[gentoo-dev] Re: debianutils: system worthy ?

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Jan Kundrát <jkt@gentoo.org> posted 479E0BB2.3020102@gentoo.org, excerpted
below, on  Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:06:58 +0100:

> Duncan wrote:
>> Mainstream kernel's default make install uses /sbin/installkernel if it
>> exists, so I've been using it, invoking the kernel's make install from
>> my own kernel scripts.  installkernel invokes mkboot...
> 
> We (the docs team) have never suggested out users to run `make install`
> for various reasons, see bug 183346 (and the linked gentoo-doc thread)
> for details.


Thanks.  I sort of knew that, but some of us first got comfortable 
installing kernels on other distributions, and brought our scripts and 
habits with us, changing them only enough to work in their new habitat. 
=8^)

Here, I've never used the Gentoo kernel packages, simply because I've 
never needed to, because I already had a system that worked for me -- 
downloading, verifying, configuring, compiling and installing the kernel 
direct off of kernel.org, with my own site-specific patches.  There's 
probably a significant number of others doing similar things, and if I 
were to guess, I'd say a fair share of those that do are probably running 
professional and therefore production systems, simply because that's the 
sort that's likely to /have/ such customized solutions -- likely in some 
cases even designed specifically so the same scripts can be used on 
multiple distributions.

As caster pointed out, however, just removing the package from system 
doesn't unmerge it, and if people run --depclean without --ask or --
pretend first, well...  Maybe they'll learn to do so, next time! =8^)

So yeah, I'd say a warning is warranted, but after that just do it.  
Surely some will complain, but it's not like we can be there constantly 
holding their hands.  Gentoo makes a very deliberate point of expecting 
its users to be grownups in that way, and I'm glad it does! =8^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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