[Devel] Re: [Users] OpenVZ kernel RPM name

[Kir Kolyshkin]

Dag, all,

As you might be aware we have switched to name our kernel rpm just 
'kernel' in the latest devel release.

Apparently, it broke the yum update procedure. New kernel is not 
recognized by yum, even if it provides vzkernel. I have tried with a 
kernel package which also 'Provides: ovzkernel = 2.6.18-ovz028test002' 
but that doesn't change the situation. I will now try with 'Obsoletes: 
ovzkernel' but this solution is rough since it will probably uninstall 
the previous kernel (depends on yum version perhaps).

I have also try "new install" scenario on my FC5 system, it works but 
with a bad side effect:

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 vzctl                   i386       3.0.12-1         openvz            114 k
 vzquota                 i386       3.0.9-1          openvz             47 k
Removing:
 kernel                  i686       2.6.18-1.2200.fc5  
installed          39 M
Installing for dependencies:
 kernel                  i686       2.6.18-ovz028test002.1  
openvz-kernel-devel   11 M

I.e. it tries to remove the latest FC5 kernel :-\ Too bad, I don't want 
that...

Perhaps somebody has a way to fix that?

Dag Wieers wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Oct 2006, Kirill Kolyshkin wrote:
>   
>> On 10/16/06, Dag Wieers <dag at wieers.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Yet another mail. The official openvz kernel RPMs are named in such a way
>>> that it causes problems. Tools like yum and apt make a special case about
>>> kernel RPM files because multiple of these can be installed next to each
>>> other.
>>>
>>> Because OpenVZ name their kernel ovzkernel, this is not possible. Can we
>>> change the name of the OpenVZ kernel package from:
>>>
>>>         ovzkernel-2.6.9-023stab030.1-smp
>>> to:
>>>         kernel-smp-2.6.9-42.0.3.ovz.1
>>>
>>> This would make it more clear to people what it is based on and would make
>>> apt and yum work with those kernels by default.
>>>       
>> I though that (at least) yum detects "install-only" packages by their
>> 'provides', not by name. I might be wrong with that though...here's a
>> relevant section of /usr/lib/yum-plugins/installonlyn.py (yum-2.6.1):
>>
>>    for instpkg in conf.installonlypkgs:
>>        for m in mems:
>>            if (m.name == instpkg or instpkg in m.po.getProvidesNames()) \
>>                   and m.ts_state in ('i', 'u'):
>>
>> I'm not yum expert but it seems that 'instpkg in m.po.getProvidesNames()' is
>> the piece of code which helps in this scenario.
>>     
>
> It's possible, still I don't see why you would deviate from the standard 
> name. The functionality is most likely introduced to consider kernel-smp 
> and kernel-bigmem as an alternative to kernel.
>
> Nevertheless, this doesn't work for apt. kernel-ovz might work, but the 
> proper way to tag a package is in the version or release tags. Not the 
> package-name.
>
>
>   
>> We name our kernel packages as 'ovzkernel...' just because we don't want to
>> mess with usual non-openvz kernels. OpenVZ and non-OpenVZ kernel should not
>> be treated uniformly, otherwise yum will "upgrade" OpenVZ
>> 2.6.16-basedkernel with stock
>> 2.6.18 -- which is a wrong thing to do. Well, the fact that vzctl depends on
>> something that ovzkernel provides might help, but I'm not sure.
>>     
>
> People should restrict what packages they use from what repsitory they 
> have enabled and/or exceptions. Having ovzkernel will not prevent 
> additional kernel packages to be updated and potentially replacing the ovz 
> kernel in grub. Especially when like in our case, we like to have the 
> stock kernel available for disaster recovery, troubleshooting or 
> vendor-support.
>
> So I don't see the purpose of renaming the ovz kernel package to 
> ovzkernel. Users still need to check what kernel is in place and verify 
> before rebooting. If anything, it gives a false sense of security or 
> causes more confusing.
>
> Especially when documentation and forums refer to the following 
> command to list the available kernels:
>
> 	rpm -q kernel
> or	rpm -qa 'kernel-*'
>
> Proper standards should try to reduce the amount of 'expert' information. 
> Needing to know that the openvz kernel is called ovzkernel is useless 
> information by any means.
>
> Kind regards,
> --   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
> [all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]
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