On Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:58:08 -0500 Daniel Ouellet <dan...@presscom.net>
wrote:
> Fell free to disagree, that's fair.
>
> Best,
> Daniel
With all due respect Daniel, I disagree, and I think you've misread
things a bit. The original poster, Insan Praja, stated he had a panic
with both a GENERIC kernel, and with the snapshot kernel, so the fact
he compiled his own GENERIC kernel is completely irrelevant.
The goal is to use GENERIC or GENERIC.MP when reporting bugs. Whether
or not GENERIC/GENERIC.MP was compiled by you, or received as part of a
snapshot does not matter. The things that really do matter are the
actual *configuration* of the kernel, and whether or not any custom
patches are being used. --The names "GENERIC" and "GENERIC.MP" are the
names of the configuration files used to configure the build of the
kernel.
# cd /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/conf
# config GENERIC
# cd ../compile/GENERIC
# make clean && make depend && make
[...lots of output...]
# make install
If you are running the -RELEASE branch, you will be running the factory
compiled GENERIC or GENERIC.MP kernel, but many people prefer to follow
the -STABLE branch since there is some up-keep of the base system (i.e.
security related patches, and other important fixes).
If you are running the -STABLE branch, you will undoubtedly be
compiling your own kernel, so obviously, who compiled the kernel does
not matter.
When it comes to running the -CURRENT branch, you could be either
running the factory compiled kernel from a snapshot, or you could be
running your own compiled kernel. There are some mild differences
between running the GENERIC kernel from a snapshot, and running a
GENERIC kernel which you compiled from source. At times, the supposedly
GENERIC kernel(s) available in the snapshots have a bit of extra secret
sauce, such as fairly solid patches which are still in need of further
and greater testing.
There are some great, but non-default, features not available in
GENERIC or GENERIC.MP such as NTFS-read support. There is obviously no
way to report a bug in the NTFS-read support unless it was enabled in
the kernel, and hence, you're not running GENERIC/GENERIC.MP.
There are nearly countless ways someone can really screw up a kernel
configuration, and trying to track down bugs in some strange and unknown
kernel is a serious waste of developer time. This is why people are told
to always try to replicate the bug using GENERIC/GENERIC.MP before
reporting it. In situations of reporting a bug on non-default features,
like the NTFS-read support, you should replicate the bug with a kernel
as close to GENERIC as possible, and then clearly state the exact
changes you made to enable the non-default feature.
When tracking down bugs, the more consistent things are, the easier it
is to replicate, find, and fix the problem. This is why using *custom*
kernels are strongly discouraged, and our standard GENERIC kernel is
strongly encouraged.
--
J.C. Roberts
