Re: building and distributing binary out-of-tree Linux kernel module packages within debian
Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes:
> It seems like we ought to be able to solve this problem within debian,
> given that it is all free software. And in the past i remember there
> being some kinds of $foo-modules-$abi packages (maybe a long time ago, i
> see references to openafs-modules-2.2.18 in
> /usr/share/doc/openafs-modules-source/README.modules), but i know
> they're not here now, and i don't know exactly why they went away.
> openafs stopped shipping them > 10 years ago with this rather terse
> explanation "poses too many problems" (i'm cc'ing Russ in case he has
> any recollection of why):
Apologies for the very delayed response, but I can clear up this part of
the mystery.
We had exactly the same desire for OpenAFS, except at the time DKMS did
not yet exist, so the alternative for the user was even worse (we
installed a source package that let people build their own kernel modules,
and then later supported module-assistant once it was developed).
However, it was always very painful. You've identified most of the
problems (such as what kernel ABIs to pre-build for, which never had a
good answer). The one that you didn't mention is stable releases: while
in theory one could support pre-built kernel modules in stable releases by
triggering a rebuild of the package whenever the kernel for stable had a
new ABI version, in practice neither the kernel team nor the archive team
wanted to support such a thing. From the perspective of the kernel team,
it adds irritating complexity and potential blockers to the
already-complex and difficult process of coordinating stable kernel
updates. As a result, the pre-built kernel module was often broken in
stable, which caused all sorts of chaos.
We dropped all that machinery once DKMS was stable, since although it was
a slightly worse experience for the user, it wasn't that much worse, and
it made a whole ton of packaging issues go away.
--
Russ Allbery (eagle@eyrie.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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