Is Ubuntu giving up on the PPC platform?

[Larry Grover]

Brian Durant wrote:
> On 12. feb 2006, at 3.54, Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, 2006-02-11 at 17:21 -0500, Eric Dunbar wrote:
>>> I imagine there never will be an official kernel update for Breezy
>>> since the kernel is a pretty major thing to change (though, there
>>> likely will be unofficial kernel updates ;-) in a post-production
>>> operating system.
>>
>> Sorry if I am missing something here, but Breezy was released with a
>> 2.6.12-9 kernel, which was then updated to 2.6.12-10. That's for i386,
>> but if they had the balls to do it for i386, why wouldn't they do it for
>> PPC if need be ?
>>
>> -- 
>> Vince, a little confused...
> 
> Yeah, I'm not sure if Ubuntu numbers their kernels exactly the same as 
> Debian or...? The Debian PPC list is a buzz with the news that the 
> debian/etch beta2 installer, which will have 2.6.15 kernel from the 
> start, is out very, very soon. Sooooo why not issue the 2.6.15 PPC 
> kernel at the same time as an upgrade for Breezy and freeze the same 
> kernel into Dapper PPC from the start? That would hopefully solve issues 
> for relatively new G5 towers. As of now, Breezy AND Dapper are both 
> basically just betaware on my box :-( Oh, wait, Dapper IS betaware at 
> this point ;-)
> 
> Brian


Here's how I understand the Ubuntu package updating policy:
Once a stable release is made (eg, Breezy), package updates, including 
the kernel, are for security reasons only.  Packages are not updated for 
non-security bug fixes or new features.

The difference between kernel 2.6.12-9 and 2.6.12-10 is at the patch 
level, they are both from the same kernel release (2.6.12).

So if the Breezy kernel does not support all your hardware now, it never 
will (unless you patch and compile a new kernel yourself), but Dapper or 
Dapper+1 might.

This policy is shared with may, though not all, distros.  RedHat and 
Debian-stable used to be this way, and I assume they still are.

If you read about a kernel patch to support your hardware on the 
debian-ppc list, then you can get that patch, apply it to the ubuntu 
kernel source and compile your own kernel.

This is what I and other G3 iBook owners have had to do to fix a 
suspend-resume bug that has been in the 2.6.x kernels for a long time, 
which was present in Warty, Hoary and Breezy, and for which a patch has 
been available for months.  That patch will not be included in an update 
to the Breezy kernel.  iBook G3 owner either have to wait for Dapper (or 
a later Ubuntu release) or patch/compile their own kernel.

You can read about the bug here:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/8675

It's not hard to patch & compile your own kernel, and it should be 
pretty fast on a G5 tower.  So if you want to stick with Ubuntu and 
support for your hardware isn't included, but is available as a patch, 
why don't you give it a try?

You can read a short how-to that I wrote for patching, compiling and 
installing a custom kernel on powerpc here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2368&page=3

Regards,
Larry