Re: LiS and Linux 2.6 (SuSE 9.1 and SuSE 9.2)

--- "Brian F. G. Bidulock" <[email protected]> wrote:

> dan_gora,

Please, just "Dan"... My name is Dan Gora.

> I don't know what a SuSE EL 9 is, but I have 2.18.1 loading and
> running on:

Sorry I got confused, it's not EL9 it's ES 9, SuSE Enterprise Server
9.  I guess they got jealous of Red Hat's naming conventions.  It
unfortunately has yet a different kernel version from 9.1 or 9.2,
although it's not all that different.  The changes that we did for
SuSE 9.1 and 9.2 worked with no changes on ES9 too, so I'm sure that
you'll have similar results.

http://www.novell.com/products/linuxenterpriseserver/

> This was fixed on openss7 LiS-2.16.18 releases a long time ago.
> On parisc, one cannot execute a system call from within the
> kernel.  I rip the sys_ symbols on the kernel side of the call
> gate and call them directly.
> 
> There are probably more things required for full 64-bit safety,
> however, I do not have any 64-bit test platforms.  Anybody
> willing to donate some?

There was some problem with calling them directly on 64 bit
platforms. 
I think that they are not all exported anymore in the SuSE versions. 
I can't recall exactly what the problem was off hand, but calling
them directly wasn't going to work.  I'll try and get back to you
about this.

I'm not willing to donate test platforms, but we are willing to test
the release on ours...

> I haven't released it publicly yet, more so because it is not
> fully ready, not because we want anyone to purchase it.  I have
> some debugging and testing to do on the various architectures
> and distributions before relasing it is ready for prime-time.  I
> is still my intention to replace LiS with it.

Is it still your intention to make it full GPL or are you going to
use a similar LGPL that LiS uses?

> Linux Fast-STREAMS compiles and loads on all the above
> architectures and distributions as well.  I have split off a
> strxns package (ldl, ip_strms stuff, DLPI, NPI headers and
> docs), strxnet package (timod, tirdwr, libxnet, TPI, XTI headers
> and docs), strinet package (inet driver), strsctp package
> (STREAMS sctp driver).  The purpose of spitting these packages
> our of LiS was so that they would build and load against both
> LiS and Linux Fast-STREAMS from the same codebase.
> 
> In wrapping LiS 2.18.1 under autoconf I was very disappointed to
> observe SMP races by simple inspection.  (If you want a quick
> example look at how lis_freezestr and lis_unfreezestr examine
> flags outside of locks and then take locks and change flags
> depending on the unlocked check.)

Did you fix all of the ones that you found or are there still some
hanging out?

> I will apply patches and fixes to 2.18.1 and maintain the code,
> however, all my further development effort will be on Linux
> Fast-STREAMS instead of LiS.  If you work with the 2.18.1
> release, you should move quite easily to the Linux Fast-STREAMS
> release that has lis_ compatibility functions and is largely
> source compatible with LiS.

We'll look into that but without being able to see it, it's pretty
hard to make any plans to migrate to it.  The licensing will also be
a big issue because we sell comercial non-GPL products and have no
intention on making our code GPL.

> > thanks for the new release, looking forward to see it.
> 
> Your welcome.  I hope it can be a stable branch along which
> patches can be made as required.

sounds good.  I'll make sure that we get our changes for the 64 bit
stuff integrated once you release it, then I'll send em back.

How are you planning on releasing this?  On openSS7.org?  I'd still
like at some point to open a sourceforge project for this but time
has been lacking lately.

thanks-
dan