[Pkg-mol-devel] Bug#445359: [RFH] Mac-on-Linux for Debian lenny

[Rogério Brito]

Hi, Gaudenz.

On Jun 09 2008, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
> The current state of MOL in Debian is broken since quite some time. If
> we want to have MOL in the next release we have to act now!

Yes, Gerfried Fuchs told me about this.

> Currently there are 2 major issues holding up the MOL packages in
> Debian. 
> 
> -> Unusable kernel modules: This is caused by the removal of
>    handle_mm_fault in recent kernels. To fix this we have to talk to the
>    kernel team to see if they accept the attached patch which reenables
>    the export.

You forgot to attach the patch.

>    Additionaly the modules as shipped in mol-source currently don't
>    compile with recent kernels. This can be fixed by updating mol-source
>    to the most recent version in the upstream SVN.
>    This issue is Debian bug #445359.
>    José: What's the status of the upstream integration of the MOL kernel
>    modules. Is this expected to happen anytime soon or is the work on it
>    abandoned?

It would be quite a good thing to have the mol modules integrated on the
mainline kernel from kernel.org, as we already have many emulation
things there already (uml, kvm, lguest, xen etc).

On the other hand, mol may be rejected for exactly this reason, if we
don't argue well enough about what would make mol have a differential.
Perhaps preparing a text and having it reviewed by enough people would

I don't know very much about kernel hacking, but I have some books about
the Linux kernel development. It may, perhaps, be the right time to get
the dust off of them.

> -> MOL SVN segfaults or hangs: The current version of MOL in unstable
>    just hangs after startup if used with the latest kernel modules
>    compiled from SVN. The latest SVN version segfaults at the same point
>    where the other version hangs.

Which other version hangs? Which one doesn't? That is, at which point
things have stopped working?

And one thing: why are the mol drivers for MacOS X in non-free while the
ones for MacOS are in main?

I think that I seem to recall that Benjaming H once told us that he
didn't understand why this was sorted this way, because the drivers were
developed in a similar fashion...

>    This segfault was also reported on the upstream mailinglist. AFAIK
>    there is no fix for it atm. José: are you planning to work on this
>    in the near future?

By segfault I think that you may be referring to the userspace thing,
right?

I used to use mol just for the sake of using iTunes, but since I have
discovered some quite good audio players for Linux and the excellent
easytag, I have little use for it.

And, furthermore, Apple has no love for G3 owners anymore (and even some
G4 of lower frequency). I would, then, use an older version of MacOS X
just as a way of getting some things syncronized to my iPod (like their
proprietary firmware upgrade thing).

> Unfortunaltely I have very little free time at the moment and I'm
> unable to fix this two issues without help. Is there anyone else on
> the MOL Packaging Team or the Debian PowerPC Mailinglist who could
> take care of one of these issues. I wold be glad to assist if problems
> arise. Solving the first problem probably only needs communication to
> the kernel team.

I think that I can lend a hand here, but I'm currently not sure of how
much help I can be.

BTW, since you mentioned the release, it seems that the page
http://wiki.debian.org/powerpcLennyReleaseRecertification is desperately
in need of some update by some regulars here and developers that care
about powerpc.


Regards, Rogério Brito.

-- 
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