The Pi firmware and ROM packages are outdated and break on the RC11 Pi distro

It looks like the PackMan database hasn’t been updated in RC11, and attempting to upgrade breaks things and downgrades the ROM to a version from 2012, IIRC. (I reimaged the card and went back to what was working.)

Sounds like things need to be repackaged. And, IIRC, there were incompatibilities with the 5.19/5.21 split, so probably new package names so that upgrades don’t happen between the two, unless the compatibility issues can be fixed?

I’m aware of the lack of RC11 packages, though I didn’t realise the current ones will break new systems. The issue is that it’s reasonably straightforward to make packages with new ROM versions, but testing them is a pain. In particular, testing doesn’t just mean one-off ‘it works for me’ kind of testing, but trying all previous releases and checking that they correctly upgrade is what’s necessary before it’s sensible to roll out new packages. That means lots of 2GB reflashing of SD cards which is slow and tedious. In addition, the only way to easily develop a script to fix up the differences (eg from RC6 to RC8 where CMOS layout changed) is to repeatedly do upgrades until it works correctly.

So I’ve been looking into ways to make this easier, rather than cause myself more pain every time a new release comes out. In the interim, what would you suggest for the packages? Retire them temporarily?