> 1) Should the kernel source code interfaces, for well-understood
> interfaces, be stable? (We are solidly committed not having a binary
> interface, so bringing that up is a red herring.)
For stable kernel series yes. And they should be frozen a bit before
the first n.foo-pre release so that stuff can be checked over and solidified
> 2a) Given that development kernels are frequently unstable in some
> unexpected way, is is reasonable force testing of driver changes
> combined with unknown other changes?
I had a lot of the same problems trying to get stuff sorted with you for 2.2.x
though, and that is a stable API and a basically sound kernel. The pci_netif
stuff broke spectacularly on it, with cards appearing 8 times and the like.
I switched to Andrey Savochim's eepro100 driver because it actually worked
and he was fixing the bugs people were reporting. I try on the whole to keep
close to your drivers (pre netif anyway) but they have bugs in them that just
aren't getting fixed - the 21041 + modern tulip problem, the 3c590 8K hang
under load (all driver revs >0.49!) and the eepro100 hangs.
That tells me several things - as Jeff can now testify network cards are evil
buggy little contraptions. If the bugs aren't getting fixed then we need more
people beating on those drivers and hacking them
> 2b) Given that the kernel continues to exponentially increasing in size,
> should all development go through the latest development kernel?
Lots of driver people work against the stable kernel - but in SMALL updates.
That is one of the important things.
> should be using the development source tree. But the "official" advice to
> anyone with device problems, frequently repeated on the kernel mailing list,
> is to run the latest development kernel.
No the official advice os to run the latest pre release stable kernel.
Alan
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 23 2000 - 21:00:24 EST