On 5/8/06, Tim Burke <tburke@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Tom 'spot' Callaway wrote: > > On Mon, 2006-05-08 at 15:53 -0400, Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote: > > > > > >> 1. If it's okay for RH to put nonstandard kernels into Fedora, then > >> shouldn't it be okay for the community to put nonstandard kernels into > >> Fedora? If not, why not? > >> > > > > I think the reasons why we don't want to do this have been made quite > > clear. Its a maintenance nightmare. I already told the OpenVZ folks that > > we couldn't have a "VZ enabled" kernel package in Fedora unless it went > > into upstream (or they could convince Dave Jones to include it in his > > SRPM). > > > > > Just to share some exposure into what it takes to keep a non-standard > kernel working in the Fedora tree: > - Pretty much a full-time dedicated highly experienced kernel developer > to spend the vast majority of their time playing patch monkey to keep up > with the high rate of upstream change. We have someone doing this role > for Xen and its more than a fulltime job. Same thing would have to > happen for an OLPC kernel. Certainly the amount of work is commensurate > with the nature of the changes. Having seen the RT patch set, that is > invasive and would also require similar effort. > - Above has to be done daily, virtually in realtime. The minute that > kernel build breaks (which will be frequently), it will be disabled in > the build makefiles. If it remains disabled for extended periods of > time then end users in the community get disgruntled. > - DaveJ is currently teetering on the edge of sanity, and doesn't need > one more straw to break the camel's back. > - As was pointed out earlier, the path to the Fedora kernel leads from > upstream. > > In short, its generally hugely expensive in terms of ongoing manual > labor/torture to keep another kernel afloat. Not to mention that as > Matt points out, any layered kernel modules (ie the dirty decoder/codec > like stuff) won't work, or otherwise fragment the user base. > > _______________________________________________ > fedora-advisory-board mailing list > fedora-advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxx > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board > -- Stephen J Smoogen. CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
