Mirror/server RFE: Do not remove old kernel from updates.

[Gilboa Davara]

On Mon, 2007-04-09 at 16:31 +0200, Leszek Matok wrote:
> Dnia 09-04-2007, pon o godzinie 15:59 +0300, Gilboa Davara napisał(a):
> > vmware-server dies a horrible death
> > (taking the host with it) when combined with kernels >= 2.6.19.
> > Now, I'm left with a problem
> I'm not affiliated with VMware, but it's obvious for anyone who have
> ever used their free products, that:
> http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/
> contains vmware-any-any-update*, which makes VMware server compile even
> under -rc series kernels and is updated pretty often.
> 
> Anyhow, supporting old versions of software indefinitely, because they
> can break some proprietary other piece of software, is totally against
> Fedora goals. Go to VMware and make them put their modules into the
> official kernel or learn how to fix things yourself (which in this
> particular case is very easy, thanks to VMware, which aren't that evil
> after all).
> 
> Lam

First, the automated "Supporting old versions of software .. break some
proprietary .. is totally against Fedora goals" response has nothing to
do with my post.
I said -nothing- about support, I was talking about keeping the older
kernels -on the servers- instead of deleting them once they are two
weeks old.

Second, I'm wasn't talking about "software", I was talking about the
kernel and the kernel only. (Simply because the kernels changes very
frequently tends to break a lot of software/hardware - proprietary or
not.)
A couple of examples: (From the last couple of weeks)
1. Recent FC5 kernels (coupled with FC5's mkinird) generate invalid
initrd images on my software raid based file server. While easily solved
(I -can- generate the initrd file by hand), only older 2.6.17.fc5
kernels work out of the box.
2. My brother's Athlon64/3800x2 machine does not boot with 2.6.19 kernel
due to ACPI/BIOS problems.
3. Older fc6/xen kernel crashed a couple of my servers.

And I can continue.

As I said. I'm not asking for support. I'm not asking for stable ABI.
Just keep the files on the server. It's -that- simple.

- Gilboa