Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-08-06 Thread John W. Linville
On Tue, Aug 05, 2008 at 05:05:33PM -0400, Chuck Ebbert wrote:
> John W. Linville wrote:
> >
> >I still think that for continuity's sake f8 and f9 should continue
> >to get wireless fixes from 2.6.27.  Those should only be specific
> >bug fixes (although I suppose there is still time for a new driver),
> >so hopefully the nattering nabobs won't be opposed to continuing with
> >that part of the original plan.
> >
>
> If you push wireless fixes to -stable Fedora would then get them for "free".
> I don't see many wireless patches in there generally, though the ath5k
> memory corruption fix just went in.

Well I see where you had to revert a few in the F-9 changelogs as
you rebased on later -stable kernels, so there must be a few getting
through. :-)

If you would like to nominate more wireless fixes for -stable, feel
free to do so.  As it is, I mostly rely on my driver/stack maintainers
to identify appropriate patches for stable -- they are aware of the
process, including the Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] trick.

Even so, that only works for those problems which date back to 2.6.26.
Since Fedora kernels already have 2.6.27 code, then the 2.6.27 patches
would seem appropriate for Fedora too.  Of course you could elide the
2.6.27 code from the Fedora kernels as you have suggested elsewhere,
but then you will reintroduce other problems.

> And new drivers would be great. Lots of people seem to want ath9k, for
> example.

We'll see.  Honestly I've been dropping other things in favor of
keeping Fedora up-to-date for the last year or more.  Rather than find
ways to spend just as much time on Fedora while "getting less bang for
my buck", I'll probably find something else to occupy more of my time.
In particular, I think ath9k will make it into the 2.6.27 queue.

John
-- 
John W. Linville
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-08-05 Thread Kyle McMartin
On Tue, Aug 05, 2008 at 05:05:33PM -0400, Chuck Ebbert wrote:
> John W. Linville wrote:
>>
>> I still think that for continuity's sake f8 and f9 should continue
>> to get wireless fixes from 2.6.27.  Those should only be specific
>> bug fixes (although I suppose there is still time for a new driver),
>> so hopefully the nattering nabobs won't be opposed to continuing with
>> that part of the original plan.
>>
>
> If you push wireless fixes to -stable Fedora would then get them for "free".
> I don't see many wireless patches in there generally, though the ath5k
> memory corruption fix just went in.
>
> And new drivers would be great. Lots of people seem to want ath9k, for
> example.
>

John has been forwarding me fixes, I just haven't gotten around to
applying them yet. Will do so tonight.

r, Kyle

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-08-05 Thread Chuck Ebbert

John W. Linville wrote:


I still think that for continuity's sake f8 and f9 should continue
to get wireless fixes from 2.6.27.  Those should only be specific
bug fixes (although I suppose there is still time for a new driver),
so hopefully the nattering nabobs won't be opposed to continuing with
that part of the original plan.



If you push wireless fixes to -stable Fedora would then get them for "free".
I don't see many wireless patches in there generally, though the ath5k
memory corruption fix just went in.

And new drivers would be great. Lots of people seem to want ath9k, for
example.

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-31 Thread John W. Linville
On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 11:37:10AM -0400, John W. Linville wrote:

> So, here is what I propose:
> 
> -- continue the current practice until 2.6.26 is released and the
> 2.6.27 merge window closes;
> 
> -- after that, continue the current practice for updating rawhide; but,
> 
> -- once F9 (and presumably F8) move to 2.6.26, move the -pending bits
> to the -wireless.patch and do _not_ create a new -pending.patch for
> 2.6.28 bits;
> 
> -- once 2.6.27 is released, drop the -wireless patch and F9/F8 will
> get no more wireless updates at all;
> 
> -- F10 will release with -wireless and -pending patches inherited from
> rawhide, but they will "age out" following the process described for
> F9/F8 above.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'd like to amend the plan.

I'm going to decline to add any post-2.6.27 wireless bits to rawhide.
I think continuing that practice only complicates things for when
rawhide becomes f10, and in the meantime just adds to my personal pain.
Besides, I'm quite tired of...well, I'm just tired.

I'm prepared to consider adding specific items as requested
(e.g. ath9k), but for now let's just presume that rawhide will mostly
just get its wireless bits through Linus.

I still think that for continuity's sake f8 and f9 should continue
to get wireless fixes from 2.6.27.  Those should only be specific
bug fixes (although I suppose there is still time for a new driver),
so hopefully the nattering nabobs won't be opposed to continuing with
that part of the original plan.

Thanks,

John
-- 
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-07 Thread Thorsten Leemhuis

On 07.07.2008 18:51, Dave Jones wrote:

On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 12:30:28PM -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
 
 > > -- once F9 (and presumably F8) move to 2.6.26, move the -pending bits

 > > to the -wireless.patch and do _not_ create a new -pending.patch for
 > > 2.6.28 bits;
 > > -- once 2.6.27 is released, drop the -wireless patch and F9/F8 will
 > > get no more wireless updates at all;
 > This sounds reasonable.  And to be fair, they will get wireless updates,
 > but only when they get other drivers (eg, by going to 2.6.28) or things
 > that are small and pushed to -stable upstream
Yeah, this proposal makes a lot of sense to me. 


+1, as that's round about one of the things I suggested in my mail ;-)

Just one additional comment to the mail from John:

> Or, to abuse some words from someone else in the discussions around 
> separately packaged kernel modules for Fedora: "If they [the patches in 
> this case] are not good enough to get applied upstream why should they 
> be good enough for us?" There is a reason for the short merge window and 
> the longer stabilization phase upstream.

None of the patches in question meet this definition.


We misunderstood us here. ;-)


 They are all
queued for upstream.  Some of them are queued for the next upstream
release rather than the current one due mostly to the upstream release
process's scheduling requirements. [...]


And that is actually what I meant. Upstream doesn't take them *now*, as 
it's considered to risky for upstream now, as upstream has a 
stabilization phase. So if it's to risky for them, then it's IMHO to 
risky for us in a stable update as well.


CU
knurd

P.S.: For those interested, David Nielsen has a blog entry related to 
this discussion:


http://davidnielsen.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/pushing-kernels-more-aggressively-to-updates-testing/

David Nielsen: Pushing kernels more aggressively to updates-testing

On thing struck me tonight about the recent fiasco relating to the 
stable marking of a kernel that just happened to also kill wifi for a 
great number of users. We did the correct thing, to a degree naturally, 
the update was in relation to a security update something Fedora takes 
very seriously. As such our users should always feel safe knowing that 
we will push such updates fast, keeping their systems secure through 
multiple means including proactive security and rapid updates.


However the problem is that we don’t apply the update to the existing 
stable kernel, the patch is always applied on top of the progressing 
kernel, meaning we also end up shipping a lot of other things such as 
bugfixes, updates to the latest upstream STABLE tree and various other 
things. This however is confronted with one problem, the kernels in 
between the current stable and next update are not all being pushed to 
updates-testing - only selected kernel updates are. In cases where we 
then have to release a security fix we are forced to ship a bunch of 
stuff additionally which is not likely to have been tested extensively.


It occures to me that catching these bugs before they become a problem 
for average users could be accompliced by making better use of 
updates-testing, testers are normally willing to experience a degree of 
breakage and are qualified to file bugs for the most part. Then at least 
when an urgent update is required we will not likely be surprised by 
massive unrelated breakage - it might still occure but we can warn 
people if avoiding massive breakage is impossible and reverting the 
offending patches is impossible prior to release.


An additional problem caused by this is that when an urgent release 
contains bugs we will be urged to ship another update straight 
afterwards. Opening us to even more bugs from another untested delta 
(since other development is likely to have gone on along side the 
bugfix) and having our users suck down a second kernel package shortly 
after the original update.


The other option would be applying the security update to the current 
stable kernel and not carrying the current delta in the update, but this 
is expensive in terms of man power and time, it also goes counter to the 
rapidly developing nature of Fedora in general. This is the realm of the 
enterprise distros, if people want this approach something like 
RHEL/CentOS is likely a better fit for them.


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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-07 Thread Dave Jones
On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 12:30:28PM -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
 
 > > -- once F9 (and presumably F8) move to 2.6.26, move the -pending bits
 > > to the -wireless.patch and do _not_ create a new -pending.patch for
 > > 2.6.28 bits;
 > > -- once 2.6.27 is released, drop the -wireless patch and F9/F8 will
 > > get no more wireless updates at all;
 > 
 > This sounds reasonable.  And to be fair, they will get wireless updates,
 > but only when they get other drivers (eg, by going to 2.6.28) or things
 > that are small and pushed to -stable upstream

Yeah, this proposal makes a lot of sense to me. 
By doing less-often updates to F9 in this manner, you'll also have
more time to continue beating rawhide into shape :-P

Dave

-- 
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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-07 Thread Jeremy Katz
On Mon, 2008-07-07 at 11:37 -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
> So, here is what I propose:
> -- continue the current practice until 2.6.26 is released and the
> 2.6.27 merge window closes;
> 
> -- after that, continue the current practice for updating rawhide; but,

Definitely makes good sense for rawhide.  We may want to decide to go to
the "released" practice at some point late in the cycle, but that's
fine-tuning probably

> -- once F9 (and presumably F8) move to 2.6.26, move the -pending bits
> to the -wireless.patch and do _not_ create a new -pending.patch for
> 2.6.28 bits;
> -- once 2.6.27 is released, drop the -wireless patch and F9/F8 will
> get no more wireless updates at all;

This sounds reasonable.  And to be fair, they will get wireless updates,
but only when they get other drivers (eg, by going to 2.6.28) or things
that are small and pushed to -stable upstream

> -- F10 will release with -wireless and -pending patches inherited from
> rawhide, but they will "age out" following the process described for
> F9/F8 above.

Yep.

> I will defer to the judgment of the group -- as I've said I spend
> a lot more time keeping Fedora up-to-date than I would like to
> be doing.  Just don't expect me to transfer that effort over to
> tireless cherry-picking of fixes, for I just do not have the time.

I like the proposal and think it makes for a good balance -- we test new
stuff to go into new releases and then the filtering process for older
releases is based on when things make it upstream. 

Jeremy

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-07 Thread Josh Boyer
On Mon, 2008-07-07 at 11:37 -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 05, 2008 at 02:56:30PM +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > Three things spring to my mind and I just propose then here for 
> > discussion; maybe something good comes out of it in the end:
> > 
> > - a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from 
> > testing to stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people 
> > tested the kernel and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi 
> > but *before* it actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other 
> > pressing issues (like security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; 
> > more then 3 people should be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time 
> > needs to pass to give enough people the opportunity to install, test and 
> > report problems with new kernels. For the latest kernel it seems to me 
> > that "to less time" really was the problem, otherwise the problem from 
> > #453390 would have been noticed earlier
> 
> Something is definitely broken here.  I seem to recall beating the
> drum for Karma in the not-too-distant past, when the required number
> seemed to be up in the teens?  Who's bright idea was it to bring
> this value down to +3?  My assumption had been that it was okay to
> push these wireless bits because Bodhi would keep us from releasing
> truly broken kernels.  If we are going to use +3 then my assumption
> is clearly wrong and my practices have to change.

Karma for kernel packages is a stupid idea anyway.  If I wasn't
busy/lazy, I'd actually submit my proposal to have the kernel package
exempted from the automated karma rules altogether.

josh

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-07 Thread John W. Linville
On Sat, Jul 05, 2008 at 02:56:30PM +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:

> John (CCed), I really appreciate your work in the wireless area and 
> would like to use the opportunity to say "thanks for all you work", as 
> support for WLAN hardware in the Linux kernel improved a lot in the 
> upstream kernel and Fedora thx to your (and other linux wireless 
> developers) work over the last two years.

Thanks.  Normally my reward is to be kicked in the teeth when something
breaks -- usually by the same people who would be screaming "but
this is already fixed upstream" if I didn't push very recent patches,
but I digress...

> But we now for at least the second time in the past few weeks had/have
> a more-than-minor wireless breakage in a Fedora kernel for a released 
> distro (bug #453390 now; http://lwn.net/Articles/286558/ is discussing 
> the one some weeks ago; I think there was one more breakage not that 
> long ago, but I can't remember). I and many users (see for example 
> #453390) got hit by those problems. That's why I was wondering: what are 
> we at Fedora doing to prevent similar problems in the future?

For the record, bug 453390 was caused by me screwing-up a fixup for
build breakage between the current wireless code and the base 2.6.25
kernel in F9.  In other words, this was not the result of merging some
buggy upstream patch.  Instead it was the result of simple human error
on my part.  I would also point-out that cherry-picking individual
fixes often means rebasing that fix between upstream and the target
kernel, and doing so creates an opportunity for such "human error"
mistakes to creep-in _with_every_single_fix_.

If we want to cherry-pick individual wireless LAN fixes into Fedora
kernels then we need another monkey.  I already spend more time than
I should spare keeping Fedora kernels up-to-date as it is.  But all
the smiling faces are my reward...

> Three things spring to my mind and I just propose then here for 
> discussion; maybe something good comes out of it in the end:
> 
> - a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from 
> testing to stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people 
> tested the kernel and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi 
> but *before* it actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other 
> pressing issues (like security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; 
> more then 3 people should be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time 
> needs to pass to give enough people the opportunity to install, test and 
> report problems with new kernels. For the latest kernel it seems to me 
> that "to less time" really was the problem, otherwise the problem from 
> #453390 would have been noticed earlier

Something is definitely broken here.  I seem to recall beating the
drum for Karma in the not-too-distant past, when the required number
seemed to be up in the teens?  Who's bright idea was it to bring
this value down to +3?  My assumption had been that it was okay to
push these wireless bits because Bodhi would keep us from releasing
truly broken kernels.  If we are going to use +3 then my assumption
is clearly wrong and my practices have to change.

> - should we separate security updates and other kernel fixes in a better 
>  way to make sure those "other fixes" get proper testing before they 
> get send out to the users?

Sounds good, but I have no idea how to do that.  Does Fedora need a
"z-stream" a la RHEL?

> - John, having all those pending and not-yet-upstream-merged 
> improvements for wireless hardware in the Fedora kernel was something 
> good in the past when WLAN support in the kernel was quite 
> bad/incomplete. But the main and most important bits for proper wireless 
> hardware support seem to be in the upstream kernel now; sure, there will 
> always be improvements in the queue, but that's the same in most other 
> linux subsystems with drivers as well. So I'm wondering: isn't it time 
> now to finally stop shipping all those wireless-next bits (currently 
> quite some big patches; see:
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl2484 14. Mär 17:06 
> linux-2.6-ms-wireless-receiver.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl   39874  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless-fixups.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl 2656652  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless-pending.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl 4165718  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless.patch
> ) in released Fedora Version (e.g. 8 and 9 currently) when we start 
> shipping 2.6.26?

Perhaps it is worth explaing a bit about what these are:

-- linux-2.6-wireless.patch contains the stream of wireless patches
going from the base kernel's release (currently 2.6.25) and the next
upstream release (currently 2.6.26);

-- linux-2.6-wireless-pending.patch contains the stream of wireless
patches from the next upstream release to the following release
(currently 2.6.27);

-- linux-2.6-wireless-fixups.patch contains the changes required to
un-break the build after applying the previous two patches (a screw-up
here caused bug 453

Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-05 Thread Thorsten Leemhuis



On 05.07.2008 17:22, drago01 wrote:

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


On 05.07.2008 15:54, drago01 wrote:

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:


- a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from testing
to
stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people tested the
kernel
and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi but *before* it
actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other pressing issues (like
security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; more then 3 people
should
be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time needs to pass to give enough
people the opportunity to install, test and report problems with new
kernels.

Well the problem is not the patches that are being shipped but bodhi.

Yes and no. The patches are quite big and carry a additional risk. We don't
take such risk in other areas (Sound, LAN, Storage -- there for similar
reasons it might make sense) -- so why should we take that risk for WLAN
drivers in stable releases (might be something else for rawhide now and
then)?

There was a reasons until now (upstream sucked until a few months ago), but
we IMHO have to stop that sooner or later (otherwise Alsa maintainers, Jeff
G./Alan Cox might want to do the same and then it really becomes
problematic). As the most important WLAN bits are in the kernel now with
2.6.26 it's IMHO a good time to think about slowing down a bit. Of cause we
can still cherry picking some improvements if we want.


Well if the upstream maintainer sees a need for this why not? (given
the changes go to testing first)


In rawhide -- sure, let them do that as long as we are not close to a 
release. That's what rawhide is for.


But kernel updates for a stable/release Fedora version should IMHO 
normally not contain big and frequently changing/updated development 
patchsets.


Or, to abuse some words from someone else in the discussions around 
separately packaged kernel modules for Fedora: "If they [the patches in 
this case] are not good enough to get applied upstream why should they 
be good enough for us?" There is a reason for the short merge window and 
the longer stabilization phase upstream.


Cu
knurd

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-05 Thread drago01
On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> On 05.07.2008 15:54, drago01 wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> - a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from testing
>>> to
>>> stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people tested the
>>> kernel
>>> and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi but *before* it
>>> actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other pressing issues (like
>>> security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; more then 3 people
>>> should
>>> be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time needs to pass to give enough
>>> people the opportunity to install, test and report problems with new
>>> kernels.
>>
>> Well the problem is not the patches that are being shipped but bodhi.
>
> Yes and no. The patches are quite big and carry a additional risk. We don't
> take such risk in other areas (Sound, LAN, Storage -- there for similar
> reasons it might make sense) -- so why should we take that risk for WLAN
> drivers in stable releases (might be something else for rawhide now and
> then)?
>
> There was a reasons until now (upstream sucked until a few months ago), but
> we IMHO have to stop that sooner or later (otherwise Alsa maintainers, Jeff
> G./Alan Cox might want to do the same and then it really becomes
> problematic). As the most important WLAN bits are in the kernel now with
> 2.6.26 it's IMHO a good time to think about slowing down a bit. Of cause we
> can still cherry picking some improvements if we want.

Well if the upstream maintainer sees a need for this why not? (given
the changes go to testing first)

>> Auto pushing for something like the kernel should be disabled, to
>> prevent such stuff from happening.
>> The bug you are referring to, has been resolved quickly, if the kernel
>> stayed in testing (ie no autopush) it would not have hit stable with
>> this bug.(same for other, non wireless related issues).
>
> Well, that is round about what I said in my discussion point just in
> slightly different words ;-)

Well this is because we agree here ;)

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-05 Thread Thorsten Leemhuis



On 05.07.2008 15:54, drago01 wrote:

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


- a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from testing to
stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people tested the kernel
and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi but *before* it
actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other pressing issues (like
security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; more then 3 people should
be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time needs to pass to give enough
people the opportunity to install, test and report problems with new
kernels.

Well the problem is not the patches that are being shipped but bodhi.


Yes and no. The patches are quite big and carry a additional risk. We 
don't take such risk in other areas (Sound, LAN, Storage -- there for 
similar reasons it might make sense) -- so why should we take that risk 
for WLAN drivers in stable releases (might be something else for rawhide 
now and then)?


There was a reasons until now (upstream sucked until a few months ago), 
but we IMHO have to stop that sooner or later (otherwise Alsa 
maintainers, Jeff G./Alan Cox might want to do the same and then it 
really becomes problematic). As the most important WLAN bits are in the 
kernel now with 2.6.26 it's IMHO a good time to think about slowing down 
a bit. Of cause we can still cherry picking some improvements if we want.



Auto pushing for something like the kernel should be disabled, to
prevent such stuff from happening.
The bug you are referring to, has been resolved quickly, if the kernel
stayed in testing (ie no autopush) it would not have hit stable with
this bug.(same for other, non wireless related issues).


Well, that is round about what I said in my discussion point just in 
slightly different words ;-)


Cu
knurd

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-05 Thread drago01
On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> - a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from testing to
> stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people tested the kernel
> and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi but *before* it
> actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other pressing issues (like
> security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; more then 3 people should
> be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time needs to pass to give enough
> people the opportunity to install, test and report problems with new
> kernels.

Well the problem is not the patches that are being shipped but bodhi.
Auto pushing for something like the kernel should be disabled, to
prevent such stuff from happening.
The bug you are referring to, has been resolved quickly, if the kernel
stayed in testing (ie no autopush) it would not have hit stable with
this bug.(same for other, non wireless related issues).

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Re: When will we stop shipping WLAN improvements ahead of upstream in released Fedora version?

2008-07-05 Thread Christopher Brown
2008/7/5 Thorsten Leemhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Hi all
>
> John (CCed), I really appreciate your work in the wireless area and would
> like to use the opportunity to say "thanks for all you work", as support for
> WLAN hardware in the Linux kernel improved a lot in the upstream kernel and
> Fedora thx to your (and other linux wireless developers) work over the last
> two years.
>
>
> But we now for at least the second time in the past few weeks had/have
> a more-than-minor wireless breakage in a Fedora kernel for a released distro
> (bug #453390 now; http://lwn.net/Articles/286558/ is discussing the one some
> weeks ago; I think there was one more breakage not that long ago, but I
> can't remember). I and many users (see for example #453390) got hit by those
> problems. That's why I was wondering: what are we at Fedora doing to prevent
> similar problems in the future?
>
>
> Three things spring to my mind and I just propose then here for discussion;
> maybe something good comes out of it in the end:
>
> - a karama of "+3" in bodhi seems not enough for a auto-move from testing to
> stable (or even worse: straight to stable if enough people tested the kernel
> and gave their +1 after the update got filed in bodhi but *before* it
> actually hit fedora-testing) if there are no other pressing issues (like
> security fixes). The kernel is a to complex beast; more then 3 people should
> be needed to give a +1. And a bit of time needs to pass to give enough
> people the opportunity to install, test and report problems with new
> kernels. For the latest kernel it seems to me that "to less time" really was
> the problem, otherwise the problem from #453390 would have been noticed
> earlier
>
> - should we separate security updates and other kernel fixes in a better
>  way to make sure those "other fixes" get proper testing before they get
> send out to the users?
>
> - John, having all those pending and not-yet-upstream-merged improvements
> for wireless hardware in the Fedora kernel was something good in the past
> when WLAN support in the kernel was quite bad/incomplete. But the main and
> most important bits for proper wireless hardware support seem to be in the
> upstream kernel now; sure, there will always be improvements in the queue,
> but that's the same in most other linux subsystems with drivers as well. So
> I'm wondering: isn't it time now to finally stop shipping all those
> wireless-next bits (currently quite some big patches; see:
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl2484 14. Mär 17:06
> linux-2.6-ms-wireless-receiver.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl   39874  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless-fixups.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl 2656652  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless-pending.patch
> -rw-rw-r-- 1 thl thl 4165718  4. Jul 22:21 linux-2.6-wireless.patch
> ) in released Fedora Version (e.g. 8 and 9 currently) when we start shipping
> 2.6.26?

Wireless breakage occurs almost exclusively on desktop machines. If a
newer kernel breaks, roll back to the old one. I have experienced zero
wireless breakage since Fedora 9 was released (this on three separate
chipsets) and am happy for development to take place (in this one
particular area) ahead of kernel as it is still an area that lags
behind a Windows desktop environment.

Besides, I'm willing to bet removing the above patches will break even
more stuff than the occasional wireless tree pull-age.

Regards

-- 
Christopher Brown

http://www.chruz.com

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