Bug#658728: How test builds work (Re: patch_realtek: no more sound on HP Compaq dx2200 MT)

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

A. Costa wrote:

> Off topic, sort of:  would something like 'ksplice'[1] help here, or in
> similar cases, the better to ease the user burden of bandwidth &
> recompiling?

Not really.  ksplice requires a lot of manual work.  Its only purpose
is to avoid rebooting.

What would help is PPAs (that is, using donated build machines to
build test packages so developers do not have to use their private
machines) and debdelta (which automatically compresses package
updates).  Especially the former would be helpful.

In the meantime, we have had to rely on individual testers to build
when there is a patch to try, except in lucky cases where we can just
rebuild an individual driver and send the resulting kernel module.  As
a side-benefit it makes it easier to work directly with upstream, but
the up-front cost of downloading the source and doing the initial
build (the usual makefile machinery makes builds fast after that) is
indeed a downside.

Hoping that clarifies,
Jonathan