2.6 Debian source.

Done.

> > We will also be rationalising the kernel postinst and co-ordinating
> > our efforts with the Ubuntu developers.

In progress.

> > Debug Packages
> > --------------
> > 
> > This refers to debugging information from current packages, not a
> > separate configuration, useful for crash tools. This will be
> > investigated further.

Not done.

> > Automated build and test
> > ------------------------
> > 
> > This might be a useful tool in the future and work is ongoing.

Don't know.

> > Experimental
> > ------------
> > 
> > Some upload experimental uploads of the 2.6.31 version will be made.

Done, but irrelevant now.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it makes it worse.

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