Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jun 29, 2015 20:44 UTC (Mon) by tbird20d (subscriber, #1901)
Parent article: Obstacles to contribution in embedded Linux

Thanks everyone for the discussion on this article. There are many good ideas and suggestions in your responses. Here are some that I think are interesting, and worth considering for action (sorry not to acknowledge the contributor of each idea):

binary blobs should be discouraged, as they freeze downstream to particular kernel versions
NDAs are another obstacle to contributing
use staging for non-mainlinable code
mail patches to LKML for future reference, even if not for mainlining
make software costs visible
get hard data on costs for out-of-tree code
make a dumping ground for non-mainlined source
- possibly use automation to create it
vendors should release kernel source ASAP, to reduce customer wait for source
create a wiki page with links to source trees

On this last point, I started a wiki page to save the links to different mobile phone kernel source download sites, that I found during my analysis. It's at http://elinux.org/Phones_Processors_and_Download_Sites

Three of the above ideas are around ways to make the out-of-tree code more accessible: 1) use staging, 2) mail to LKML, 3) make a dumping ground. Some of the ideas are related to exposing the cost. I hope to follow up on both of these broad strategies with concrete proposals or work shortly. I'll be having a BOF at LCE/ELC Europe in October. Please come to the BOF if you are at the event, for more discussion. Thanks.

Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jul 15, 2015 7:41 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link] (4 responses)

I think a more general listing of non-merged Linux trees, patches and modules would be interesting; there is lots of stuff, grsec for eg.

Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jul 15, 2015 9:06 UTC (Wed) by BlueLightning (guest, #38978) [Link] (3 responses)

> a more general listing of non-merged Linux trees, patches and modules would be interesting; there is lots of stuff, grsec for eg.

IIRC Greg KH used to have a wiki page listing something like that for the Linux Driver Project, sadly the page seems to be gone (perhaps it was only meant to be around for the initial investigation) - either that or my google-fu needs work. A centralised tracker for such code that is kept up-to-date would indeed be very useful.

Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jul 16, 2015 8:33 UTC (Thu) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link] (2 responses)

Where would be the best place to put this? Perhaps a new out-of-tree.wiki.kernel.org with pages for general categories or for subsystems? Who do we contact at kernel.org about this?

Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jul 17, 2015 12:43 UTC (Fri) by BlueLightning (guest, #38978) [Link] (1 responses)

> Where would be the best place to put this? Perhaps a new out-of-tree.wiki.kernel.org with
> pages for general categories or for subsystems? Who do we contact at kernel.org about this?

I'm not a kernel person (just an interested observer), but FWIW I think it would probably be worth asking Greg KH since he has done this kind of thing before.

Feedback is really appreciated

Posted Jul 20, 2015 6:52 UTC (Mon) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

I contacted him but his response was that this is basically a useless idea and we shouldn't bother.