> Although kerntypes is required if you use lcrash, it is not if you use > crash, or netdump. Since you may not be using lcrash or may be using > lcrash, but on another system, installing Kerntypes into /boot isn't > always necessary.
Well, this is fine, but netdump is not a way of analysising a dump - it is a way of saving it. I don't know what crash is, but if it is a program it isn't distributed with Debian. This means when it comes to analyse a dump using a Debian distribution, you have to use lcrash, and you can't do that without kerntypes. > Looking closer at the patch, Troy noticed that it > only does the install for some architectures (ie. i386 and s390). Well - yes, that is because I only use one of them, and apparently I am the one doing this. I don't have access to the others, so I can't test them. The s390 looked similar to i386, so I did that, but the rest I will leave to someone else who has access to the hardware. This is the way it works with open source, isn't it. Those people with the itch scratch it? Anyway, I don't see that because a feature works on some architectures and not others is a reason to exclude it. It certainly isn't Debian policy. It is not like adding the feature breaks anything. > The instructions that come with lkcdutils (in the README.Debian) tell > you how to properly deal with the kerntypes file. Many people, me included, remove the kernel build directory once I am happy. So saying this to me is like saying "if you plan to have a car crash, be sure to put your seatbelt on beforehand". Yeah right - as if I am going to remember to do that! If people who download a kernel binary with with the patch included (like those on my web site) what you suggest isn't even possible. > Ideally, we would like to keep the patch as close to > upstream as possible, or come up with a debian specific > patch that does things, such as this patch. Debian specific? To quote the lcrash-howto that is distributed with Debian: "lcrash /boot/System.map-2.2.18 /dev/mem /boot/Kerntypes" To quote the lkcd man page: "Kerntypes is initially created when the kernel is built. It is copied to /boot/Kerntypes-<kernel_version> during kernel installation." This is the UPSTREAM man page! > In any case, this bug should be a wishlist bug, and we > could send it upstream if you like, but chances are they > will give a similar reason why this should not be done. I can't comment on what upstream will or won't do. But as for it being a wishlist item: - The man page is wrong - Kerntypes isn't installed for you. - After installing it the package doesn't work in the default setup. You have to follow a few manual steps to make it work. This would be excusable, if there were no easy way to automate those steps - but there is. - The feature used to exist before - in 2.4. It has been removed in the 2.6 kernels. This is evidenced by the fact that kernel-package knows about Kerntypes, and includes it in the image if it is present. But anyway (and after calming down and thinking about it in a more constructive fashion), that is all beside the point to some extent. The real issue is that the system is much easier to use, and more robust (as in Kerntypes is actually present when you need it), when Kerntypes is installed automatically. For that reason alone Debian should strive to install it. Current kernel-package automatically adds Kerntypes if it find in in the kernel build root. Perhaps kernel-package should be changed to look at a different place for Kerntypes for 2.6 kernels - but that isn't possible now for Sarge, I suspect. So how about this: build Kerntypes for Sarge. It is not a big deal: Sarge will be frozen soon anyway, so the deviation from upstream won't matter that much. Then see if you can't convince the maintainer of kernel-package to look in utils/kerntypes.o for Kerntypes for 2.6 kernels. (This may not be necessary as I notice kernel-package does run scripts in: <kernel-root>/debian/image.d/ during the build. Perhaps you can alter what included in the .deb by adding a script. This would be much cleaner - but you will have to stop using dh_installkpatches and write you own patch install script.) Once you have done all that, by all means stop building Kerntypes. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
