goals for a stable GNU/kFreeBSD release

[Guillem Jover]

Hi Robert,

On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 07:09:19PM +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
> I've put together a list of packages that need fixing before we can opt for
> being candidate to a Debian release.  When this list is reduced to zero, I
> think we'll have good arguments to convince the Debian community that we're
> ready (at least for an unstable archive).

I think ftpmaster requirements are a bit higher than those. Although
we would be maybe further away from the Hurd for example, but time
has passed and the requirements are different now.

> Base system as installed by debootstrap:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> console-common		- not for us
> console-data		- not for us
> console-tools		- not for us

We need the console counterparts ported from FreeBSD. There's one
annoying thing, keymaps package name is way generic it should be
changed to freebsd-keymaps or similar. In the long term would be
nice to have the same package for all kernels. :>

> dhcp-client		- can of worms (broken due to incompatible ifconfig)

If we fixed inetutils' ifconfig a bunch of stuff would just work.
I think it only needs flag support in the command line or similar,
from what marcus has said several times, the errors and the code.

> fdutils		- not for us?

Probably very kernel specific, would have to read the code.

> initscripts		- hacked to work with incompatible utils

I don't recall introducing unportable changes. Did we?

> iputils-ping		- not for us (inetutils-ping)

This should be portable, the only non portable code should be
the raw packet stuff, that could be splitted in arch specific
code.

> libacl1		- not for us?
> libattr1		- not for us?
> libcap1		- not for us

Those three I think are kernel dependent, would have to read the code
as well.

> util-linux		- needs work in upstream (Guillem is working on it)

I'll finish this next month or so, I want to finish grub2 first.

> Build-essential:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> binutils		- upstream rejected ld.so hack

What was the reason? Any pointer?

> glibc			- no comment

Once glibc in debian is unfreezed we can start on this again.

> Other very important stuff we can't live without
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> parted			- either this, or a working fdisk

fdisk should work once I finish with util-linux.

> grub			- or grub2.  whatever that fully works.

I'd go with grub2, grub legacy has buggy ufs support.

regards,
guillem