[Yum-devel] kernel-module plugin - problems during install

[Panu Matilainen]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Troy Dawson wrote:

> Hello,
> I wanted to send in a patch, instead of just report a problem, but I've 
> gotten stuck.
>
> Software:
> yum-2.4.2
> kernel-module plugin, latest from yum-utils
> Scientific Linux 4.2
>
> Problem:
> When trying to install a program that requires a kernel-module, a kernel 
> module is selected, but it is not always for the correct kernel.  It then 
> tries to install whichever kernel matches that kernel-module.
> For upgrades, once the correct kernel-modules have been installed, work 
> great, just like it's supposed to.

The kernel-module plugin doesn't even try to handle the install-case, so 
this is "expected behavior." The reason for that is that .. well, it's not 
exactly straightforward.

When a kernel module gets pulled in as a dependency of something, like 
you've notived yum depsolver pulls in any package providing that 
feature, and the plugin can't control it (there's no way to hook *into* 
the depsolve stage to help the decision).

One could try handling this by excluding all kernel-module packages except 
those of the "target kernel", so the depsolver only has one choice. The 
question then becomes: what exactly is the "target kernel" - is it the 
running kernel or the latest installed kernel? If you say "both" we're 
back to square one with depsolver having 50/50 chance of getting it wrong 
:)

 	- Panu -