linux-kernel - Re: Options depending on STANDALONE

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Date:	Mon, 7 Aug 2006 10:56:42 -0700
From:	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
To:	Thomas Renninger <trenn@...e.de>
Cc:	"Brown, Len" <len.brown@...el.com>, Adrian Bunk <bunk@...sta.de>,
	Dave Jones <davej@...hat.com>,
	Zachary Amsden <zach@...are.com>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...l.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>,
	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	Jack Lo <jlo@...are.com>, v4l-dvb-maintainer@...uxtv.org,
	linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Options depending on STANDALONE

On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 07:33:31PM +0200, Thomas Renninger wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-08-03 at 16:49 -0400, Brown, Len wrote:
> > >On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 10:25:43PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > >> ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT seems to be the most interesting case.
> > >> It's anyway not usable for distribution kernels, and AFAIR the ACPI 
> > >> people prefer to get the kernel working with all original DSDTs
> > >> (which usually work with at least one other OS) than letting 
> > >> the people workaround the problem by using a custom DSDT.
> > >
> > >Not true at all.  For SuSE kernels, we have a patch that lets people
> > >load a new DSDT from initramfs due to broken machines requiring a
> > >replacement in order to work properly.
> > 
> > CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT allows hackers to debug their system
> > by building a modified DSDT into the kernel to over-ride what
> > came with the system.  It would make no sense for a distro
> > to use it, unless the distro were shipping only on 1 model machine.
> > This technique is necessary for debugging, but makes no
> > sense for production.
> > 
> > The initramfs method shipped by SuSE is more flexible, allowing
> > the hacker to stick the DSDT image in the initrd and use it
> > without re-compiling the kernel.
> > 
> > I have refused to accept the initrd patch into Linux many times,
> > and always will.
> > 
> > I've advised SuSE many times that they should not be shipping it,
> > as it means that their supported OS is running on modified firmware --
> > which, by definition, they can not support.  
> Tainting the kernel if done so should be sufficient.
> > Indeed, one could view
> > this method as couter-productive to the evolution of Linux --
> > since it is our stated goal to run on the same machines that Windows
> > runs on -- without requiring customers to modify those machines
> > to run Linux.
> 
> There are three reasons for the initrd patch (last one also applies for
> the compile in functionality):

<snip>

Yeah, you and others within SuSE have convinced me to not drop this
patch from our kernel tree.

Sorry Len.

thanks,

greg k-h
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