From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 24 17:43:37 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [8.8.178.115]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 06828FD0 for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:43:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from utisoft@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ie0-x22c.google.com (mail-ie0-x22c.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4001:c03::22c]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CF12912B7 for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:43:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ie0-f172.google.com with SMTP id c12so2490722ieb.3 for ; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:43:36 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=x-received:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id :subject:to:content-type; bh=aG1FWFKNA9wEj+gbrHduClpP7VIlF1BH0FknMlBHWFM=; b=vwf5rRx3sbAUzlQgQFauSTIcQwSZPuRrBud5p6ahHncal2ff6CFZMf+L5tQV+lugMz qRQI+L6QaMdb+y8Wa7O8tm9GSPXw3K25lYZOB7ZWLM9FTWe2CPnsgBRBsgPJhgOEMtoQ k/4Tq4X8dWnb2ZtISHZlBS4gf8gBUYP3t9Jl+F9fkO3V/pN8X9Tw2Moh1DXuXgzj63p5 yx5CIwrmGc8/tixZstDF04TnaOVDHVFKFXS99oFF0k8y034m8aZwkZz8qQ8WCgbXm1Gc ucURFRipgq90AfF3JJIly3r6gJ0kPkwv/d2GnubFWUFDaa3BGmdNZVUPE/O1I9Bfn0Ky sVDg== X-Received: by 10.50.47.10 with SMTP id z10mr15884632igm.15.1366825416596; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:43:36 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.64.58.52 with HTTP; Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:43:06 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <60A4F968-60A4-4C71-AD53-BA1BC6CBAB5F@longcount.org> From: Chris Rees Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:43:06 +0100 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Fwd: GSOC: Qt front-ends To: Justin Edward Muniz , "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:43:37 -0000 On 24 April 2013 18:30, Justin Edward Muniz wrote: >> Our kernel is actually very easy to configure, so I'm not convinced that >> it's needed; you may be thinking of Linux's menuconfig, but I think that is >> because of the complexity. >> >> Chris > > > > While configuring the kernel may be trivial to someone who understands the > process and their systems needs, I am thinking of a software tool that goes > beyond the scope of the occasional generating of a kernel configuration > file. > > Imagine that you have a number of systems and you want to run kernels that > are lighter weight than the generic kernel but each system has its own > individual needs. A GUI could help manage a large number of custom kernels, > and provide access to convenient access to features such as specifying a > kernel to load on the next boot only for testing. You could even configure > the custom kernel profiles to be built from separate source directories. > > That is not to say of course that everyone else using x11 couldn't benefit > from it as well. The application could help avoid compatibility issues > during kernel installation by comparing the kernel's version to the version > of world. Some helpful aids would be visual categorization of options as > well as option descriptions, caveats, and hyperlinks to more in depth > information. > > As for its place in Google Summer of Code, you could be right, it may not be > enough to dedicate such resources. I know however that I would use it, maybe > others would as well? Thank you for your advice once again Chris! What do > you think about the other utilities? I think the interface to pkgng and freebsd-update are still interesting; at least more worthwhile than the kernel configuration one. I think the pkgng one has the edge, since packages are updated far more often than base, and it's easier to track base. Now you are at a stage where you should make your own decision; which one looks the most interesting to you? Once you decide on an area of interest, you can just start hacking :) Chris