# Debian-Installer Kernel Policy

Bastian Blank waldi@debian.org

This manual describes the policy requirements for Kernels within the Debian GNU/Linux distribution for use with the Debian-Installer.

2003 Bastian Blank

This manual is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL` in the Debian GNU/Linux distribution or on the World Wide Web at The GNU Public Licence".

You can also obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

## Scope

This manual describes the policy requirements for Kernels within the Debian GNU/Linux distribution for use with the Debian-Installer.

In the normative part of this manual, the words must, should and may, and the adjectives required, recommended and optional, are used to distinguish the significance of the various guidelines in this policy document, as described in the Debian Policy.

## Requirements

### Linux

Linux kernels which are used by the Debian-Installer must include the following parts:

- devfs

- tmpfs

- ramdisk with initrd support

- Unix Domain Sockets support

## Packages

### Versioning

Any new upstream linux kernel version needs a new package name.

binary packages may include a extra version part for binary incompatible changes

### Gerneral use Kernel Images

The general use Kernel Images are out of the scope of this document.

### Debian-Installer use Kernel Images

#### Linux

The debian-installer use linux kernel images should be devided in more packages:

linux-kernel-VERSION-udeb

  This package only include the kernel image themself.

linux-modules-TYPE-VERSION-udeb

  Any of this packages includes a limited set of modules.

This packages must be built with the same binaries than the general use kernel images. They must be maintained by Debian Install System Team debian-boot@lists.debian.org.

VERSION

  This version includes the arch or subarch. For example: 2.4.21-i386, 2.4.21-riscstation.

### Bootstrap package for debian-installer use kernel images

The debian-installer use kernel images should be built separately to make changes in the module list without need to rebuild the gerneral used image.

For this build, the kernel maintainers should provide extra package OSTYPE-VERSION-udeb-files.

This package is required to include any files which are needed to build the corresponding debian-installer images, including

- a completely resolved modules.dep,

- the corresponding System.map.

This bootstrap package must not clutter the filenamespace of the kernel images. Therefor any files in this package must reside in `/usr/lib/debian-installer/kernel/`.