Hello Guys and Gals, I would like to make a suggestion for a feature to be included in genkernel. I would like for it to build a binary package of the compiled kernel and it's modules. At the moment, the current binary package is just the kernel source, with the patches applied. My suggestion is to take /boot/* (that is generate by genkernel) and /lib/modules/<kernel> and create a binary file called gentoo-sources-2.5.1-compiled.tbz2. When the "old binary" package is installed, portage looks for the above file and extracts it as well, giving the user a "complete" kernel. As for the security/trustworthiness of this - it's the same as any binary distro or .tbz2 package made by someone. If you can't trust the source, don't install it. Comments/suggestions ? Thanks ! Reproducible: Always
"patches welcome" ;)
Hi Jeremy, So no major objections to it ? I will see what I can do on the genkernel side, on the emerge side I might have some problems. Thanks !
Well, genkernel is designed to be usable on any distribution, not just Gentoo. As such, it makes no sense for us to put in something that would not only be Gentoo specific, but package manager specific. If you want binary kernel packages for Gentoo, someone should write ebuilds to use genkernel to do so, and let the package manager do the package management functions, such as creating the binpkg, itself.
Hi, After some research I found that there is already a binary package created. Not sure how to "re-use" it. I can't see why genkernel can't have --create-tbz2, --create-rpm, --create-<another package manager>, adding one of these option, or even adding --create-gentoo-tbz2 doesn't make it distro specific
A tar.bz2 does not a binpkg make. A portage binpkg is a tar.bz2 of the files as well as a "xpak" tacked on the end with metadata.
How in the world is "or even adding --create-gentoo-tbz2 doesn't make it distro specific" not distribution-specific? You're talking about adding *explicitly* distribution-specific code where we've said that we want none. At any rate, the proper solution is an ebuild which uses genkernel and allows the package manager to do its job properly. Anything produced by genkernel currently will *not* work with *any* of the available package managers in Gentoo, nor will code be added to make it happen. Package management and kernel compilation are independent processes and we plan on keeping them at way... ;]
HI Chris, Point taken, thanks
No problem. I *am* planning on making modifications to genkernel to make it usable via an ebuild to create a compiled kernel. At that point, the package manager can create the binary packages via its own means.
