[RFC] Enabling kerneloops in default install

[Amit Kucheria]

Hi,

With the move of the kernel to 2.6.27-rcX, we are attempting to ship
the most bleeding edge kernel in recent times. The rationale behind
the move was documented in another thread so I won't repeat that here.

Instead, I want to propose moving the 'kerneloops' package[1] to the
default install. Kerneloops ships with a gtk/gnome applet that pops up
when it notices an oops message and offers to send the information
upstream.

Plus
-----
1. Kerneloops will report bugs directly upstream to
http://submit.kerneloops.org/submitoops.php
2. This will help upstream get a better handle on the most critical
kernel bugs experienced by Ubuntu users
3. It will help to dispel the notion that Ubuntu doesn't really help
with identifying kernel bugs by sticking with older kernels only[2]

Minus
-------
1. Kerneloops does something that apport is already doing
    - apport sends it to LP, though. And the bug waits there until
someone decides to send it upstream.

Risks
-------
1. This could backfire if the kernel community does not appreciate
receiving bugs from Ubuntu's modified kernels.
     - With the move to 2.6.27 we are (potentially) not going to have
entire subsystems backported. So bugs in the core kernel would still
be valid reports.
     - A majority of our patches are for HW-enablement (new/modified
drivers) and those are the bug reports that might cause problems.

Comments on this proposal are most welcome.

Regards,
Amit

[1] www.kerneloops.org
[2] This was brought up during discussions within the Canonical kernel
team. Apparently, Fedora and OpenSuse provide packages that allows
users to install the latest bleeding edge kernel, thus leading to a
lot of bugs being found quickly.