No more kernel-source(code) ??? (was: rawhide report: 20040623 changes)

[Jack Neely]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 09:43:54PM -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-06-24 at 02:14 +0200, Axel Thimm wrote:
> > In theory, yes, but try to build a kernel module for i686 on an athlon
> > box. The kernel sources will clash with the running kernel.
> 
> I'd rather fix this problem than paper over it with the kernel source.
> Especially since to really do things with the kernel source right now,
> you have to make changes to the tree in /usr/src.
> 

Really, this is the main issue at stake.  Us packagers have been
building packages of kernel modules for years on 2.4.  There is a
defined way to use the installed kernel-headers to create modules that
work with 1586, 1686, athlon, and the SMP variations thereon.

Now we have 2.6 and the same thing doesn't work and there's lots of
confusion about how to build external kernel modules.  I know I'm
confused.

First, everything you need to build kernel modules is installed with the
kernel package proper in /lib/modules/`uname -r`.  No kernel source
package is required.  It just works, try it.

FC2 has an i586 and i686 kernel packages.  The 2.6 kernel is smart
enough to do the athlon optimizations on the fly, so that's one less
arch to build for.  SMP modules appear to be identical to non-SMP.
(From what I've gathered...not sure if there should be a difference
there or not.)  How do you build for the i586?  I'm not going to remove
my running kernel to install the i586 arch.  

The kbuild system supports cross compiling but I don't see anything to
handle the sub-arches like i586 and i686.

Jack

-- 
Jack Neely <slack at quackmaster.net>
Realm Linux Administration and Development
PAMS Computer Operations at NC State University
GPG Fingerprint: 1917 5AC1 E828 9337 7AA4  EA6B 213B 765F 3B6A 5B89