Re: [cobalt-users] Have SUN stopped supporting XTR?

[Travis Ogdon <togdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ryan Verner wrote:

> Debian comes with a tool called 'alien' which converts RPM's to DEB's - and
> even then there's seperate kernel specific tools to package up a kernel
> package.

I've run proprietary .rpm files through alien before and come out with less than
working results. I don't think it's worth the bandwidth management tool and the
lcd panel to bother trying this. Besides, we're then still relying on Cobalt for
at least one patch.


> With Gentoo, I don't even think there is specific packaging for kernels.

Not that it's really applicable, but Gentoo does it in a weird way. The main
source is pointed at the vanilla source from kernel.org, and then the various
kernels are just patched with these big patches. For instance I'm using XFS, so
it downloads the vanilla kernel from one place (kernel.org or a mirror) and the
XFS patches from another (SGI or a mirror). It then patches them and then it's
up to me to configure the kernel. Since the hardware targets are pretty similar
I think we could get away with releasing binary only pre-compiled kernels. 


> Personally though, I would prefer to use our own compiled kernel with perhaps
> the LCD panel/whatever else from the kernel RPM.  It shouldn't be too hard to
> do.

Same here.


> Yes and no.  We certainly can duplicate any current functionality already on
> the units in any case, with room for expansion.  If we're heading up this
> project, we're not limited to what Sun wants - so hell, why just the one
> kernel? :-)

Good point. I suppose, however, that there's going to be a certain level of
implied support, or at least the presumption of group misery. Say that we were
moderately successful in getting a modern distro running... there are probably
lots of people who would be willing to run it. Some/lots of people are probably
not going to be very savvy. If we're successful these people will be able to use
the boxes as easily they could the original, just with modern software.


> > Other than Gentoo I've never been satisfied with the up-to-date-ness of a
> > distro. Debian is probably good enough, but the long time between releases
> > got annoying. I imagine that a semi-yearly 'apt-get dist-upgrade' whenever
> > Debian  gets around to updating is good enough for most people. I'd rather
> > be able to run the latest version of Apache+PHP+Mod_ssl, Proftpd, MySQL,
> > OpenSSH, etc. at all times. I suppose for those of us interested in that we
> > can just maintain
> 
> Uh, long time between releases?
>
> There's more then just the 'stable' ;-)  Additionally, all because we're
> basing this on debian doesn't mean we have to use debian's actual packages -
> in fact, I suggest we dont.  We'll likely have our own apt source specifically
> for each Cobalt.
> 
> "When debian gets around to updating" is another incorrect statement, if
> you've ever used unstable, you'll find new packages every few hours - and
> security.debian.org is certainly updated within hours of a security exploit.
>

No offense, but look at what the updates are sometime. Debian is very slow and
deliberate and they usually release a package 5-6 times before moving on. After
almost a year they're nowhere near releasing XFree86 4.2.1. X is just one
example. They're really good about releasing solid packages, but they're pretty
bad about rushing into things (as in there could be a lot more rushing). There
were nearly two years between the Potato and Woody releases (08/14/2000 -
07/19/2002), and the Woody release still ships with a 2.2 kernel.


> Semi-yearly isn't really a good security practice either ;)  Every few days
> for me, at least weekly.

The following in /etc/apt/sources and a weekly or so 
'apt-get update; apt-get upgrade' is of course ideal:

deb http://security.debian.org/ woody/updates main contrib non-free

You're still going two years between 'apt-get dist-upgrades' though.


> Webmin's okay, but I don't want to use this.  I'm prepared to write a new web
> interface from scratch, and I'd sure love my help.

Just looked at Webmin. It's not ok. Not for what I'd need it for, so we'd
definitely need to write a new interface, or just all be prepared to shell out
for Ensim/Plesk/Sphera.

-- Travis