Re: Updated installation images for Debian Ports 2019-04-20

On 5/8/19 10:51 AM, Frank Scheiner wrote:
>> As far as I know, a lot of Alpha-specific hardware needs firmware but I
>> haven’t looked into creating images with firmware yet.
> 
> Yeah, but this problems seems purely due to the pata-modules missing in
> the initramfs.

That's true. But we have has also many reports on people complaining about
missing firmware, so that should definitely be addressed.

>> Here:
>> https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/tree/master/debian/installer/modules/alpha-generic
>>
>> Try to understand the include logic first before sending a PR. A lot of
>> modules are actually included using the “common” directory.
> 
> Could you explain a little more? With the "common" directory you mean [5]?
> 
> [5]:
> https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/tree/master/debian/installer/modules/

Yes. Unless the driver you want is alpha-specific, you would put it into
this list:

> https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/blob/master/debian/installer/modules/pata-modules

> The way I understand it, the configuration files in [6] control what
> UDEBs are built for the alpha kernel used for the installer, as they
> seem to include the configuration files from the assumed "common" super
> directory which list the drivers to include for the respective
> devices/protocols/standards/etc..

No. They simply control which modules are put into which modules UDEBS.

> And the configuration in [7] seems to control what UDEBs are installed
> in the initramfs.

Correct. debian-cd itself just includes all UDEBs.

> The question remains if one needs to specify dependencies explicitly or
> if dependencies are resolved during build. I'll try to correlate the
> modules in the initramfs with what is configured in [7] and come to a
> conclusion.

You put in all the modules you need. If you need "pata1", "pata2" and
"pata-helper", you add them to the list.

For example:

> https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/commit/db4ed9e563092b5847556f319fa29109bc5221a9

Adrian