kernel-libre (hopefully 100% Free) for Fedora 8 and rawhide

[Rahul Sundaram]

Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Mar 25, 2008, Rahul Sundaram  wrote:
> 
>> Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>>> But this doesn't get me a kernel I can distribute today.  Or a kernel
>>> I can use today.  Or a kernel that could go in Fedora 9.
> 
>> No, it wouldn't but we need to look at this from a long term
>> perspective as well. If we agree to introducing a variant today, what
>> have you planned to merge these changes upstream?
> 
> No plan, just awareness that upstream isn't interested in hearing
> about this, especially from people like me, and realization that I'm
> unsuited to make the suggested changes.

I don't know. There is gNewSense, Blag, Gubuntu etc and how much 
duplication of effort is going on? Atleast consolidate that effort and 
someone among these groups drive these changes upstream.

> And we're not even talking about patches.  We're talking about a bunch
> of 'rm -f's over upstream tarballs and 'sed "/x/,/y/d"' over upstream
> patches.  Think IcedTea.
> 
> And then, if the kernel is indeed headed to moving firmware out, then
> it's even more like IcedTea, because we'll eventually be able to
> discontinue the separate package, in a similar fashion to the decision
> to stop shipping non-smp kernels for x86_64.

There is a critical difference. IcedTea was announced to be a temporary 
stop gap measure till upstream replaced non-free bits and that wasn't 
just happening on it's own but being driven (atleast in part) by work 
done within IcedTea. In other words, instead of waiting for it to happen 
somehow, we actively contributed.
> 
> I understand that.  I wish it could just be accepted as a package like
> any other.  I don't quite see why the fact that it's an alternate
> kernel is such a big deal.  Considering the social and political
> issues, I don't see that this should be decided solely from a
> technical standpoint.

Well the technical standpoints can't be dismissed. Instead of going in 
circles, my suggestion would be to escalate this to Fedora Board/FESCo 
or otherwise just submit the package. Either that package submission 
will be stalled with no sponsor willing to approve it or Fedora 
Board/FESco will step in and make a decision. I will let them worry 
about the consistency of that decision with the existence of kernel-xen.

Rahul