[kernel-xen] Updating kernel fails if kernel-xen-3.6.9-3 is installed

[Steven Haigh]

On 21/12/2012 1:17 AM, Steven Haigh wrote:
> On 20/12/2012 11:15 PM, Adi Pircalabu wrote:
>> Apparently upgrading to kernel-xen-3.6.9-3.el6xen.x86_64 and
>> kernel-xen-firmware-3.6.9-3.el6xen.x86_64 breaks stock kernel
>> upgrades.
>>
>> [root at xen01 ~]# rpm -qa kernel*| sort
>> kernel-2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64
>> kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64
>> kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.14.1.el6.x86_64
>> kernel-xen-3.6.3-1.el6xen.x86_64
>> kernel-xen-3.6.9-3.el6xen.x86_64
>> kernel-xen-firmware-3.6.9-3.el6xen.x86_64
>> kernel-xen-release-6-4.noarch
>
> Hmmmm - I didn't catch this case in my testing. You can safely remove 
> kernel-*2.6.32* from your system and everything will still work now.
>
> It seems that kernel needs kernel-firmware, which is in fact replaced 
> by kernel-xen-firmware. Now as kernel-xen-firmware obsoletes 
> kernel-firmware as well as some other firmware packages (so they don't 
> conflict), it leaves us with no kernel-firmware which kernel is wanting.
>
> Hmmmm.
>
> This may be able to be fixed by having a Provides: kernel-firmware in 
> the kernel-xen spec for the kernel-xen-firmware package - however I'm 
> not sure if you can have both a provides and an obsoletes - as that 
> seems strange logic. I'll talk to some of the #rpm guys to discuss 
> this as a package manager thing - but as of yet, you can either remove 
> the stock kernel or use skip-broken for the meantime.
>
> I'll also be looking at getting kernel 3.7.1 running tomorrow. I'll 
> try to get all the fixes out in one release to ease things.

Ok, This is getting more complex. I'll throw this out there for 
comments, as I'm not sure the best course of action here.

At the moment, I'm testing the dependencies with the following:

> Dependencies Resolved
>
> ================================================================================
>  Package                Arch      Version Repository        Size
> ================================================================================
> Installing:
>  kernel                 x86_64    2.6.32-279.19.1.el6 
> sl6x-security     25 M
>  kernel-xen             x86_64    3.6.9-3.el6xen kernel-xen        18 M
>  kernel-xen-firmware    x86_64    3.6.9-3.el6xen kernel-xen        20 M
>      replacing  ivtv-firmware.noarch 2:20080701-20.2
>      replacing  iwl100-firmware.noarch 39.31.5.1-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl1000-firmware.noarch 1:39.31.5.1-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl3945-firmware.noarch 15.32.2.9-4.el6
>      replacing  iwl4965-firmware.noarch 228.61.2.24-2.1.el6
>      replacing  iwl5000-firmware.noarch 8.83.5.1_1-1.el6_1.1
>      replacing  iwl5150-firmware.noarch 8.24.2.2-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl6000-firmware.noarch 9.221.4.1-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl6000g2a-firmware.noarch 17.168.5.3-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl6000g2b-firmware.noarch 17.168.5.2-1.el6
>      replacing  iwl6050-firmware.noarch 41.28.5.1-2.el6
>      replacing  kernel-firmware.noarch 2.6.32-279.14.1.el6
>      replacing  netxen-firmware.noarch 4.0.534-3.1.el6
>      replacing  ql2100-firmware.noarch 1.19.38-3.1.el6
>      replacing  ql2200-firmware.noarch 2.02.08-3.1.el6
>      replacing  ql23xx-firmware.noarch 3.03.27-3.1.el6
>      replacing  ql2400-firmware.noarch 5.06.05-1.el6
>      replacing  ql2500-firmware.noarch 5.06.05-1.el6
>      replacing  rt61pci-firmware.noarch 1.2-7.el6
>      replacing  rt73usb-firmware.noarch 1.8-7.el6
>      replacing  xorg-x11-drv-ati-firmware.noarch 6.14.2-9.el6
> Updating for dependencies:
>  kernel-firmware        noarch    2.6.32-279.19.1.el6 sl6x-security    
> 8.7 M
>
> Transaction Summary
> ================================================================================
> Install       3 Package(s)
> Upgrade       1 Package(s)

Now. Here is the problem. With the stock kernel installed, it will 
*always* want a kernel-firmware of the same version. This will mean that 
I can't easily fool RPM with a "Provides: kernel-firmware" - as it will 
need to cover EVERY kernel version that could be installed.

This leaves me with the following:

1) I could Obsolete 'kernel' as it is not required for running a Dom0. 
This makes quite a few assumptions about peoples usage of the kernel-xen 
packages however.

2) I could start picking through various firmware required by newer 
kernels that is not provided by the stock kernel-firmware package. This 
would basically be like building a white list of what I need to include. 
Bug reports would basically be how this list is expanded.

These are the only ideas I have right now. I'm open to suggestions on 
either of the above options, or even something I haven't thought of yet...

-- 
Steven Haigh

Email: netwiz at crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897
Fax: (03) 8338 0299



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