[RFC] Upgrade path for Precise i386 non-pae generic flavor

[Leann Ogasawara]

Hi All,

I'd like to discuss and get feedback regarding the best solution for 
smoothly upgrading PAE capable systems currently running a non-pae 
kernel and then collapsing the generic-pae flavor back to a generic 
flavor.  I've broken this down into 2 phases, which I'll describe below.

Phase 1 is smoothly upgrading PAE capable systems running the Precise 
i386 non-pae generic kernel to the Quantal i386 generic-pae kernel.  
I've attached a patch which I believe will do the job, but would like 
some review and feedback.  I would add that I have tested this patch on 
an i386 PAE capable system which was running the Precise i386 non-pae 
generic kernel.  It properly allowed updating to the Quantal generic-pae 
kernel.  I also ran a quick test on an amd64 system to check I hadn't 
regressed anything in terms of updating.  The only test I'm missing is 
for the scenario of a non-pae system attempting to update.  The 
expectation is that the update would abort.  I unfortunately don't have 
access to this type of system.  I would like to get confirmation for 
this scenario before proceeding.

Phase 2 is transitioning the current generic-pae flavor in Quantal to 
become a generic flavor.   I unfortunately don't believe it's possible 
to do both phase 1 and 2 in the same development cycle as we could find 
ourselves in a scenario of having recursive install dependencies.  In 
order to do both, I believe it will have to span two development 
cycles.  I'm happy to be wrong here if someone can point it out to me.

My current proposal is we do phase 1 in 12.10 (ie Quantal) and phase 2 
in 13.04 (ie R).  Comments appreciated.

Thanks,
Leann
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0001-UBUNTU-Re-instate-i386-generic-meta-package-to-facil.patch
Type: text/x-patch
Size: 2304 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/attachments/20120516/7797c472/attachment.bin>