[arch-dev-public] Module breakage (WAS: Re: [signoff] kernel 2.6.32.3-1)

[Dan McGee]

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:03 AM, Thomas Bächler <thomas at archlinux.org> wrote:
>
> Am 08.01.2010 09:06, schrieb Tobias Powalowski:
> > Hi guys,
> > bump to latest bugfix version.
> >
> > Arch Linux bugfixes/feature requests:
> > http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/17538 # added blktrace
> > http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/17106 # finally added CONFIG_MMIOTRACE
>
> One of these changes broke aufs, a rebuild is necessary. At least
> virtualbox is also affected, maybe more. I am rebuilding aufs, please
> post if any other modules are affected.

This is where I find our "don't rebuild the modules" policy lacking.
We never see these breakages until they have already affected a fair
number of people. You also have very little transparency into what
kernel minor version you are actually running on your system unless I
am missing something, so doing something like verifying you have an
unaffected kernel to a security issue or something without doing a
bunch of looking at reboot dates, build dates, etc.

Do we do it to save ourselves time, save users extra downloads, or
what is the primary reason? If it is one of these two things, then we
can address both in different ways- 1. make an auto-build system for
things like this 2. xdelta packages.

-Dan