[openib-general] Advice

[Hal Rosenstock]

On Thu, 2006-01-19 at 23:55, Scott A. Friedman wrote:
> Sean Hefty wrote:
> >> 1. What usermode tools should I use if I want to use the modules that
> >> are part of the current kernels (e.g. Fedora). The OpenIB subversion
> >> code, the IBGD stuff or something else.
> > 
> > Not sure what IBGD is.  The OpenIB svn code matches with that shipping in the
> > current kernels.
> >
> 
> Sorry, I mean the Mellanox Gold distribution thing. Using this is kinda 
> a problem for me since I need to use a recent kernel - to support some 
> non Infiniband stuff.

You don't necessarily need to use IBGD. There is overlap. It depends on
what you need/use out of this. Mellanox is working on an IB Gold 2 based
on OpenIB too.

> Just so I understand. When you say 'svn code matches' it means a) the 
> kernel modules are the same (or close enough). b) the usermode stuff 
> will/should work without a problem. Could you be a little more specific? 
> Just curious how this works until things stabilize more.

I think Sean meant (correct me if I'm wrong here) svn code that matches
the kernel in use (2.6.x) at a certain version (e.g. say 4507 for
2.6.9). This includes both kernel and userspace changes to the same
OpenIB svn version. These are periodically updated but lag the head of
the tree for obvious reasons.

> >> 2. Is there any reason to *not* use the kernel modules that are now
> >> included with the kernel.org or Fedora kernels? If so, which to use?
> > 
> > Several modules in svn are not yet available in the kernel, so it depends on
> > what you are trying to do.
> > 
> 
> Mainly, I am interested in the verb layer for know so my needs are not 
> that great. However, is there a reason to compile and use the svn kernel 
> modules in place of the supplied ones? Or, as you mentioned above - are 
> fixes/patches picked up by the distributions in between stable kernel 
> releases.

Just the verbs ? I think the answer depends on what you are specifically
using in the verbs. It has not been released as 1.0 yet but close.
Roland is best to comment on this.

> >> 3. How stable is the subversion code? Is it just for testers?
> > 
> > In general, the tip of svn gen2/trunk is stable.  Bugs are usually fixed within
> > a relatively short time (couple of hours to a day).  The drawback is that it
> > targets the latest kernel release; however, backport patches are available.
> > 
> 
> Hmm, this is what I am looking for so that is actually a good thing for 
> me. Except for having to rebuild the kernel to use the svn driver code. 
> I suppose that I could just stick with building the usermode stuff and 
> use the supplied kernel modules since I am not using any of the missing 
> stuff.

Not always.. Sometimes there are related kernel changes.

> I also noticed that a person from redhat has provided some rpm modules 
> of the usermode libraries. Is anyone using these? Is this a reasonable 
> way to go? I suppose it is just a convenience.

Some people are using and testing these packages.

-- Hal

> Thanks again,
> Scott
> 
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