Bug 6945

Summary: kernel-dev: multiple kernel build
Product: [Build System, Metadata & Runtime] OE-Core Reporter: Bruce Ashfield <bruce.ashfield>
Component: kernelAssignee: He Zhe <zhe.he>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: David Rodriguez <david.israelx.rodriguez.castellanos>
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: Medium+ CC: alexander.kanevskiy, alexandru.c.georgescu, bruce.ashfield, eduard.bartosh, igor.stoppa, jose.perez.carranza, maciejjo, net147, randy.macleod, richard.purdie, ross.burton, tkilbourn, tom.zanussi, zhe.he
Version: 1.8   
Target Milestone: 2.2 M1   
Hardware: x86   
OS: Multiple   
Whiteboard:
OS type for building Yocto: --- Type of Regression: ---
Verified: Documentation change: Don't know

Description Bruce Ashfield 2014-11-07 21:39:35 UTC 
This has come up from Wind River before (install kernel and BSP kernel), from me (Real Time kernel
and Mainline kernel), and now again with another project where we have a development kernel and
want to easily compare it with the mainline base of the that kernel. 

It should be possible to build multiple kernels and install them to the target. If the bootloader
supports it, the different options should be available at boot time for user selection.
Comment 1 Jonathan Liu 2015-03-26 06:53:48 UTC 
Another use case would be if you want to build and install a kdump kernel to capture dumps when the system kernel crashes.
Comment 2 Darren Hart 2015-05-04 16:46:16 UTC 
Bruce, assigning to you from a core kernel feature perspective and with WRL interest present. Setting estimate to 15 perfect days as it is a significant feature with a lot of core work.
Comment 3 Bruce Ashfield 2015-05-04 16:51:19 UTC 
Reducing to 2, since this is something that is developing internal
to Wind River and will be contributed. I'm just the placeholder name
for this.
Comment 4 Igor Stoppa 2015-06-02 17:56:41 UTC 
Would this support deploying 2 kernels, each of them to a separate partition?

I have a case where I would like to have a service/rescue partition and a normal one. Each should receive its own specific kernel, possibly built with both different codebase and different additional patches.
Comment 5 Bruce Ashfield 2015-06-02 19:50:05 UTC 
(In reply to comment #4)
> Would this support deploying 2 kernels, each of them to a separate partition?
> 
> I have a case where I would like to have a service/rescue partition and a
> normal one. Each should receive its own specific kernel, possibly built with
> both different codebase and different additional patches.

This will support the deployment to multiple locations. There are two
parts to this, the build, and the management of the kernels on the 
system. The packaging are changes to the build, while the management
on the target is an augmentation of the alternates mechanism to manage
the kernels .. where ever they may be.
Comment 6 tkilbourn 2016-01-13 18:17:33 UTC 
This will be useful for me as well. Any update on the progress? Thanks!
Comment 7 Maciej Sobkowski 2016-06-21 06:30:25 UTC 
Hi - will this enhancement support multiple kernel versions (as in 4.1 alongside 4.4) or only building one version of kernel but with multiple image types (zImage, uImage etc)?
Comment 9 He Zhe 2016-06-21 07:10:53 UTC 
Maciej, this is just for building multiple types of kernel images at one time.