Upgrade script for libata transition

[Ben Hutchings]

On Thu, 2010-01-07 at 22:49 +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-12-29 at 12:06 +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > Linux kernel packages for "squeeze" will use libata-based drivers in
> > preference to old-style IDE drivers.  On some systems this will change
> > the names of PATA devices and will also change the names of SCSI devices
> > already present in those systems if they are enumerated after the PATA
> > devices.
> > 
> > On upgrade, we will recommend that users identify hard disk volumes in
> > configuration files by label or UUID (unique identifier) rather than by
> > device name, which will work with both old and new kernel versions.  I
> > think that in most cases it should be possible to update the system
> > configuration automatically, if the user agrees to this.  The following
> > script implements this.  Please review and verify that it does the right
> > thing for your package's configuration file(s).  (I would also welcome a
> > more general review of the code.)
> [...]
> 
> I have not yet seen any comments from maintainers of the various boot
> loaders.  It is vital that this upgrade process is reliable and does not
> prevent systems from booting, so please do review the code for your boot
> loader.
> 
> If you prefer, I can prepare packages that include this script on
> postinst and upload them to people.debian.org for you or others to test.

Sorry about the delay in doing this.  You can now get a source package
by doing:

$ apt-get -d source linux-2.6
$ dget http://people.debian.org/~benh/linux-2.6_2.6.32-8a~test.dsc

To build a kernel image package, follow the instructions at:

http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html#s-common-official

Note in particular the instructions beginning 'For example, to build
only the binary packages for 686 flavour...'

The kernel image packages will depend on the linux-base package which
contains the transition script.  To build that, run:

$ fakeroot make -f debian/rules.real install-linux-base

Please test both the transition script and the new drivers so far as you
can (most are x86-only but some are available for all architectures with
PCI).  I suggest starting with an emulated/virtualised system before you
risk breaking anything real!

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
                                                              - Albert Camus
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