RE: [Gnewsense-dev] homemade linux-libre kernel repo

[Russell Currey]

On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 23:26 +0000, Elias Angulo wrote:
> Yes please, I would like to do everything all right with the repo,
> send me the requisites you want or look for me in the IRC under the
> nick felix ;)
> 
> At the moment I succesfully generated the GPG key, which is F148081A
> and its right placed in the repo and APT can manage it.
> 
> And I am trying to export VLC from the Ubuntu multiverse repo, and
> upload to mine. I asked, it respects the Four Freedoms, and it does,
> but have patenting problems. I googled a bit and found a repo called
> "multistanza" that initially has the  purpose of hosting this kind of
> multiverse programs.
> 
> deb http://multistanza.freedomdreams.co.uk/ binary-i386/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:55:04 +0930
> > From: address@hidden
> > To: address@hidden
> > Subject: Re: [Gnewsense-dev] homemade linux-libre kernel repo
> > 
> > On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:08:03 +0000
> > Elias Angulo <address@hidden> wrote:
> > 
> > > > Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:06:22 +0300
> > > > Subject: Re: [Gnewsense-dev] homemade linux-libre kernel repo
> > > > From: address@hidden
> > > > To: address@hidden; address@hidden
> > > > CC: 
> > > > 
> > > > On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 4:45 AM, Karl Goetz<address@hidden>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:40:50 +0000
> > > > > Elias Angulo <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Well, i think it have some advantages, as it can be updatet
> > > > >> automatically by the system.. I will have the repo uptodate
> as
> > > > >> soon new versions come. People with my repo enabled in his
> > > > >> sources.list will only have to do:
> > 
> > > > > if you'd done so before hand you would have had a chance to
> work
> > > > > together on it ....
> > > > > kk
> > > > 
> > > > I used to maintain an apt repo for the free kernels, but stopped
> > > > doing so after a while. Installing latest kernels on such a
> distro
> > > > like gNS with a rather older collection of programs sometimes
> > > > causes problems. (I remember X malfunctioning after one of the
> > > > releases on some people's machines.) So, having people's kernels
> > > > automatically upgrading is, in my opinion, prone to a great
> number
> > > > of user problems that don't have to happen. And if you think
> > > > freedom shoppe kernels are also used by users of other distros
> such
> > > > as Ubuntu and Debian, the potential of user complaints just
> looks
> > > > to big for me.
> > > > 
> > > > Feel free to share your experience with kernel repo maintanence,
> > > > Elias :)
> > > 
> > > Well, the server has been up since i set it up and its pretty
> stable.
> > > I reaches sometimes 100kb/s. At the moment im looking for the
> > > linux-libre kernel source in a tarball; perhaps the missing .dsc
> file
> > > would be in there. What i'm looking for is a kind of fle with the
> > > description and other stuff that dpgk-scansources can read. Here's
> a
> > > copy of part of man dkpg-scansources:
> > 
> > (trim)
> > 
> > > So, Ali, if youre at charge of maintain those packages, could you
> > > make that file and a tar.gz for the source including it? I found
> > > strange, a source in a .deb package, its the first time i've seen.
> > 
> > Its standard practise in Debian/Ubuntu.
> > 
> > > The target of the repo its not only to host kernel-libre. I could
> > > host any Free package not available in other repos. It was idea of
> > > Ark74, calling it Libre Repo, for this purpose. Im open to
> > > suggestions. :D
> > 
> > If your going to make a 3rd party repository make sure its got some
> > quality standards (start with lintian clean). I started making up a
> > list of requirements for a 3rd party repo I was planning to set up,
> I
> > can find it if you want.
> > kk
> > 

What do you mean by patenting problems?  gNewSense contains the
gstreamer set of plugins, which could fall under "patenting problems".

Also, multistanza is a repository that is hosted on the owner's PC and
doesn't have any form of reliable uptime.  If we could host a fully free
VLC (and other free multiverse programs) on the proposed repository, it
wouldn't just be gNS users that would benefit from it.
-- 
Russell Currey (ruscur/rusty)
Noob programmer, FSF member and gNewSense contributor
http://identi.ca/ruscur