[Xen-devel] Re: [Xen-users] old RHEL3 domu kernel download

[Peter Ajamian <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 27/09/11 20:48, Ian Campbell wrote:
> I think you need to reread the GPL before making such serious claims.
> There is no such requirement that "source code has to remain available".
> There are some clauses which sound superficially like such a requirement
> but they are time limited and in any case do not apply in every case of
> distribution of a work since there are other alternatives allowed by the
> license.

I didn't mean to make accusations, just to point out a flaw where I saw it.

>> No it's not really a GPL violation. When the binary was still available, 
>> also the sources were available.
> 
> Correct. These binary RPMs were always accompanied by the corresponding
> source RPM and therefore clause 3(a) of the GPL is satisfied:
>     a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
>     source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
>     1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

Ahhh, yep, you're right, the sources were always made available when the
binary was (right along side the binary) so there is no need to enact
any of the other clauses.  I stand corrected.

>> I think the reason why the rhel3 pv kernel downloads were removed 
>> was because the kernel was so buggy and it's better if noone uses them.
> 
> Agreed. Given the presence of supported by Red Hat PV drivers for RHEL3
> HVM guests I would strongly recommend using those and not the
> unsupported kernels that used to be on xenbits. If nothing else then the
> fact that they haven't been updated for ~4 years (i.e. lack security
> updates over that period) should be enough to put most people off.

Fair enough, I understand that position.  Still, it would be nice to
have the kernel above available for those who really need it, with the
full understanding that it is no longer supported, of course, especially
since some people don't have the option to run HVM guests.  As I said
before I was able to get RHEL3 to run with a newer 2.6 kernel but some
things were buggy (modprobe comes to mind, I had to put all the modules
I needed in the initrd and force them to load at boot time).  I was
hoping for a better pv guest alternative to upgrading the kernel to 2.6.

Also, when I port a RHEL3 box over to a VM it is almost always a
temporary situation where the current need is just to get it off of
existing hardware quickly and the future plan to migrate its functions
to a more modern distro.


Peter

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