[arch-general] Reboot - Versioned Kernel Installs

[Yaro Kasear]

On Monday, June 06, 2011 11:34:53 Thomas Dziedzic wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Tavian Barnes
> 
> <tavianator at tavianator.com> wrote:
> > On 6 June 2011 10:02, KESHAV P.R. <skodabenz at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>         Since the next kernel will be 3.0 , the kernel26 naming is
> >> meaningless from the next kernel. I think this is also a good time to
> >> consider implementing versioned kernel install. Agreed arch has a
> >> policy of 1 package per software in the official repos. While this
> >> attitude is acceptable for Xorg or windows managers or even some low
> >> level utilities, problems with those can be corrected if the system
> >> can boot to a shell atleast (init 1 or 3). But if the kernel fails to
> >> boot and under the assumption that the user hdoes not have any rescue
> >> system/distro handy he/she cannot boot into the system (atleast not at
> >> that moment). Without a working kernel it is not possible to boot to a
> >> shell to run any damn command.
> >>        While this topic has already been discussed at [1] the
> >> discussion was slow and has not lead to any fruitful result. This post
> >> is mainly to reach out to a larger audience and decide on how to go
> >> about since the upsteam version change provides the right time for
> >> Arch to reconsider the same. Another discussion at [2] is about
> >> removing the word kernel from the initramfs image. If in case
> >> versioned kernel proposal is accepted then the initramfs also
> >> (automatically) becomes versioned to match the kernel. Atleast Dave
> >> Reisner (falconindy) took the first step by making the change in his
> >> geninit program. I understand this might require changes in the way
> >> mkinitcpio (or geninit if at all it becomes default) and the way
> >> pacman handles different versions of same packages. Please join in.
> >> 
> >> [1] https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16702
> >> [2] https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/18719
> >> 
> >> Regards.
> >> 
> >> keshav
> > 
> > I have kernel26-lts installed as a backup kernel, and this is all
> > that's really necessary for rolling back broken kernel updates.  I've
> > been bitten by a BTRFS bug once and rolled back with -lts no problem.
> > -1 from me on keeping multiple kernel versions installed; I really
> > like that arch doesn't keep 6 old kernels around.
> > 
> > While we're at it, +1 for calling the kernel package "linux" for version
> > 3.0.
> > 
> > --
> > Tavian Barnes
> 
> Agreed with Tavian Barnes.
> Also, don't call it "linux30" just call it "linux"

Or just 'kernel.'

And yes, -1 on multiple kernels. That was one of the more idiotic brain-
damaged practices of Ubuntu that drove me away in the first place.