Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

sm-discuss - [SM-Discuss] RE: new linux spell

sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Public SourceMage Discussion List

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "David Michael Leo Brown Jr." <dmlb2000 AT excite.com>
  • To: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [SM-Discuss] RE: new linux spell
  • Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:04:20 -0500 (EST)


Okay, Time for me to put in my "Two Cents"

As the guy that's building the new linux spell I appreciate the suggestions,
compliments and criticisms.

Okay to address some of the comments:

>> >>> ( I actually ponder if we eaven could additionally get info about
>> >>> current kernel directly from kernel.org )
>> >>
>> >> Well... I kind of like the fact that I can pick a version from a list
>> >> :-)
>> >> I'd vote for keeping that in the spell..
>> >
>> > That would probably break if the spell starts checking for the latest
>> > version on cast...
>>
>> Noo... i would never get kernel.org versions on (every) cast. if, i would
>> only
>>
>> have offered such a thing as some additional option.

>phew! options are good ;)
===========

Yeah, options are a part of Sourcemage "Giving the Power Back to the
Administrator" is what we are all about, so to address the misc. options that
can be done with the kernel, I will probably be implementing an options
dialog that will include such things as: arch selecting, optional build dir,
initrd creation, things like that.

===========
>> We should now start a discussion about this. David is very motivated and
>> has a
>> lot of potential, but he is rather new, and doesn't know what problems we
>> had
>> in the past years and also doesn't know what users expect from a linux
>> spell.
>> ( To be honest, i'm not too sure about that part either :-)
>
>One thing I would really like to see in the kernel spell is support
>for /proc/config.gz. I can't recall the exact kerneloption to turn it
>on, but if the file exists on the system it should be an option for
>getting the starting .config. Having the file in /etc/sorcery/local is
>nice when experimenting with kernels, but when I build a new kernel
>once in a while I always do
>gunzip -c /proc/config.gz > /etc/sorcery/local/kernel.config
>and if sorcery/the kernel spell offered to do that for me, it
>would be one less thing to remember.
=============

I've been thinking a while on this problem, and there's several features that
could be implemented to address this:

1) lots of distros keep keep the kernel image, system map, initrd, and a copy
of the kernel config in /boot (all with appropriate kernel versions appended)
we could do the same thing. The linux spell doesn't do that currently.

2) This could also be given a section in the options dialog that will be
implemented soon. There could be several different places we could "restore
old config" from: /proc/config.gz, /boot/config-$kver, custom input file, and
more I'm sure.

=============
>I would like to see some "make mrproper". It would be fine, mainly after
>the fresh installation, to use "default/minimal" config.
>According to HISTORY of linux spell it was disabled by Treeve on 2004-02-28.
=============

Agreed, it's a valid option that should be considered, and I think I know
where to put it.

Just to get things straight, make mrproper is done just after you unpack a
fresh linux kernel source. make mrproper shouldn't be done if you have a
config file that you want to keep in the source tree, make clean should be
used instead.

(according to make help of a 2.6 kernel)
Cleaning targets:
clean - remove most generated files but keep the config
mrproper - remove all generated files + config + various backup
files

Maybe another thing to put in the options dialog, clean source tree, choose
which source tree, then how to clean it.

=============
>Well I was not happy with no sorcery patch handling so
>I wrote libpatch which atm is sitting in bugzilla and waiting for someone
>to take a good look at it... might need some modifications and such
>but it could be just the thing needed here...
=============

This is something that you should really be bugging afrayedknot about, and if
you really want it in there, be tenacious about it. ;)

=============
>> *) The Number of Files
>> The spell does currently support a view -ac -mm -rc versions and the
>> bootsplash patch, and allready has ~150 files. i didn't first think this is
>> growing that fast, but this really is a lot. I wonder if this is
>> acceptable, or if it's too much.
>>
>> However, i do think that it's a good idea to do a seperate file for every
>> patch version of other patches ( other than -pre, -ac, -mm, ... - like
>> bootspash, openmosix, bluez ,...) That part is a mess in my old design.
>
>I would think that a singe file for each patch, which includes the various
>revision levels for that patch, would be a good compromise.
===============

This is something, I've been trying to address when I first thought about
making a new linux spell. A big problem with making one file is, the file
turns into something that looks more like code rather than a DETAILS like
file. When creating this spell I really tried hard to implement a system
that mimics the build api that is currently in sorcery.

Also, I've tried to make things as simple as possible. What I want to avoid
is someone 2.5 years down the road (when Sourcemage has taken over the world
8) ) being in the same position as I am in right now, where the current linux
spell difficult to maintain, and has been hack coded to work.

===============
>> *) Updating,...
>> I'm wondering if it's really a good idea to hardcode every version you want
>> to build. I think: if one wants a old version, he knows which one he wants.
>> Also sometimes one just reads a new kernel announcement and wants to build
>> it without waiting for the spell being updated. So, what does the Community
>> say? ( I actually ponder if we eaven could additionally get info about
>> current kernel directly from kernel.org )
>
>I like the idea of being able to quickly and easily select a kernel version
>that I believe at least one person has tried and tested before me. :^) I do
>agree, however, that it would be a nice feature to be able to manually select
>the kernel version to compile (which I thought was already a feature of the
>old linux spell).
===============

Personally I'm really fearful of implementing something like this.
<rant>
Mainly because later on down the road someones going to do something stupid
there and make a stink about it, and someone is going to have to deal with
their stupidity, and tell that person that he/she's being stupid.
</rant>

Simply providing people with a, "Pick one: a, b, c, d" option is easier to
deal with than an input text string.

Right now you can (kind of) do that with the old source tree option.
Old source tree lists the ${INSTALL_ROOT}/usr/src/linux-* directories as
options. So you could download, unpack, and patch the source manually and
use the old source tree option with a -r to reconfigure the linux spell, and
it should work.

However, honestly, this should be implemented I'm probably going to put it on
the top of the list of kernels, label it CUSTOM or something like that.

===============

Right now the spell is in its infancy, so let me know about more features
that you would like to see implemented, or problems that you see.

Thanks

David Brown


_______________________________________________
Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com
The most personalized portal on the Web!



  • [SM-Discuss] RE: new linux spell, David Michael Leo Brown Jr., 12/20/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page