Subject: bug#72119: All kernels depend on the latest kernel

From: Dariqq <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2024 17:24:29 +0000

Hi Wilko,

On 15.07.24 17:43, Wilko Meyer wrote:
> Hi Dariqq,
> 
>> As a solution I would propose either
>> - updating the default 5.14.49 header (there is a big warning next to it
>> so probably not a good idea)
>> - or create a second stable, recent enough header to use for such cases.
> 
> I'm still in favor of the second solution, as previously discussed here:
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2024-06/msg00182.html.
> 

Just creating a second newer header package would be relatively easy to 
implement without much rebuilds. (basically only all kernels which are 
already being rebuild weekly).

The more general problem is a bit more tricky though:

> However, I think linux-libre-headers should refer to the latest
> header, and for bootstrapping purpose there *should* be a
> linux-libre-headers-bootstrap variable or something like that.
> 

I agree that it is a bit confusing that there is an unversioned 
linux-libre for the the latest kernel but the unversioned header is some 
arbitrary version.

> I'm not too knowledgable on the entire bootstrapping process, but if I
> see that correctly, the headers are only used in
> linux-libre-headers-boot0 of commencement.scm? That could be changed,
> even though I'm not sure what that implies in terms of rebuilds.
> 

The main part (i can see) where linux-libre-headers are used apart from 
the bootstrapping process is being propagated from glibc and therefore 
being included into *every* build environment (apart from hurd). So in 
terms of rebuilds basically everything.

Have a nice day,
Dariqq