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On Fri, 2004-04-30 at 20:37, Matthew Marlowe wrote: |
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> > Hi all - |
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> > To start preparing for 2004.2 in July, releng is opening up Feature |
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> > Requests that the community would like to see included in 2004.2. The |
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> > last day that we are accepting requests is Friday, May 7th at which |
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> > point releng will hold a meeting and decide which requests are |
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> > feasible for both the alloted time and workload. |
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> |
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> The biggest issues I've had with current and prior gentoo releases is the kernel. I've configured a couple dozen dell boxes of different models over the last 6 months using 1.4, 2004.0, and 2004.1, and invariably one or more of the following occurs: |
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> |
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> - smp kernel locks up completely during hardware detection. |
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I find that "smp nohotplug doscsi" seems to be the best bet on any of |
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the Dell/Compaq/HP servers that I have dealt with recently. |
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> - basic gentoo kernel runs, but doesn't always autodetect raid or network drivers |
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> - forced migration to lvm2, because the kernel is configured in 2004.0 for lvm2 |
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> - 1-3 processors are idle during system installs because of various smp/apic issues |
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See above... |
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> Most of these problems would go away if there was a simple documented way to allow users to substitute in their own kernels. Improving the QA process would help, of course, but I doubt the release eng team has time for this. |
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There would be no real way to substitute a kernel, since the livecd is a |
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read-only environment. You could build your own CDs via catalyst with |
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any kernel you choose. I know that is not the best answer, but the |
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truth is we try our best to come up with a release that meets the most |
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possible configurations. There are many cases where the CD simply |
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doesn't work, and that is a QA issue, but it is definitely something we |
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are striving to improve. |
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> I know that the new catalyst system is supposed to make things easier, and I'm researching that now...but it definitly doesn't appear to be as simple as it could be. I'd really like to see future releases work out of the box for Dell servers. |
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Catalyst makes building a live CD easier, but it doesn't do QA for you. |
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This is especially true of the kernels on the CD. The only thing that |
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really does any good is testing. Perhaps you should join the |
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gentoo-releng mailing list and help with testing on the next release. |
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The more machines the beta live CD get exposure to, the more bugs get |
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resolved before release. |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Developer, Gentoo Linux |
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Games Team |
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|
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Is your power animal a penguin? |
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