kernel source/module directions and why windows users are happy

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Am Sonntag, den 22.08.2004, 15:15 +0200 schrieb Arjan van de Ven:
> > The worst part building external kernel-modules is IMHO that building
> > external kernel-modules is different on suse, fedora and others. That
> > makes it really hard for everyone IMHO.  
> 
> actually with the 2.6 kernel it's the same for all of us. Heck, even
> with 2.4 was *IF* you had correct makefiles. (but I agree the 2.4 way
> needed more hacks and was somewhat unclean. But there is progress... see
> 2.6)

I don't think so. AFAIK on Suse 9.1 you need to make a 

make cloneconfig prepare_all

(source: 
http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-installer-HOWTO.html
)

Don't know what is proposed in vanilla ATM. This was the last thing I
heard (where you commended arjan) was :

[PATCH 2/2] kbuild: Improved external module support
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0406.2/1283.html

Is it in now?

> > > - now you simple do NOT ship/build any source code rpm!
> > 
> > I like this point *if* we have the kernel-sourcecode package in fedora
> > extras / fedora.us. Yes, normally nobody should need it, but I think a
> > lot of people like to have it. I plan to archive this if nobody does
> > it ;-)
> 
> I rather ship a script in kernel-utils to turn the src.rpm into a full
> source.

Yes, that could also be done. But I think the fedora-extras solution
will be easier for a lot of people. And could be used *if* drivers like
the ati fglrx driver currently need parts from the source. 

[...]
> > > but for any module which is not in the precompiled kernel they have to 
> > > now manualy download the kernel src.rpm (this can't be done trough the 
> > > nightly yum or other update process!) and compile it.
> > 
> > Normally nearly everything is included. Yes there are exceptions. But in
> > most cases then there are problems with the drivers. 
> 
> yep. firewire is off (mostly), and that is because it oopses during boot
> even if you don't have hardware. I'd love for that to get fixed so that
> I can enable it again. Other than that... just look at the config. Just
> about everything is on.

I don't need firewire, but I was hit by the temporary DVB-Driver remove
during 2.4.6-1.435 or so. But It worked for me(tm). *Maybe* a better
solution than disabling would be to build these drivers an put them
online somewhere in an "unsupported kernel-modules-RPM". This has
advantages:

- people could try if the bug is still there
- people that are not hit my the bug or use a workaround could use it
without to much circumstances

As always, just my 2 cent.

-- 
Thorsten Leemhuis <fedora at leemhuis.info>