UDS Lucid -- Kernel Summary

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 6:14 AM, Andy Whitcroft <apw at canonical.com> wrote:
> UDS Lucid was a busy time for the Kernel Team.  We chose a new kernel
> for the Lucid Lynx release, we reviewed our policies for Stable Updates,
> reviewed our kernel delta and configuration, and much more.  The purpose of
> this email is to give a very brief overview of our decisions and provide
> pointers to more detailed information for those who are interested.
>
> The primary decision for the kernel team at UDS is to choose the
> base kernel version for the release.  For Lucid this will be 2.6.32.
> This version has just released providing the maximum stabalisation time,
> it also is expected to be the kernel of choice for long term releases from
> other distributions.  We will also keep ext4 as our primary filesystem.
>
> We also reviewed our Stable Release Update policy, moving to a more
> upstream stable branch oriented policy.  We will be taking upstream stable
> updates for longer and preferring those for Lucid.
>
> We reviewed our Ubuntu delta, the drivers and patches we are carring.
> We plan to update all of our Ubuntu drivers except for drbd.  drbd is
> primarily consumed by the server team and they use a dkms module to get
> a more up to date version.  On the patch side we have identified a
> number of redundant patches which have been dropped and a number which
> should be moved upstream, activity which is on going.
>
> We have decided to experiment with backporting newer kernels onto LTS
> releases for Lucid.  This will involve provision of kernel from later
> cycles into Lucid, supported on certified platforms.  The policy here is
> being firmed up now.
>
> For graphics, we chose to enable Radeon Kernel Mode Settings by default
> and to seriously look at enabling Nouveau for Lucid.  This should bring
> pretty boot to the majority of users.
>
> For those who crave more detail on these and a couple of other key
> initiatives can find more information at the wiki page below, which we will
> be keeping up to date with the current state of the union for the kernel:
>
>    http://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/UDSLucid
>
> If you are concerned about any of the decisions you can find us on
> #ubuntu-kernel on Freenode.

Just wanted to say thanks for this writeup, it *reallllly* helps and
is appreciated. I was curious if whether part of the delta drivers
could be merged into staging for the linux-next kernel. Also was there
any talk about providing any linux-next kernels for users wishing to
help test or evaluate new bleeding edge upstream developments and
enhancements?

 Luis