long term support, multiple kernels, etc

Le mardi 18 octobre 2005 à 07:01 +0200, Fabio Massimo Di Nitto a écrit :
> Forgot to add that it is complex to express, it is easy to workaround,
> and cannot ensure that the user is running the kernel is supposed to.
> 
> Even if ubuntu-desktop pulls in 2.6.14, the user can still install and
> run .12.
> There is no way to avoid that because the dependcy is satisfied, kernels
> can be installed in parallel (and that's a good thing) but you have no
> control
> to what kernel the user is booting into.

Well, we can set minimum kernel versions in glibc where applications
refuse to run if there's an older kernel version that that available.
We currently have it set to 2.6.0 on amd64 and ppc.  (It's set to 2.2.0
to make upgrades easier, but will bump up to 2.6.0 when we drop
LinuxThreads in Dapper+1).  We can also do boot-time checks.

But honestly, I'd love to see a hard kernel dependency (as part of
ubuntu-standard) and a boot time check.  For instance, the new udev
that's waiting to come in uses an interface that's only present in
2.6.12.  There's a proposal to radically simplify coldplugging and make
sure that we don't lose uevents that wouldn't go in-kernel until 2.6.15.

Not being able to rely on minimum kernel features just increases the
maintenance burden on the rest of the system.

Tks,
Jeff Bailey