Linux kernel annoyance (geekfilter)

[substitute]

My old server, which is actually a Gateway desktop machine from 1997, has an old SCSI card in it. It's an Advansys. The Linux driver for this card hasn't been updated in forever. There are apparently problems with the driver, although I have had none.

Therefore when I configure my kernel build, I have to check a box marked "Use broken things" or I can't check the box for my SCSI driver.

Lately, the "use broken things" box has disappeared. On investigation I find out that the kernel tree ships with that configuration unavailable. I have to edit init/KConfig and add in a description for the "broken things" option, and then the box becomes available.

I understand that I should probably just get a new SCSI card, or actually a newer computer, but this is annoying. Do the kernel maintainers not trust the people building the kernel to know when to check the "Broken" box? If I'm building a kernel then I can always fuck myself by leaving out my filesystem or my network card, it's not like I can't destroy everything anyway.

Grr.

Comments

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I am going to append "raisondfuckinetre" to the version string next kernel I build.

Why wait?

[citizenx.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should add it to the tags on this entry.

I like that you mention leaving out the filesystem or the network card. Haven't we all done that before? My best memory was remotely upgrading the kernel on a box and leaving out network support. Keeping the old kernel as a fallback doesn't really help in that case because the machine comes up just fine. Good thing it was only about a ten-minute drive.