[vbox-dev] Fixes for Kernel 5.3 wanted

[Valdis Kl=?utf-8?Q?=c4=93?=tnieks]

On Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:13:18 -0500, Larry Finger said:

> > The kernel patches causing the issue are a set of 7 a in the linux-next tree
> > and targeting the 5.4 kernel .  As such, Cyrax's patch is incorrect, for production
> > it should be comparing >= 5.4.0.   It will however DTRT on a linux-next kernel
> > that calls itself 5.3.something, but will *not* work on a mainline Linus tree.
>
> What I do during the merge of a new kernel, before -rc1 is released is to
> manually edit the Makefile to increment the kernel version and make the
> EXTRA_VERSION be -rc0. That way the conditional statements work with mainline.

You missed the point - if you apply the patch as it stands to a Linus 5.3.0-rc3 tree,
it won't compile correctly, because it will pick up the wrong side of the ifdef.

That's why I said "in production" - if Cyrax's patch goes into the virtualbox
source tree, it needs to compare against 5.4.0 not 5.3.0.  Anybody running
linux-next or monkeying around with the innards of the Makefile is on their own
on this one because they should have enough clue to hand-correct the patch to
suit their actual tree. :)

(And it's even more fun doing a git bisect that flips back and forth across
version labels, because some of the time LINUX_VERSION says 5.1 and has the old
API and other times it says 5.1 and has the new API,  or you're looking at a
5.1 that has the new API and the next bisect says 5.2 but still has the old
API... That's the sort of thing that causes programmers to seek strong
beverages. :)

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