UDS Maverick - Kernel Summary

[Leann Ogasawara]

Hi All,

UDS Maverick was once again busy time for the Kernel Team.  We chose a
new kernel for the Maverick Meerkat 10.10 release, we reviewed our
kernel delta and configuration, silo'd with other teams and much 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 was to choose the base
kernel version for the release.  For Maverick this will be 2.6.35.
Taking into account the rough release cadence of the upstream kernel, we
anticipate the 2.6.35 to become final in the Sept 2010 time frame.  This
will bring us as close to the bleeding edge but still provide a level of
stability.

We reviewed our Ubuntu kernel delta which includes the drivers and
patches we are carrying.  We delegated ownership for patches and
responsibility for investigating and determining if we can push a patch
upstream, drop a patch all together, or if we still need to carry a
patch.  These have been translated into blueprint work items.  We also
examined all of our Ubuntu drivers and determined we need to update
iscsitarget and ndiswrapper.  We're also dedicating resources to
investigate the use of union mounts as a possible replacement for aufs.

We reviewed our Kernel config settings, specifically examining our
config options for filesystems, security, subsystems, network protocols,
and of course new options.  The spec includes a complete list of the
configs reviewed as well as the values selected.  Any proposed changes
are currently undergoing review on the Ubuntu kernel-team mailing list.

We reviewed our current bug management and work flow.  There was some
great interaction with the launchpad team who took down our requests for
improving our bug handling.  There were also discussions to improve our
kernel arsenal scripts as well as bettering community interaction and
cleaning up wiki documentation.

As a follow through to a proposal which began in Lucid, we have decided
to backport newer kernels (ie. Maverick kernels) onto the Lucid LTS
release.  This will only target the Lucid server space and initial
offering will be made available via a PPA.  These will be elective
installs and are meant for the experienced user.  Support will only be
provided for a duration of 18 months.

For those who crave more detail on these and a few other key
initiatives, more information can be found at the wiki page below:

    http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/UDSMaverick

If you are concerned or curious about any of the decisions you can find
us on #ubuntu-kernel on Freenode.

Thanks,
Leann