Re: Kernels do not compile anymore

John Anthony Kazos Jr. (jkazos@vt.edu)
Mon, 13 Dec 1999 17:33:56 -0500 (EST)


My first issue with this is you are railing against the unstable branch of
the kernel tree; use the 2.2.x branch (even numbers good, odd numbers bad)
if you are having problems.

My second issue with this is the blatant conspiracy-theorist tone. Perhaps
you should offer some conclusive proof with your spicy accusations.

And how do you know .config is not the problem? You may just be downloading
bad versions of the source. See if you have the *exact same* problems with
the kernels from ftp.kernel.org. If you do not, then it is *not* Linus'
fault, but the fault of who you are getting the kernel from.

Don't be another fool to make us put on our asbestos longjohns.

On Mon, 13 Dec 1999, Richard B. Johnson wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> I detect a very distressing trend. Since the 2.3.13 release, which took
> several days to fix so it would compile, I have not been able to download
> a kernel that will compile. The 2.3.31 release of a development kernel
> (December 6) had, not only problems with missing variables like
> "memory_start", etc., but also had incomplete structures, missing
> structure members, etc., all over the place. Most of the errors had to do
> with initial ram-disk support which is required on many systems that use
> modules. I spent about two weeks of my spare time trying to make 2.3.31
> compile then gave up. If anyone is interested, I can provide a copy of
> .config but that's not the problem. The problem is that Linus and others
> used to make sure that kernels would compile. This is no longer being
> done. Instead, we have 'secret' versions of kernels retained by
> distributors while the publicly accessible kernels are junk.
>
> Even kernels released with some distributions like Caldera do not compile
> with the tools provided by Caldera.
>
> The fixes to incorrect __asm__ code, which were contributed both by myself
> and others, you know, the ones that print pages and pages of warnings,
> were not included in 2.3.31 either.
>
> So, if this trend continues, the result will be that Linux becomes a
> proprietary operating system maintained secretly by a few special
> interests (Distributors). Already, anything new, available on the
> Internet, vi ftp.country-code.kernel.org, is just junk even though
> there are probably "special" versions of the kernel, perhaps at
> RedHat, that will compile. This distressing trend means that RedHat
> (substitute the name of any other distributor as well) now "owns" Linux
> since only their secret versions work.
>
> I have been contributing bug-fixes to Linux since June of 1995, the
> first being a fix to make the AHA-1542 SCSI board work. I have not
> complained that, over the years, every piece of code that had my
> name on it, ended up with my name removed. At least the end result
> was a reliable kernel and that's all I really wanted. I note that my
> name is not even in the list of contributors anymore. Now the trend is
> clear.
>
> So, where is the real version of the kernel?
>
> Cheers,
> Dick Johnson
>
> Penguin : Linux version 2.3.13 on an i686 machine (400.59 BogoMips).
> Warning : The end of the world as we know it requires a new calendar.
> Seconds : 1582582 (until Y2K)
>
>
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