[gentoo-dev] drivers and kernel addons

[Martin Schlemmer]

Hi

Something we really need at the moment is a pcmcia-cs ebuild,
but due to reasons i cannot remember, you cant have just a 
default ebuild, but should need to provide source as well
if needed.

Danarmak and me talked about this some while back, but neither
of us got to it as of yet.

A nice option whould be to split ebuild of this kind into 3:

  modules
  source
  userland-tools
  (maybe libs as well .. like lm_sensors ??)

Only problem i for see with this, is that there is no real
place for ebuild of this kind.

Also other drivers (nvidia, any other addon (the glide modules?) have no
real place in the portage tree.

Now, what I suggests is that we move things around a bit, and
create some new portage catagories:

  kernel-headers
     linux-headers
     pcmcia-cs-headers
     lm_sensors-headers (if needed)
     alsa-headers

  kernel-modules (also any binaries .. like the kernel)
    linux
    pcmcia-cs-modules
    lm_sensors-modules
    i2c-modules
    nvidia-modules
    alsa-modules
    ...

  kernel-source
    linux-sources
    linux-sources-vanilla
    pcmcia-cs-sources
    lm_sensors-sources
    i2c-sources
    alsa-sources

  kernel-tools
    ksymoops
    pcmcia-cs-tools
    lm_sensors-tools
    alsa-utils/tools

  kernel-libs (??)
    lm_sensors-libs
    alsa-libs

And so on.

Another plus of doing it this way (except the lots of work
;p), is that things will be easier to find for new users.

The kernel-source stuff can tipically install into
/usr/src/kernel-extra or some other default location

I have already commited myself to doing i2c and lm_sensors,
danarmak said he will do pcmcia-cs, and the rest should not
be a biggy.

Anyway, this is still a very _alph_ idea ;)  So let me know
what you think!


Greetings,
-- 

Martin Schlemmer
Gentoo Linux Developer, Desktop Team Developer
Cape Town, South Africa