Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: 2024-02-26-debianutils-drops-installkernel-dep: add news item

[Eli Schwartz <eschwartz93@gmail.com>]

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On 2/26/24 10:55 PM, Duncan wrote:
> Andrew Nowa Ammerlaan posted on Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:13:32 +0100 as
> excerpted:
> 
>> Removing sys-kernel/installkernel from your system WILL change the way
>> kernels are installed by 'make install'! Instead of the versioned
>> /boot/vmlinuz-x.y.z that you are used to, 'make install' will simply
>> copy bzImage (or equivalent for you arch) into /boot. This image may not
>> be picked up by your bootloader or its configuration tools.
> 
> I'm uncomfortable with that unconditional, "SHOUTED" even, "WILL".
> 
> That isn't the case here -- I've been getting versioned images without the 
> debianutils-based installkernel script for years.
> 
> I long ago (when installkernel was still part of debianutils according to 
> comments in my version, presumably the debianutils default-enabled USE was 
> set when it was split out to avoid just this sort of surprise at that 
> time) created my own version based on the debianutils version, but 
> bashified/comment-and-var-name-clarified and with a config file that 
> determines various behavior (along with behavior for my other kernel-
> related build/patch/config/etc scripts).


Gentoo comes with several different installkernel options, and the
critical thing here is that you need to *have* a program called
`installkernel`.

Via the package manager provided functionality, that means the
"installkernel" package. There has been a lot of flux over the last few
months. It used to be "installkernel" or "installkernel-systemd", or
even "installkernel-gentoo".

Surely, anyone can package an alternative installkernel in their
overlay. Do we need a virtual/installkernel for this? Is that the only
way to set the desired tone in the news item?

I'm okay with news items having an implicit "the contents of this news
item apply unless you have reimplemented the stated packages in ways
that gentoo doesn't officially package and without using an overlay".

Or even more simply, all news items have an implicit "unless you know
better, including that you know *why* you know better".

Someone could be writing that `installkernel` script for use with a
kernel package that has an actual RDEPEND on sys-kernel/installkernel,
too. Nothing changes.


-- 
Eli Schwartz

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