From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-Id: <199909281522.KAA04793@lists.linuxppc.org> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:20:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Kevin_Hendricks Reply-To: Kevin_Hendricks Subject: 2.2.13 build OOB?; need for some standardization here? To: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org List-Id: Hi, I don't want to start a fight here but... Isn't there any way to do more standardization among the different powerpc linux distributions (I know you want to differentiate your product to compete but..) Right now, we have Debian ppc, Linux PPC, YellowDog Linux, TurboLinux, MkLinux DR1, etc all vying for the same user base. This is making for the same support nightmare that already exists on x86 and something we should really try hard to avoid? For example: Look at the proliferation of kernels and versions of glibc "out-there": kernels: - 2.2.6 with and without usb support - 2.2.6 with 1.1 and 1.1.6 usb versions - 2.2.10 with either the old usb (1.1. vs 1.1.6) or the new usb, - 2.2.12 with Linus usb version - all of the above with and without mac-on-linux support - all of the above, with and without Anthony's Rage 128 XF68_FBDev driver This is literally a nightmare for tracking down bug reports of keycode problems in the jdk, video driver problems, etc. If on top of this we add glibc 2.1.2 vs glibc 2.1.1 (change in the semaphore definitions make them binary incompatible when trying to start up the jdk from a c app). (Not to mention the people stuck at glibc 1.99 under MkLinux waiting for DR1 to be official). Then there is the whole question of where to get your kernel source from? You can't seem to use the official kernel source trees for even the *stable* relases of 2.2.X. Is there any chance 2.2.13 will actually build out of the box on PPC without having to add Paul's patches and/or getting it via rsync from Paul's tree. Maybe so this time since I noticed Paul's name under Alan Cox's pre-patch list of contributors. Shouldn't the official *stable* kernel tree always build-out-of-the-box on each supported platform? If so, why isn't this happening in general? To more unify this, should we have our own clone of Alan Cox to make "semi-official" updates to the "official" stable tree to make things more official for ppc. Is this a role for Paul? (it is the role that Paul has filled for a very long time now, maybe it should be "official"). If so, then publize that being the one "true" source for "official" ppc kernel trees. The lack of standards for Linux is driving the Blackdown x86 JDK porting crazy. Differnt default ulimits for thread stacks between SuSe, RedHat, and Debian, differnt glibc's, different versions of libraries, different install locations, etc. Up until now, the ppc camp has been pretty immune to all of this. But now, the number of versions of things seems to be growing fast and I fear for the worst. Our user base is simply too small to keep that many different distributions around. If we want, commercial software to be ported to LinuxPPC, we really need to have a unified user base. Ideas here? Comments? Am I simply worrying too much? Thanks, Kevin -- Kevin B. Hendricks Associate Professor of Operations and Information Technology Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A-3K7 CANADA khendricks@ivey.uwo.ca, (519) 661-3874, fax: 519-661-3959 ** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/