Hi,

Just noticed that http://wiki.meego.com/Core_OS_Program/Kernel_policy
came up and is on the agenda for TSG meeting tomorrow, so given that
we have 24 hours to comment and I haven't seen it discussed in public,
here's a couple of questions/comments from a hardware adaptation PoV
(not speaking from N900 PoV):

Before I start on a rather long reply - the proposal looks great, will
hopefully make some things clearer.

> 6. The adaption kernels must follow the same release process/timing as the 
> rest of MeeGo; e.g. the same feature freeze, code complete dates etc etc.
(nitpick since we're making this into policy: 'adaptation' not 'adaption')

So, I'd like to ask how we will deal with the following situation that
well may arise:

* Vendor comes with a hardware adaptation for device/platform X and
wants to contribute this for MeeGo. This contains an adaptation
kernel. It passes all automatic core OS testing and is deemed
compliant for 1.2. Vendor naturally wants to contribute this for MeeGo
1.2 device makers to use. Problem is that 1.2 timeframe has gone and
passed, so he can't participate in normal release process but yet it's
a perfectly fine hardware adaptation.

My worry is that with this rule that we might be too stringent and
making it more difficult to have people port MeeGo and share their HW
adaptation work within the MeeGo project. So a tiny bit of flexibility
is needed.

I personally lean towards some variant as the following:
* that we separate hardware adaptation from Core repository (including
kernel but keeping kernel-headers in Core) into adaptation
repositories (one for each/group as needed)

* establish a set of expected kernel configuration options (as
proposed) and a kernel ABI baseline (as kernel-headers does atm)

* establish a test case suite to deem a hardware adaptation compliant
and working (MCTS?)

* adaptation kernels in MeeGo repositories must be following current
compliance criteria (config options, security fixes, etc) as is set
for the particular release it will be part of (must never be 'behind'
global state, even counting the weekly releases in MeeGo)

* if the above are established, the hardware adaptation repository can
be released with MeGo.

The counter-argument to all this might be that the vendor can just be
participating in 1.3 release instead of trying to get his adaptation
added to 1.2.

But I think due to half-year schedule, I could imagine some companies
wanting to let's say base on top of a vendor's MeeGo HW adaptation for
a given board. And can't wait for 1.3 release. And making a product
out of MeeGo should be easy, so we should try to centralize these
BSPs/HW adaptations at meego.com and test them, instead of having
shady HW adaptations laying about for download at vendor sites...

BR
Carsten Munk
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