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On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Pandu Poluan <pandu@××××××.info> wrote: |
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> On Dec 11, 2011 12:02 AM, "Grant Edwards" <grant.b.edwards@×××××.com> wrote: |
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>> On 2011-12-10, Pandu Poluan <pandu@××××××.info> wrote: |
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>> |
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>> > And even you can't guarantee that the kernels are the same. Many distros |
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>> > introduce their own distro-specific patches to the vanilla kernel. |
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>> |
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>> RedHat is particularly bad about this. I maintain a couple Linux |
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>> drivers that have to work with a wide range of kernel versions. There |
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>> are lot's of #ifdef's that depend on not only the kernel and some of |
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>> them also have to check whether it's a _RedHat_ kernel or not, since |
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>> RedHat is fond of shipping a kernel with version X.Y.Z that isn't even |
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>> close to compatible with the driver API for vanilla kernel X.Y.Z. |
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>> |
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>> > With Gentoo, it's even more complicated, as most experienced |
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>> > Gentooroids will configure and compile their own kernels. |
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>> |
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>> I've never had to add special code to a driver to handle the Gentoo |
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>> version of a kernel. |
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>> |
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> |
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> Ah, I see that I might have misconstrued myself. My bad. |
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> |
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> Regarding drivers: usually they're no big deal, since the 'infrastructure' |
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> portions of the kernel (e.g., SCSI disk support) are most likely have been |
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> enabled. |
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> |
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> For most applications, usually they don't really care what's in the kernel |
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> since they operate at a quite high-level. |
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> |
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> Problems might arise though if you're doing exotic things. For example: If I |
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> built the IPset portion as 'built-in' into the kernel, I won't be able to |
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> install xtables-addons. This is due to the package wanting to install its |
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> own set of IPset modules. |
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> |
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> Fortunately, such cases are few and far between in the Gentooverse. People |
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> doing exotic things are naturally expected to Know What They Are Doing™ :-) |
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|
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Speaking from experience, the real difficulty is knowing that you're |
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doing something exotic. Once you find out, you generally have two |
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options: Follow the route most people go (such as is happening with |
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udev), or help fix the system so that your desired approach still |
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works (such as the fellow who's been working with mdev). |
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|
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If you're constantly exploring, you'll very likely hit the exotic edge |
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cases, but then that's going to be part of learning the thing you're |
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exploring. Gentoo can be really great for that. Even better, in that |
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it's often not that hard (after a while) to help smooth those edges, |
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making it easier to go on exploring. |
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-- |
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:wq |
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