[RFC] Drop Non-smp PowerPC Kernel Flavor

[Leann Ogasawara]

On Sun, 2012-03-18 at 19:41 +0000, Adam Conrad wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 10:39:42AM -0700, Leann Ogasawara wrote:
> > 
> > Jeremy Kerr did some testing a while back and noted that the PowerPC smp
> > flavor should run on non-smp hardware, but did acknowledge there could
> > be a slight performance degradation.
> 
> For the record, the powerpc-smp kernel doesn't boot AT ALL on my G3
> PowerMac.  Doesn't even get far enough to init video of any sort, so
> I can't tell you what the problem is.

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the feedback.  In light of this I've had a discussion with
the Ubuntu Kernel Team and we have decided on the following:

     1. We will reinstate the non-smp PowerPC kernel flavor for the
        Precise 12.04 LTS release.  We do have a caveat, see items #3
        and #4.
     2. We would still prefer to see the installer default to the
        powerpc-smp flavor.
     3. Given that PowerPC is not an officially supported architecture,
        we will not be required to conduct any PowerPC test builds prior
        to upload.  In the event of a build failure on PowerPC, it will
        not block an Ubuntu kernel release/update nor impede on the
        existing Ubuntu kernel SRU cadence [1].  Fixes for these
        failures, should they occur, will be applied as they are made
        available.
     4. In the event of a build failure on PowerPC, the Ubuntu Kernel
        Team will ensure linux-meta will resolve to the appropriate
        packages in the archive.
     5. We will re-evaluate all arch's and Ubuntu kernel flavors which
        we are supporting/carrying at UDS-Q.  Please attend the UDS-Q
        session [2] if you have a vested interest in this topic.

If there are any questions or concerns about any of the above
stipulations, please let us know.

Thanks,
Leann

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseInterlock
[2] https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/hardware-q-kernel-version-and-flavors