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

[Alan Cox]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 06:45:31AM +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > Err...  You shouldn't need kernel-source to build kernel modules.
> 
> You need it in rare cases -- if you want to build modules from the
> kernel that were not build by rh/fedora. At the moment I'm using it to
> build the ntfs ;-) and the dvb modules that are missing in the released
> binary kernel...

Its much cleaner for these cases to download the srpm tweak the .config
and then rebuild it, that keeps all the modules rpm managed. Even if you 
wanted to roll extra modules for a repository they would become patch
and build add ons + a new spec file target for the item itself.

> compiled them again. And didn't the ati radeon/fglrx drivers use the
> agpgart Source from the Kernel and patched them with some updates and
> compiled them anew? But both examples are only a "IIRC" and I may be
> wrong in both... 

AGPgart in 2.4 maybe - the 2.4 AGPgart was one of the few bits of code
licensed dual so that could happen. I believe 2.6 AGPGart is GPL so any
driver that needed to patch it would be a derivative work and GPL - 
which should mean the problem doesn't arise.

What specific issues does going back to the srpm have for folks like you
running 3rd party repositories