Re: A packaged kernel
Wayne Brown (wbrown@jacques.ebicom.net)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 10:20:55 -0600 (CST)
Illuminati Primus wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, 22 Jan 1997, Wayne Brown wrote:
>
> > Illuminati Primus wrote:
> > >
> > > Would there be some clean way to allow a linux user to configure his/her
> > > kernel BEFORE downloading the >6 meg tar, and then have some sort of
> > > automatic script download only the parts of the kernel that are needed to
> > > build that system?
> > >
> > > This would help tremendously with the great amount of people who have a
> > > limited amount of bandwidth/space but still want to use recent linux
> > > kernels... In fact, alot of people are probably downloading 90% code that
> > > they don't use in their kernel.. Im not saying the amount of features the
> > > kernel supports is a bad thing (its actually the best thing about linux),
> > > its just that not everyone needs to download the entire kernel.
> > >
> >
> > The patch files for each release are all that need to be downloaded, and
> > each one takes up FAR less than 6 meg... (The largest for 2.1 is
> > patch-2.1.15.gz, at 536908 bytes.)
>
> Yes, true.. and I download patches frequently myself.. But, most people
> still need to have the entire kernel residing somewhere on their systems,
> otherwise the patches wont work correctly.. For people with small HDs (I
> used to be one of them), we sometimes can't afford to install an entire
> recent kernel because of this.
>
> And yes, I shouldn't assume that user's problems with space should be the
> immediate concern of the kernel developers, but I'm sure this system could
> help out in more ways than one.. I would look into it myself if I felt I
> could do a reasonable job that wouldn't result in an ugly set of code that
> wouldn't work 50% of the time :).. Maybe in a few years
>
> -vermont@gate.net
>
>
Ah, I see -- you're talking about _compiling_ the kernel when only part of
it is installed. I thought you meant having the entire kernel source on
the local machine, and then downloading just the parts you wanted to
upgrade. So the result might be a 2.1.17 kernel with 2.1.19 CD-ROM driver,
2.1.21 network code, 2.1.20 video driver, etc. But you're talking about
having all the parts you need (and nothing else) from the _same_ version
installed and compiled on your machine. That makes a lot more sense than
what I thought you meant. :-)
It would have advantages for people with small disks -- and I was in that
situation not long ago, too. But it would add an awful lot of complexity
in the distribution system to deal with all the various combinations people
would want. I suppose you could do something like "make ftpconfig" to
create a config file that would be uploaded to an ftp site, which would
then use it to build a custom package for you to download -- but that would
involve a lot of extra overhead for the ftp sites. Patching such custom
distributions would be a lot more complicated, too. Plus, it would throw
even more variables into the equation when trying to track down bugs; it's
hard enough now when everyone has the same source distributions. In short,
I doubt you'll get much support for this idea from the Linux wizards. :-)
--
"When your tail's in a crack you improvise, if you're good enough.
Otherwise you give your pelt to the trapper." -- John Myers Myers
Wayne Brown wbrown@jacques.ebicom.net