[arch-general] how to install several 2.6.27 kernels in parallel?

[Michael Krauss]

Hello Arch users,

the new kernel version causes me some trouble.

Since version 2.6.27 architecture independent firmware is installed
to /lib/firmware. The install path doesn't depend on the actual name of
the kernel:

http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_27#head-a1eaa0eeec567ae80d95dedf354e3663ae03f76b

Hence it isn't possible to install two different kernel packages in
parallel anymore, because both packages include the same content
of /lib/firmware, so pacman refuses to install the second package.

Up to now I "solve" this problem by simply deleting the firmware in my
own kernel package. Don't needing the frimware myself makes this an
acceptable solution. But for my savekernel skript in the AUR I need a
full featured backup kernel. 

I have examined the interesting part of the kernel config file:

CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD=y
CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE=""

and looked at the commits to the kernel git:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=4d2acfbfdf68257e846aaa355edd10fc35ba0feb

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=d172e7f5c67f2d41f453c7aa83d3bdb405ef8ba

There doesn't seem to exist a simple switch to install the firmware
relative to the kernel name. The only solution I can see so far is to
stick every firmware name into the EXTRA_FIRMWARE variable and to set
EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR to a directory related to the specific kernel.

I tried to be clever and looked into the kernel26-ice package from AUR
but it suffers the same problem. Maybe the maintainer never tried to
install kernel26-ice and the official kernel26 in parallel.

The question is: Are there any options to install the firmware relative
to the kernel version in general?


Kind regards,
Michael Krauss