[Bug 1546967] [NEW] [needs-packaging] linux backports and related meta packages

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

You have been subscribed to a public bug by Anthony Wong (anthonywong):

There used to be linux-backports-modules packages in Ubuntu maintained
by our kernel team before Quantal (the last release that have these
packages is Precise). However these packages proved to be useful in our
OEM projects, because we often need to support new devices and their
support is not good enough in kernel, and so we need to use drivers from
later kernels. As a result I would like to re-introduce them into
Ubuntu. After talking to Leann she agrees to let us (the hardware
enablement team) to take over the packages.

We have re-packaged the codes by using newer debian build tools and
added a few more meta packages for more flexibility, and so package
naming and versioning will be different from before. Besides, a new LP
project [1] has been created for this effort.

Same as the previous incarnation of linux-backports-modules, these packages will need to be constantly updated (SRU) upon two cases:
  1. Kernel ABI bump: when kernel is updated, backports packages have to be rebuilt against the new kernel and uploaded.
  2. We need to add a new version of backports modules: since backports modules are derived from upstream kernel and upstream kernel is constantly evolving with bug fixes and support for new devices, at some point in time we will want new packages to be built for modules from new kernels. Example: current wifi backports package is called linux-backports-wifi-4.5-4.4.0-4, which consists of modules from linux kernel 4.5 and the package is built against Ubuntu kernel 4.4.0-4. In the future there might be a new package linux-backports-wifi-4.6-4.4.0-8, which uses modules from kernel 4.6 that built against Ubuntu kernel 4.4.0-8.

Source can be found in this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~linux-backports-
team/+archive/ubuntu/staging/+packages

[1] https://launchpad.net/backports

** Affects: backports
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Affects: ubuntu
     Importance: Wishlist
         Status: New


** Tags: needs-packaging
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[needs-packaging] linux backports and related meta packages
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1546967
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