Re: Uses of Linux backports in the industry

From: Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult
Date: Wed Jun 24 2015 - 06:13:48 EST


Am 01.06.2015 um 20:50 schrieb Felix Fietkau:

We support many different platforms, and sometimes it takes a
while to update the kernel on them.

Just curious: what makes these platforms so different from each other,
so it takes so much time to port to new kernel ? Are there things so
special, that they can't go into mainline ?

In a few weeks, I'll (hopefully) have a few weeks off and plan to play
around w/ some spare DSL routers. Maybe we can have a talk on how to
get more things mainlined, if you wish :)

Using backports significantly reduces the amount of effort that we need
to put into maintaining the wireless drivers.
When making changes to wireless drivers or mac80211, which I submit
upstream, I also develop them in our most recent backports snapshot
first (typically generated from wireless-testing). When they are done, I
port them to a proper git tree and submit them from there.

How much has changed from your old baseline compared to current
mainline ? I could imagine, in your area it might not be as much
as in others (eg. graphics or v4l subsystem).

In OpenWrt, we typically update the backports snapshot outside of the
normal kernel release cycle (always to latest wireless-testing) and
stabilize that by cherry-picking individual patches on top of it.

Can you estimate the required workforce ?
Some statistics on that would be really nice.


cu
--
Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult
+49-151-27565287
MELAG Medizintechnik oHG Sitz Berlin Registergericht AG Charlottenburg HRA 21333 B

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