A new version of kernel-package in Incoming at the time of writing adds support for creating a package which contains the Linux kernel debug image. This means the debugging information for the modules in the kernel image package, and the uncompressed vmlinux image. This builds on suggestions and code from Troy Heber, Theodore Y. Ts o, and Dann Frazier. As support for kexec/kdump support becomes more real, it will be very useful to be able to build kernels that have debugging information available, but not necessarily to install the debugging information on every single client system. The .ko object files are stripped of the debugging information before they are placed in the standard linux-image installation package. However, before that, a copy of the vmlinux and unstripped .ko files are saved in a debuginfo package, and everything except for the debugging information is removed from them using objcopy --keep-only-debug. This means that if someone ends up with a crash dump, they can send it to a support engineer and only the support engineer needs to install the debuginfo package and use the crash utility to debug the crash dump. It s also useful for developers, since the debuginfo information can be stored somewhere outside of /lib for storing its debug information, for example. This is useful for keeping the size of the root partition small, for those who keep / separate from /usr. The locations used are compatible also with SystemTap, which provides free software infrastructure to simplify the gathering of information about the running Linux system. This assists diagnosis of a performance or functional problem. SystemTap eliminates the need for the developer to go through the tedious and disruptive instrument, recompile, install, and reboot sequence that may be otherwise required to collect data. Also, I had to clear out some FUD about kernel-package from the ircbot dpkg on the OFTC Debian IRC channel, since someone had implied that kernel-package was some how obsolete. As can be seen, it is being actively developed, and features are being added apace.

Troy Heber and I have been setting up a multi-architecture Debian build cluster - basically a bunch of machines we can build/test kernels on. We got our hands on a Sun Blade 1000 a while back, and I had a good excuse to try and install it today. Troy said he'd tried one of the d-i nightlies, but had problems with it, so I decided to try sarge. I burned a sarge CD (which is 2.4 only, surprisingly), but it hangs after printing "Remapping the kernel...". Unlike other instances google finds, it never prints "done". I found that the net boot flavor has a 2.6 kernel - I tried it, but I get an oops as soon as it tries to load the scsi driver (sym53c8xx_2). It leaves modprobe hung in the D state, and all further modprobes hang behind it. Hoping that the cdrom boot method was to blame, I tried netbooting the 2.4 kernel flavor. This went smoothly, at first. But immediately after configuring the network w/ dhcp, the keyboard goes to hell. Only the left ctrl key seems to work (which I discovered using the tried and true bang-all-keys method), and it behaves like an escape. I tried a non-sun USB keyboard, but it had the same problem. I dug up an old non-USB sparc keyboard, but the box won't boot w/o a USB keyboard connected and d-i won't respond to the non-USB one anyway. I guess I could try running d-i with the text frontend, or maybe preseeding the whole thing... I remember some keyboard remapping on my sparc32 box that occurred when I moved to a 2.6 kernel - I wonder if something in userspace is attempting to compenate for that change? But that wouldn't explain why it only happens post-dhcp. Also.. I wonder why d-i is all monochrome on this box? Kind of annoying to navigate the menus when I can't see which option is highlighted. Unfortunately, this box has no serial port - I'll have to try to dig up one of the four port serial pci cards we once had lying around & try to setup serial console, which is what we'll want eventually anyway. Another option, I suppose, is to try installing woody then upgrading to sarge..

I'm currently sitting in Denver International awaiting a flight to Houston where I'll meet up with Taggart for the flight into Mexico. There we'll meet up with some other folks (Ryan Murray, Troy Heber & Junichi Uekawa at least) and take a cab down to Oaxtepec. We've had *tremendous* trouble booking our hotel room (and by we, I mean Troy). In fact, last we heard they were cancelling our reservation. I strongly suspect this is an attempt at bribe soliciation, or maybe they actually just don't want to do business with us? Not quite sure - my employer is sponsoring my travel here, and I haven't noticed a "bribe" category on the expense report.. maybe I can list it under tip? :) Oh well, I suspect the worst case is that we can find asylum for a night on someone's floor until our accomodations get worked out. I'm very much looking forward to arriving at DebConf & seeing everyone, not to mention trying the local cuisine :)