The Fedora installation CDs include a kernel-source package so that people can rebuild their kernel in the time-honoured fashion. But one thing they cannot do is build the kernel that Fedora uses. The kernel-source package doesn't include any of the Fedora patches so unless you want to revert to a vanilla Linux-2.6.5 it is not much use. Instead, you could include the SRPM for the real kernel package on the CD. This can still be used to build an unpatched kernel for those who want it, since it contains the pristine Linux tarball, but it can also be used to rebuild the kernel with Fedora customizations. Even though it contains the extra patches, it is actually smaller than the kernel-source package currently included because the linux-2.6.5 tarball in the SRPM uses bzip2 compression. The kernel SRPM is smaller than kernel-source and much more useful: I think it would be a good idea to include the SRPM instead.
" The kernel-source package doesn't include any of the Fedora patches" actually it does. It's the exact same source we used for the binaries. "Instead, you could include the SRPM for the real kernel package on the CD. " the src.rpm IS included on the cds.... not the first 3 CD's but it is included.
Duh. I did have a feeling I ought to double-check the kernel-source package after posting this report, but you beat me to it :-P. I'd suggest changing the unpack location to /usr/src/linux-5.6.7-fc2 or something to make it extra-explicit. I still think that the SRPM would be a slightly better use of space than kernel-source. If you want to include source code on the first four (binary) CDs, it might as well be in the form of real source packages.
While I agree with this, other people seem to be quite vocal about not wanting this on the fedora-devel-list list :(