2010/8/25 Akemi Yagi <[log in to unmask]>:
> 2010/8/25 Stephan Wiesand <[log in to unmask]>:
>> Hi Christopher,
>>
>> On Aug 25, 2010, at 16:50, C. Bergström wrote:
>>
>>> Troy Dawson wrote:
>>>> Hi Christopher,
>>>> Scientific Linux is an enterprise release.  We are based  off RHEL and not Fedora.  That means we are much more stable and do not run the latest kernel.
>>>> If you need some functionality that is only found in the latest kernels, then you need to talk with RedHat about porting that functionality into RHEL's kernel, or you need to figure out how to separate that functionality into a kernel module that can be loaded into older 2.6 kernels.
>>>>
>>>> Or is that what you are asking, how to package up a kernel module for enterprise releases such as SL, RHEL and CentOS?
>>> I'd like to make a kernel, module and packages that are "experimental" and available to the SL users.  I've no problem hosting it, but would in general like to make it easy and available to everyone for testing.  The kernel interface between libc likely hasn't changed so it'll really come down to driver support and built-in options/bugs. etc..
>>
>>
>> hmm, Akemi must be on holiday, so let me answer instead :-)
>
> I am here :-D
>
>> Have a look at http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel , http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=27481&forum=45 and what's behind the links in the latter page. In particular, http://www.centos.toracat.org/ajb/kernel/mainline may already have the kernel packages you need, or at least a good starting point.
>>
>> So far this is all completely generic. How to package the kernel modules then is a different question. I guess, kABI tracking kmods make little sense in this case, but Alan or someone else from ELRepo may correct me here. SL would typically use the kernel-module-`uname -r` convention, there are plenty of examples in the SL repositories.
>
> Thanks for all the links.  Alan is a better speaker for this. Let's
> wait for him to chime in.

Someone has mentioned my name? How can I assist?

The technique used by the ELRepo Project for kernel independent, kABI
tracking kmod packages is appropriate for all SL 5.x releases -- I
seem to recall talking with Troy about it, sometime last year. If that
is sufficient for Christopher's needs, then we (the ELRepo Project)
may be able to help.

If a 2.6.35.3 kernel is required for testing, then yes, the most
recent packages that can be found under
http://www.centos.toracat.org/ajb/kernel/mainline/ can be used with an
RHEL 5 / SL 5 / CentOS 5 system -- with certain provisos. The first is
that the bcat_rc_sysinit.patch (to be found at
http://www.centos.toracat.org/ajb/kernel/mainline/patches/ ) must be
applied before the bcat kernel is booted, otherwise all RTC support is
unavailable. The other main proviso is that if a user breaks {her|his}
system by using one of those kernels, {she|he} gets to keep all the
pieces.

I guess I had better hold my hand (my paw) up and say that I am solely
responsible for those kernel packages.
bcat == burakkucat, my alias and alter-ego.

For the record the workstation, for which I am typing this message, responds --

[ajb@stxsl ~]$ uname -a
Linux stxsl 2.6.35-3.bcat #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Aug 21 13:27:12 EDT 2010
i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[ajb@stxsl ~]$ rpm -q centos-release
centos-release-5-5.el5.centos
[ajb@stxsl ~]$

Regards,
Alan.