debian: Better document how to get a kernel module in README.Debian.

[cascardo/ovs.git] / debian / openvswitch-switch.README.Debian

diff --git a/debian/openvswitch-switch.README.Debian b/debian/openvswitch-switch.README.Debian
index a316003..44154bd 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/openvswitch-switch.README.Debian
+++ b/debian/openvswitch-switch.README.Debian
@@ -1,15 +1,44 @@
 README.Debian for openvswitch-switch
 ---------------------------------
 
-* To use the Linux kernel-based switch implementation, you will need
-  to build and install the Open vSwitch kernel module.  To do so, install
-  the openvswitch-datapath-source package, then follow the instructions
-  given in /usr/share/doc/openvswitch-datapath-source/README.Debian
+To use the Linux kernel-based switch implementation, you will need an
+Open vSwitch kernel module.  There are multiple ways to obtain one.
+In order of increasing manual effort, these are:
 
-* This package does not yet support the userspace datapath-based
-  switch implementation.
+       * Use a Linux kernel 3.3 or later, which has an integrated Open
+        vSwitch kernel module.
+
+        The upstream Linux kernel module lacks a few features that
+        are in the third-party module.  For details, please see the
+        FAQ, "What features are not available in the Open vSwitch
+        kernel datapath that ships as part of the upstream Linux
+        kernel?".
+
+       * Install the "openvswitch-datapath-dkms" Debian package that
+        you built earlier.  This should automatically build and
+        install the Open vSwitch kernel module for your running
+        kernel.
+
+        This option requires that you have a compiler and toolchain
+        installed on the machine where you run Open vSwitch, which
+        may be unacceptable in some production server environments.
+
+       * Install the "openvswitch-datapath-source" Debian package, use
+        "module-assistant" to build a Debian package of the Open
+        vSwitch kernel module for your kernel, and then install that
+        Debian package.
+
+        You can install the kernel module Debian packages that you
+        build this way on the same machine where you built it or on
+        another machine or machines, which means that you don't
+        necessarily have to have any build infrastructure on the
+        machines where you use the kernel module.
+
+        /usr/share/doc/openvswitch-datapath-source/README.Debian has
+        details on the build process.
+
+       * Build and install the kernel module by hand.
 
- -- Ben Pfaff <blp@nicira.com>, Fri,  6 Jul 2012 15:12:38 -0700
 
 Debian network scripts integration
 ----------------------------------
@@ -147,5 +176,3 @@ ex 7: Create and destroy bridges.
 
 ifup --allow=ovs $list_of_bridges
 ifdown --allow=ovs $list_of_bridges
-
--- Gurucharan Shetty <gshetty@nicira.com>, Fri, 04 May 2012 12:58:19 -0700