RFS: qemu-kvm (kvm)

[Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru>]

There's a kvm package in debian, which is basically a
modified qemu (system emulator) that supports virtualization
extensions of modern CPUs.

In lenny it's kvm-72, in sid it's kvm-85 NMU.
Kvm itself is (or was) a fast-moving target, and too many
things changed and fixed since -72 and even -85.  Up until
first stable release named "qemu-kvm" of version 0.10.0,
all kvm-NN "releases" was nothing more than development
snapshots.

I maintain kvm package for my needs for a long time, in my
local repository.  I'm supporting users in kvm-dedicated
IRC channel as well.

And it's a real PITA to know that I have to refer to external
repository (on my site) all debian users, because all their
problems are resolved by upgrading to a new version which is
not available in Debian.

I wrote to debian kvm package maintainer several times, I
submitted a bugreport against kvm long time ago, but never
heard back.

So now I'm requesting a sponsor to upload my packages into
debian.

The packages can be found here:

  http://www.corpit.ru/debian/tls/kvm/

In particular:

  http://www.corpit.ru/debian/tls/kvm/qemu-kvm_0.11.0-tls0.dsc
  http://www.corpit.ru/debian/tls/kvm/qemu-kvm_0.11.0-tls0.diff.gz
  http://www.corpit.ru/debian/tls/kvm/qemu-kvm_0.11.0.orig.tar.gz

and binary packages for amd64 and i386 (kvm is restricted
to x86 for now, with some (incomplete still) support on ppc).

I rewrote a (buggy) initial build system completely, but did
not change things like licensing (which is basically GPL).
Current package (0.11.0-tls0) comes out lintian-clean.

I already know a possible problem with this package - it does
not work with libvirt on lenny due to libvirt bug, which is
already fixed in sid version.  So it might be a wise idea to
add a Conflicts: line in case it'll go to bpo, which I hope
it will, because my experience in #kvm shows that many
people are running kvm on lenny host systems and are having
problems with it.

While at it, I applied to be a Debian Developer, to be able
to maintain this and several other packages myself without
a need for a sponsor.

Thank you for listening.

/mjt