-----Original Message-----
From: Macieira, Thiago
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2019 7:50 PM
To: dev(a)lists.clearlinux.org
Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan(a)linux.intel.com>; VanCutsem, Geoffroy
<geoffroy.vancutsem(a)intel.com>
Subject: Re: [Clr-dev] Question regarding the installer and kernel-pk bundle
On Thursday, 7 March 2019 06:20:59 PST Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> On 3/7/2019 1:23 AM, VanCutsem, Geoffroy wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > The new installer offers three kernels to choose from [1]: native,
> > lts and pk. I never paid attention to the 'kernel-pk' version when I
> > got curious this morning. According to its description, it's
> > deprecated and also really only installs the kernel-iot-lts2018
> > bundle. I would suggest that we update the installer to either
> > remove this third kernel option or rename it iot-lts2018 to make it
> > clearer what this is about. If the proper way to update this is to
> > send a PR to the 'clr-installer' repo, I can do that, just let me
know.
> absolutely; the pk kernel is (like the iot-lts kernel) for one piece
> of specific hardware only and should not be offered (or installed) on
> other hardware
*Currently* it is that. There's only one specific hardware that needs this kernel
and the the team behind it is not really doing wide testing. That's why it's
currently called "kernel-iot"
That's partially correct. It's used broadly in ACRN, both on specific hardware but
also on more platforms such as Apollo Lake, Kaby Lake NUCs and the UP2 board (those are
the ones supported by ACRN at the moment). As such, I agree it does not make sense to
offer it as an option in the installer (because having it installed is not sufficient to
use it, additional manual steps are required to set up the system).
I would actually advocate that this kernel is added to the 'service-os' bundle.
The iot-lts2018 bundle ships both a kernel configured for the Service OS and another one
for use by the User OS. When setting up an ACRN system, one of the step is to install both
the 'kernel-iot-lts2018' and 'service-os' bundles. Given that the
service-os can only do anything useful when paired with the kernel-iot-lts2018 kernel, it
would make sense to have it automatically installed by it.
Geoffroy
However, the long-term goal is to make the "pk" kernel be suitable for a lot
more people, with further Intel enhancements that have not made it to the
ones from
kernel.org. Especially backports of content from latest stable onto
the latest LTS.
Who those "more people" will be remains to be seen. If users running Clear in
datacentres want nothing to do with the PK, then PK team should not be
spending time on that.
--
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT)
intel.com
Software Architect - Intel System Software Products