ExtendedStable
Stable Kernel Updates
The Ubuntu Kernel Team provides a git repo available to the greater Linux community which provides stable patches for certain versions of the Linux kernel.
Repository
The repository is available at git://kernel.ubuntu.com/<location> (TODO: location to be defined, may be stable/linux-stable.git?), and has the following branches:
master |
tracks the Linus master tree |
linux‑<version>.y |
stable tree for linux <version> release, final patches releases go to this |
linux‑<version>.y‑queue |
last release of stable tree for <version> release, with patches on top that are to be released with next <version> stable update |
linux‑<version>.y‑review |
last release of stable tree for <version> release, with patches on top ready to be released with next <version> stable update, but which are on release candidate status (waiting any complaints or potential fixes before being released) |
TODO: Remove review branches? On discussion.
<version> is the linux stable series the Ubuntu Kernel Team provides stable patches for. See the Version Matrix section for more information.
Builds
We will be hooking the stable tree up with our automated build and testing infrastructure. The built binaries will be available for download and installation.
New Releases
New releases of stable patches will be announced at kernel-team@lists.ubuntu.com, the linux kernel mailing list (lkml) and the stable mailing lists. (TODO: any other mailing list?)
We will have a cadence of <n> weeks for new releases (that is, each <n> weeks if there are patches in the queue they will be put into a release candidate status, and if nothing is wrong after <n> days they will be released). TODO: should we have a cadence, how many weeks, how many days for rc, detail more the release process?
Contributing
All patches for the stable releases maintained by the Ubuntu kernel team should be submitted upstream, following the stable upstream acceptance rules (see Documentation/stable_kernel_rules.txt in the upstream kernel source tree for more information). The Ubuntu Kernel Team should monitor and pick the relevant stable patches automatically once they are released with upstream stable. In case that not happens, or the change/patch is only applicable to one of the maintained versions by the Ubuntu kernel team (in the case the patch isn't relevant to any of the current stable kernel versions being maintained by upstream, for example when a Cc: stable@kernel.org isn't applicable anymore), you can contact the Ubuntu kernel team at kernel-team@lists.ubuntu.com requesting the patch to be applied. Of course the patch must conform to the stable upstream acceptance rules in the second case.
Version Matrix
This is the table with status of linux kernel versions that Ubuntu Kernel Team (UKT) provided, provides or plan to provide with stable patches support
Linux Version |
Last Upstream Stable |
Start of UKT support |
End of UKT support |
3.2 |
3.2.? |
when upstream stable drops 3.2.y series |
TODO: April 2017? |
2.6.32+drm33* |
2.6.32.?/2.6.33.20 |
when upstream stable drops 2.6.32.y series/already on lookout for drm fixes for 2.6.33 as it's unsupported upstream now |
TODO: April 2015? |
* Currently 2.6.32+drm33 is maintained as a special case and the repository and other details diverge from what is described in this page