UBUNTU: [SAUCE] Update Poulsbo Video driver to build 5.0.0.0040

[Jim Lieb]

On Wednesday 15 April 2009 12:43:15 Steve Magoun wrote:
> On Apr 15, 2009, at 12:03 PM, Tim Gardner wrote:
> > 1) Why are we getting monolithic patches? Its _very_ difficult to
> > catch
> > important details, especially when obscured by large changes in code
> > structure.
>
> Intel distributes the code as a tarball. They do not provide
> individual patches.
>
> > 2) I'm concerned about code provenance. Who actually did the work?
> > Tungsten Graphics is listed as one of the original developers. Are
> > they
> > still contributing?
>
> To the best of my knowledge, Intel or a contractor of Intel does all
> current work on the driver. I am told that Tungsten Graphics has not
> been involved for several months.
>
> > 3) If it is difficult for you to host a git repository, I can
> > certainly
> > make one available for your use on kernel.ubuntu.com, unless you
> > already
> > have an account (there is already a jayc from Intel).
>
> Unfortunately getting access to a git branch by hosted Intel is not
> likely to happen - especially in the timeframe required by the OEM team.
>
> >> This is isolated off in the lpia branch so as not to iinterfere
> >> with main
> >> hardy.  It is what it is.  If we find further issues with this, it
> >> makes
> >> sense to keep this patch as-is and apply ours on top.
> >
> > While this patch may not interfere with the main distro releases, it
> > _does_ affect a number of OEM platforms. I'm sure existing owners
> > would
> > be quite annoyed if they are regressed. Furthermore, this repository
> > is
> > going to exist for 4 more years. I'd just as soon not look back in a
> > few
> > months and wonder wtf was I thinking?
>
> Luckily this particular driver affects only a small number of OEM team
> projects. I have been in contact with all of the relevant project
> leads, they are all looking forward to having this update included in
> the hardy/netbook-lpia tree (and future Poulsbo updates, as they
> become available).
>
> The Poulsbo graphics driver stack does not fit in well with the rest
> of the kernel/graphics stack in Hardy (or Intrepid/Jaunty, for that
> matter). Nobody likes this situation, but we have to make the best of
> it. I am in no position to dictate how the kernel is maintained, but I
> will throw out the idea that perhaps this particular driver be treated
> as a binary blob - updates are all or nothing, and we accept that the
> patch quality may not be up to the standards of the rest of the kernel.
>
>
>
> Steve
Since all we got was a tarball of a debian package tree, the diffs are
really a drop-in of the whole file, mixing the subject matter.  Let's 
do the following:

* OEM uses the .debs I built to build X and test this thing.  Let me
  know asap on progress because this goes nowhere if the code as
  a total package is borked.

* I do some archeology work and get more provenance etc 
 captured into the commit(s).

* I can break up the current commit into a couple functional pieces
  and carefully annotate the commits to keep them together.  What
  we *don't* know is if any of these sub-pieces can actually function
  incrementally, i.e. can the DVD and DETEAR stuff work independent
  of each other.  The downside of this is that what bubbled out of intel
  is a tarball, not individual patches.  In light of this, no promises.  I
  want to commit the least ugly baby here.
-- 
Jim Lieb
Ubuntu Kernel Team
Canonical Ltd.