Re: Uses of Linux backports in the industry

Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult
2015-06-24T10:13:46Z

Am 01.06.2015 um 20:50 schrieb Felix Fietkau:

> We support many different platforms, and sometimes it takes a
> while to update the kernel on them.

Just curious: what makes these platforms so different from each other,
so it takes so much time to port to new kernel ? Are there things so
special, that they can't go into mainline ?

In a few weeks, I'll (hopefully) have a few weeks off and plan to play
around w/ some spare DSL routers. Maybe we can have a talk on how to
get more things mainlined, if you wish :)

> Using backports significantly reduces the amount of effort that we need
> to put into maintaining the wireless drivers.
> When making changes to wireless drivers or mac80211, which I submit
> upstream, I also develop them in our most recent backports snapshot
> first (typically generated from wireless-testing). When they are done, I
> port them to a proper git tree and submit them from there.

How much has changed from your old baseline compared to current
mainline ? I could imagine, in your area it might not be as much
as in others (eg. graphics or v4l subsystem).

> In OpenWrt, we typically update the backports snapshot outside of the
> normal kernel release cycle (always to latest wireless-testing) and
> stabilize that by cherry-picking individual patches on top of it.

Can you estimate the required workforce ?
Some statistics on that would be really nice.

cu
--
Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult
+49-151-27565287
MELAG Medizintechnik oHG Sitz Berlin Registergericht AG Charlottenburg HRA 21333 B

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