Re: debian unusable on niagara
On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 03:35:24PM +0200, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
> > > > So I suggest that we get some simple diffing done between the two
> > > > pieces of software as a basis for documenting any differences, or
> > > > making modifications so that they converge.
> > >
> > > If I had just once seen a "Dave, can you test this image out to make
> > > sure this Niagara bug is fixed?", I would have been happy with any
> > > result whatsoever.
> > >
> > > But because that did not happen, I'm understandably irked that things
> > > are broken the way that they are.
> > >
> > > I have tons of machines to test on, and the knowledge to fix just
> > > about anything, I just have to be asked.
> >
> > OK, but each distribution lives in a little (or large) ecosystem of their
> > own, and even in the case of Debian where the system is open for everyone to
> > enter, the actual act of entering the system is necessary in order for
> > anyone to participate.
> >
> > In this case, where you want to be informed when there's new stuff in
> > Debian's sparc kernel, you might want to subscribe yourself to the
> > debian-sparc list[1] which is the only Debian sparc port mailing list and
> > the place where e.g. calls for testing new kernel images are sent to,
> > and maybe to the linux-2.6 package tracking system[2] where you can read
> > Debian's Linux kernel package changelogs, which will have references to
> > any sparc patches.
>
> This solution does not scale at all. The distribution ecosystem
> that integrate sparc kernel should contact the sparc maintainer.
> We cannot expect the saprc maintainer to monitor the traffic
> all relevant mailing lists - yet expect him to know them.
>
> This simply does not scale neither work in practice.
>
> Yes - you provided pointers to the debian lists but there is
> a few more distributions around than just debian.
>
> We could assume that the debian folks handling sparc are capable
> of judging when to ask for help/advice from the sparc kernel maintainer.
Sadly, from the last few examples, you can also see that expecting distro
kernel maintainers to contact the central one for all sorts of patches or
changes also doesn't work in practice.
Regarding scale - rather than assuming that it can't work, you should
calculate for yourself if the volume of the aforementioned forums is too
much a burden, there are statistics and archives available online.
David has indicated that he is willing to test other people's kernels on
his plethora of machines, which can be a fairly arduous task, so it
stands to reason that skimming a couple more mailing lists might be
sufficiently less arduous for him that he would we willing to do it.
In case of sparc, it should be mentioned that we're at most a stable
community, if not diminishing in size...
--
2. That which causes joy or happiness.
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