Unlocking Intel flash

[Jörn Engel]

On Wed, 26 April 2006 08:12:00 -0500, Peter Buelow wrote:
> >
> I was afraid of this. Will this kernel patch cleanly, or at least with a
> reasonable amount of effort?

[ Would be nice if you only quote relevant lines, as I did. ]

We only support non-ancient kernels - within reason, this is free open
source support, not an enforcable contract between companies.  2.4.17
is definitely ancient, so you are on your own.

This is a fairly frequent question.  Maybe we should answer it in the
FAQ.  Basically, your company decided not to upgrade to a recent
kernel.  Most likely, they are afraid to introduce instability, but
legal questions could be involved as well.

There is a price tag attached to this decision, though.  Noone will
care a lot if your kernel breaks.  So you are on your own with
whatever problems you might have.  You could try to reproduce the same
problem with a recent kernel.  If you can reproduce it there, we will
care and try to fix it - in the current kernel.  Porting the fix back
into your kernel is your problem and we don't care anymore.

So now you know the disadvantages of ancient kernels and can tell your
management about them.  They may decide to keep the old kernel and
deal with the problems.  That is fair as long as we are not bothered
by this.  Or they might decide that our (and other's) advice is
valueable enough to bite the bullet and upgrade to a recent kernel.

Something like that.

Jörn

-- 
Why do musicians compose symphonies and poets write poems?
They do it because life wouldn't have any meaning for them if they didn't.
That's why I draw cartoons.  It's my life.
-- Charles Shultz