Debian Developers - i2c and lm-sensors mess (update + RFC)

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Author i2c and lm-sensors mess (update + RFC)
Aurelien Jarno

2004-03-15, 2:35 pm

Hi all !

This mail is a bit long, if you don't have a lot of time, jump directly
to the end.

Some progress on the lm-sensors problem.

> 3) Ask for removal of old packages:
> i2c-2.4.20-3-386, i2c-2.4.20-3-586tsc, i2c-2.4.20-3-686,
> i2c-2.4.20-3-686-smp, i2c-2.4.20-3-k6, i2c-2.4.20-3-k7,
> i2c-2.4.20-3-k7-smp

I have filed a bug for that, I am waiting for the removal.

> 4) File bugs to get all applications linked to libsensors2 to be rebuilt
> against latest version of lm-sensors, so they will depends on
> libsensors3:
> * xsensors
> * wmsensors
> * wmgtemp
> * mrtgutils
> * ksensors
> * hardware-monitor
> * kdebase ??? (reenable support of sensors in ksysguard)

I filled bugs against these applications, new version of ksensors and
mrtgutils have been uploaded.

Still to be done:
> 5) Ask for removal of libsensors2 from Sid
>
> 6) When all packages have moved to Sarge, ask for removal of libsensors1



Now, let's go back on the problem and the solution. The problem is that
lm-sensors/i2c >= 2.8.0 are uncompatible with kernel 2.4. That's why
there is currently three source packages in Sid (and soon in Sarge):
- i2c version 2.7.0, which provides i2c prebuilt modules and i2c-source
- lm-sensors-old version 2.7.0, which provides prebuilt modules and
lm-sensors-source
- lm-sensors version 2.8.5, which provides a library and some userspaces
tools.

Basically everything works, however a lot of users are complaining that
they sensors are not supported by version 2.7.0 and ask me to switch
back to a version >= 2.8.0. It couldn't be done, because it will causes
kernel oops for people that are using prebuilt kernels or self-built
kernel with some drivers that uses i2c.

I am also not very satisfied to have packages that are outdated (more
than one year) in Sarge, a distribution which would probably be the
stable version in two years... Old packages also means that fixes are
difficult to backport.


****************************************
******************************
If you don't have a lot of time, start to read here
****************************************
******************************

So here is my proposition to make the users happy:
- Keep version 2.7.0 of i2c and lm-sensors for prebuilt modules only
- Drop lm-sensors-source and i2c-source and instead provide patches in
Debian packages of version 2.8.5 against Debian kernels.

The patches could be generated easily with a PERL script included in the
upstream tarballs. The patches would give the same functionnalities to
the users as the -source packages. I admit that with the -source
packages you can build modules without having to build a kernel (using
the headers), however it is a bit silly as prebuilt modules are already
available in Debian packages.

I think that this changes have to be made very quickly as we are very
near from freeze. Moreover, the packages will need ftp-masters approval.
I think I could upload the package later tomorrow night.

Please give your comments.

Cheers,
Aurelien

--
.''`. Aurelien Jarno GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
: :' : Debian GNU/Linux developer | Electrical Engineering Student
`. `' aurel32@debian.org | aurelien@aurel32.net
`- people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net

Nathanael Nerode

2004-03-15, 2:35 pm

Aurelien Jarno wrote:

> Hi all !
>
> This mail is a bit long, if you don't have a lot of time, jump directly
> to the end.
>
> Some progress on the lm-sensors problem.
>
> I have filed a bug for that, I am waiting for the removal.
>
Maintainer seems to be out to lunch here.
[color=darkred]
wmsensors was NMUed with maintainer approval :-)
[color=darkred]
No idea of the status here, no maintainer comment.
[color=darkred]
You did these two, I guess
[color=darkred]
Maintainer is working on this
[color=darkred]
This is supposedly in progress.[color=darkred]
> I filled bugs against these applications, new version of ksensors and
> mrtgutils have been uploaded.
>
> Still to be done:
>
>
> Now, let's go back on the problem and the solution. The problem is that
> lm-sensors/i2c >= 2.8.0 are uncompatible with kernel 2.4. That's why
> there is currently three source packages in Sid (and soon in Sarge):
> - i2c version 2.7.0, which provides i2c prebuilt modules and i2c-source
> - lm-sensors-old version 2.7.0, which provides prebuilt modules and
> lm-sensors-source
> - lm-sensors version 2.8.5, which provides a library and some userspaces
> tools.
>
> Basically everything works, however a lot of users are complaining that
> they sensors are not supported by version 2.7.0 and ask me to switch
> back to a version >= 2.8.0. It couldn't be done, because it will causes
> kernel oops for people that are using prebuilt kernels or self-built
> kernel with some drivers that uses i2c.

Frankly, I think you should just tell them all to use kernel 2.6.x. It's
stable now!

> I am also not very satisfied to have packages that are outdated (more
> than one year) in Sarge, a distribution which would probably be the
> stable version in two years... Old packages also means that fixes are
> difficult to backport.

Don't fix 'em.

> ****************************************
******************************
> If you don't have a lot of time, start to read here
> ****************************************
******************************
>
> So here is my proposition to make the users happy:
> - Keep version 2.7.0 of i2c and lm-sensors for prebuilt modules only
> - Drop lm-sensors-source and i2c-source and instead provide patches in
> Debian packages of version 2.8.5 against Debian kernels.

This is plausible. But I don't personally care ;-) given that I think that
anyone who cares should use kernel 2.6.

> The patches could be generated easily with a PERL script included in the
> upstream tarballs. The patches would give the same functionnalities to
> the users as the -source packages. I admit that with the -source
> packages you can build modules without having to build a kernel (using
> the headers), however it is a bit silly as prebuilt modules are already
> available in Debian packages.
>
> I think that this changes have to be made very quickly as we are very
> near from freeze. Moreover, the packages will need ftp-masters approval.
> I think I could upload the package later tomorrow night.
>
> Please give your comments.
>
> Cheers,
> Aurelien
>


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