On 08/03/10 19:56, James Rayner wrote:

Apparently it's taken me 2 months to notice this because I've been
building my own kernel, but I'll ask anyway... The kernel headers
required to build kernel modules have been put in a separate package
"kernel26-headers". We don't separate dev headers for anything else -
why is this different?


From memory... the size of the headers warranted the splitting. It
also cleaned up the PKGBUILD a lot and made it clear the entire source
was not shipped.



Second, linux-api-headers used to be called "kernel-headers" and now
there's easily 100 posts on the forum that say "the headers don't need
to match the kernel" - which are all now completely incorrect.


That was part of the reason for renaming them. And that
kernel26-headers and kernel-headers was too similar. But given that
kernel26-headers will always have the same package version as the
kernel26 package, this advise should not be needed anymore.


Allan

Am 08.03.2010 10:56, schrieb James Rayner:
> Apparently it's taken me 2 months to notice this because I've been
> building my own kernel, but I'll ask anyway... The kernel headers
> required to build kernel modules have been put in a separate package
> "kernel26-headers". We don't separate dev headers for anything else -
> why is this different?

They are 27MB big and most people never need them. The most important
argument however is that the PKGBUILD is now much easier to read - all
the "crappy" stuff has moved to its own function.

> Second, linux-api-headers used to be called "kernel-headers" and now
> there's easily 100 posts on the forum that say "the headers don't need
> to match the kernel" - which are all now completely incorrect.

The reason this package was renamed is just that: People kept
complaining about things they didn't understand. Now, the package
doesn't have the name "kernel" in it, people still don't understand the
package, but they stopped complaining.