2.6.18-stable release plans?

2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Chuck Ebbert]

Is there going to be another 2.6.18-stable release?

Re: 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Jesper Juhl]

On 22/01/07, Chuck Ebbert <cebbert@redhat.com> wrote:
> Is there going to be another 2.6.18-stable release?
>
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Now that 2.6.19 is out, most likely not.  -stable releases are made
for the latest stable 2.6.x kernel, once 2.6.x+1 is out that's the one
-stable patches are made for (2.6.16 is an exception)..


-- 
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
Don't top-post  http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please      http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

Re: [Proposal] 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Sunil Naidu]

On 1/23/07, Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Now that 2.6.19 is out, most likely not.  -stable releases are made
> for the latest stable 2.6.x kernel, once 2.6.x+1 is out that's the one
> -stable patches are made for (2.6.16 is an exception)..

Earlier I was going through the stable paches which apply for these
kernel version:

http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_19
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_18
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_16

I have to dig deep into the patch & kernel version to understand what
are the features/implementations or fixes (patch).  Problem here is 2
ways:-

1) Identifying which is a better kernel (features) for
Desktop/Embedded/Server (I know, info mentioned in Changelog. But
still...)

2) Easily knowing which stable patch applies for which arch or sub
system (better way)

Proposal: Can maintainers implement this for better understanding of
the Linux community (picking the best kernel or patch for the
requirement) by adding a column on www.kernel.org home page?

Examples:

The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is:  	2.6.19.2
*networking subsystem*	2007-01-10 19:11 UTC 	F 	V 	VI 	C 	Changelog

The latest prepatch for the stable Linux kernel tree is:  	2.6.20-rc5
*x86 32/64*	2007-01-12 19:29 UTC 	B 	V 	VI 	C 	Changelog

> --
> Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>

Thanks,

Akula2

Re: [Proposal] 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Stefan Richter]

Sunil Naidu wrote:
> I have to dig deep into the patch & kernel version to understand what
> are the features/implementations or fixes (patch).  Problem here is 2
> ways:-
> 
> 1) Identifying which is a better kernel (features) for
> Desktop/Embedded/Server (I know, info mentioned in Changelog. But
> still...)
> 
> 2) Easily knowing which stable patch applies for which arch or sub
> system (better way)
> 
> Proposal: Can maintainers implement this for better understanding of
> the Linux community (picking the best kernel or patch for the
> requirement) by adding a column on www.kernel.org home page?
...

This would be hard to organize and support. There are news sites like
LWN which give outlines of important kernel changes, and there are
mailinglists or community sites for architectures or driver subsystems
if you are interested in special platforms or drivers, and there is the
git repository metadata (via gitweb or directly from a locally cloned
git repo).

I for one am actually posting release notes to a users' mailinglist of
the drivers I'm interested in. But I can do this only because these are
drivers with very low rate of fixes or feature additions.

It's also not only a question of who writes such release notes, but also
of who the intended audience is. How fine-grained should the release
notes be?

Anyway --- if in doubt, your distributor's current kernel is the best one.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-=-=== ---= =-===
http://arcgraph.de/sr/

Re: [Proposal] 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Sunil Naidu]

On 1/23/07, Stefan Richter <stefanr@s5r6.in-berlin.de> wrote:
>
> This would be hard to organize and support. There are news sites like
> LWN which give outlines of important kernel changes, and there are
> mailinglists or community sites for architectures or driver subsystems
> if you are interested in special platforms or drivers, and there is the
> git repository metadata (via gitweb or directly from a locally cloned
> git repo).

That's the problem all about. I don't have problems finding info about
a kernel feature or about a driver patch. But even for me it takes
some time to figure it out. (I don't work only with Linux......do work
with Mac OS, and Solaris too. But less of Windows!)

Am talking from the Linux users point of view (who need to know deep
about the Kernel development, etc. Imagine, a student or a
professional who wants to build a kernel with a patch for a i686
machine? Can't we simplify this at www.kernel.org home page instead of
user being lost in searching on Google or wherever?

> It's also not only a question of who writes such release notes, but also
> of who the intended audience is. How fine-grained should the release
> notes be?

I would like to contribute here, in any way. Fine graining might be a
problem. But we can give info in general? Example, if patch-2.6.19.3
comes out - simply we can say as *x86 32/64* based on the weightage of
fixes in that patch. What do you say?

> Anyway --- if in doubt, your distributor's current kernel is the best one.

I never depend on a distributor's kernel, especially Fedora has a
Generic one with many things enabled into the kernel. The moment I
install a distro....my hands would be itchy to build my own kernel
which is very specific to my H/W. No less or more. In this way I can
live with my best made kernel ;-)


[OT] Some posts I send does not appear on LKML. Even this one, I
couldn't find on list :( What might be the problem?

> Stefan Richter

Thanks,

~Akula2

Re: [Proposal] 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Stefan Richter]

Sunil Naidu wrote:
...
> Am talking from the Linux users point of view (who need to know deep
> about the Kernel development, etc. Imagine, a student or a
> professional who wants to build a kernel with a patch for a i686
> machine?

You speak of advanced users with very special requirements. They can
watch respective mailinglists, git trees, bugzillas, ... The file
MAINTAINERS contains some pointers for them.

...
> But we can give info in general? Example, if patch-2.6.19.3
> comes out - simply we can say as *x86 32/64* based on the weightage of
> fixes in that patch. What do you say?

This cannot be measured objectively.
-- 
Stefan Richter
-=====-=-=== ---= =-===
http://arcgraph.de/sr/

Re: 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Chuck Ebbert]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> On 22/01/07, Chuck Ebbert <cebbert@redhat.com> wrote:
>> Is there going to be another 2.6.18-stable release?
>>
>
> Now that 2.6.19 is out, most likely not.  -stable releases are made
> for the latest stable 2.6.x kernel, once 2.6.x+1 is out that's the one
> -stable patches are made for (2.6.16 is an exception)..
>
Great... just as 2.6.18 approaches actual stability.

Adrian, how much longer are you going to support 2.6.16? Would you consider
moving to 2.6.18 any time soon?

Re: 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Adrian Bunk]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:33:48PM -0500, Chuck Ebbert wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > On 22/01/07, Chuck Ebbert <cebbert@redhat.com> wrote:
> >> Is there going to be another 2.6.18-stable release?
> >>
> >
> > Now that 2.6.19 is out, most likely not.  -stable releases are made
> > for the latest stable 2.6.x kernel, once 2.6.x+1 is out that's the one
> > -stable patches are made for (2.6.16 is an exception)..
> >
> Great... just as 2.6.18 approaches actual stability.
> 
> Adrian, how much longer are you going to support 2.6.16? Would you consider
> moving to 2.6.18 any time soon?

I'll continue to maintain 2.6.16 - moving to 2.6.18 or any other kernel 
would defeat the purpose of what I am doing.

I'm not yet decided whether I'll create other stable kernel branches, 
but it this will happen it won't be 2.6.18, more like 2.6.25 or 2.6.30.

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

Re: 2.6.18-stable release plans?

[Daniel Barkalow]

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007, Jesper Juhl wrote:

> Now that 2.6.19 is out, most likely not.  -stable releases are made
> for the latest stable 2.6.x kernel, once 2.6.x+1 is out that's the one
> -stable patches are made for (2.6.16 is an exception)..

There's generally a bit of overlap. 2.6.17.14 was about the same time as 
2.6.18.1, and 2.6.18.6 was after 2.6.19.1. But 2.6.18.x must be over now, 
because the -stable team didn't release a 2.6.18.7 to match 2.6.19.2, and 
all of 2.6.x except for 2.6.19.2 has that weird file corruption bug 
(although rarely triggered).

	-Daniel
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