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

[Troy Dawson]

Panu Matilainen wrote:
> 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 -

That does make sense, and explains my frustration at not getting any 
further.
But then, how do you tell your users to install things that require 
kernel-modules?
Oh ... I just figured that part out.

yum install openafs openafs-client kernel-module-openafs-`uname -r`

That works, and it garantee it get's them the kernel-module of what is 
currently running, which was the main problem my users were seeing.
OK, thanks for the info, I'll quit running my head against a wall now.

Troy
-- 
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Troy Dawson  dawson at fnal.gov  (630)840-6468
Fermilab  ComputingDivision/CSS  CSI Group
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