[Yum-devel] Now that we have a kernel module standard

[Panu Matilainen]

On Wed, 2006-01-11 at 17:35 -0500, Jack Neely wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> Now that we have a kernel module standard, or at least something to code
> to while the bugs are worked out let's do some planning on Yum's kernel
> module support.
> 
> Currently, Yum attempts to figure out if kernel modules need to be
> installed and if that install is a new install or an "upgrade" of an
> existing module.  In the latter case the older module is erased.
> However, the code does not conform to the new proposed standard.  I'll
> have this tweaked soon.
> 
> Basicly, I'd like to put together a list of functionality that Yum
> should do with kernel modules.  
> 
> We have the above.  What exactly yum does when the user says "yum
> install kmod-foo" should probably be the next target.

My feeling is that the user expects is that after "install foo", foo is
immediately usable (just like everything else). So the plugin should be
installed for the currently running kernel, *and* at least the latest
installed kernel. From there ... the user might expect it to just work
on every kernel installed so the safest (but ugly IMHO) bet would be to
install the module for all installed kernels. 

> 
> Also, what functionality should be in Yum propper vs. a plugin?

I think the whole kernel-module mess belongs to a plugin as long as
there is not standard across *all* major rpm distro vendors (yeah, dream
on). The proposed standard only concerns Fedora Extras (even FC is not
included but then FC has no policies whatsoever really), having
FE-specific code in Yum doesn't sound right to me.

	- Panu -