[oe] How update kernel recipe?

[Philip Balister]

Ulf Samuelsson wrote:
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> Koen Kooi skrev:
> | Ulf Samuelsson wrote:
> | I have built "gpe-image" for AT91SAM9263EK
> | after fixing libsvg-cairo manually due to the LT_VERSION problem.
> |
> | I would like to upgrade the kernel for AT91SAM9263EK.
> | I created a recipe for linux-2.6.25.10 called
> | "packages/linux/linux-atmel_2.6.25.10.bb" (found below)
> |
> |> Yuck! There is *absolutely* no need to define
> |>
> linux-we-are-so-cool-we-have-our-company-name-the-kernel-recipe-filename.bb
> |> files, you should be perfectly able to reuse the linux_2.6.25 recipe, as
> |> avr32 already does.
> |
> 
> You do not need to edit (and possibly destroy)
> work done and used by others, but I do not have any problem
> with using the linux_2.6.25 recipe, except is is 2.6.25
> and not 2.6.25.10.
> 
> The AVR32 should be updated to patch with 2.6.25.10 as well...
> 
> If you have a number of linux_<version>, some with and some
> without support for your board, then it is harder to
> get an overview which kernels are supported.
> 
> Drawback would be if you lose out on interesting features
> added by others by using a proprietary recipe.
> 
> Very few machines seems to use the vanilla linux.
> Is there any move to merge current boards into vanilla linux_<version> ?

This is a really good discussion. How to decide when to add a new kernel 
recipe versus enhancing an existing recipe is really tough. I understand 
the motivation to create a new recipe, first, it means you are less 
likely to break another machine, and second others are less likely to 
break your work. When adding a kernel for a new machine, there may be 
frequent commits and PR bumps.

My personal preference is to try and use an existing kernel recipe 
wherever possible. And certainly build on the linux.inc file that helps 
provide common structure to recipes. But I like kernel recipes that 
support the communities that grow up around boards and families of 
boards. For example, we can support OMAP2 and OMAP3 boards from the 
linux-omap2 recipe. Most of these boards are still building from the git 
kernel repo that supports all members of the OMAP family. (Yes, we 
should look at moving the omap1 builds to the omap2 recipe and renaming 
it linux-omap).

As with many things, there is more than one good way to solve the problem.

Philip
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