status of ipsec patches with >=2.6.8

[Ivan Mitev <imitev@obs.bg>]

hi all

a few weeks back, i tested quite deeply the new 2.6 ipsec stack along with netfilter and patrick's pom-ng ipsec patches, and i didn't encounter any big problem.

now that i want to make the switch from test to pre-production, i don't manage to patch iptables/kernel anymore with a 2.6.8.1 kernel; i tested with both stable and CVS versions of pom-ng and iptables ; (and i really need a kernel >= 2.6.7-mm2 because of hugeTLB stuff and new 3ware drivers).

any idea about the status of recent kernels ? (on harald's blog, i see that there is some work on it, but no indication of success - Thu, 22 Jul 2004). any pointer ?

another question for the maintainers, more with politics: do you plan to try to merge the ipsec patches into the mainline kernel (especialy with the patches modifying the way packets hit the hooks ) ? or are they condamned to stay in pom-ng's extras ?

in other words, do you plan that most of the "ipsec people" will use these patches, or are they provided for convenience, with the majority of people using the current - strange - ipsec packet travelling.

sorry for these rather stupid questions, but i couldn't find a clue browsing the lists, and there's not a lot of feedback for the ipsec patches.  since i'm building a quite complex "advanced router" suitable for many of our firewalls, i'm feared to spend a consequent amount of time on something that might be deprecated soon.

thanx !
ivan