external kernel modules ...

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

Hello, all.

Since we have decided to move to a common kernel package for etch, and maybe
work in common with ubuntu on the kernel upto a point, we have now to address
the case of the external modules.

I would strongly favor that we write some kind of policy for the external
modules to follow in order to facilitate them keeping in sync with
abi-changing uploads. Hopefully once all this is in place, it will allow us to
get down to around two days of build time before every package impacted by an
abi change is rebuilt, including .udebs and external modules. Provided the
architecture is able to rebuild that fast.

My idea, which i invite you to comment on, is as follows :

  1) All external kernel modules should be maintained inside the kernel svn
  repo, in a separate modules directory.

  2) All external kernel modules should build pre-built modules for the two
  official kernels we have (the sarge and sid one).

  3) Once a new common-package kernel package is uploaded, we trigger an
  automated rebuild of all the external modules, and upload them, filling
  FTBFS bugs as they fail.

To get the modules into the svn repo, it could be useful to implement a
group-permission in the svn repo, and to only grant access to the core kernel
part of the repository to the kernel team, not sure though.

Another related question, especially in the light of moving some non-free
modules out of the main kernel package, is that we need to get a way to
rebuild the initrd to include those modules in the init kenrel, if they are
used for root storage (network and block devices come to mind).

Friendly,

Sven Luther