On 9/11/26 06:40, Juerg Haefliger via ubuntu-devel wrote: > All, > > Now that the linux-firmware split has landed in Noble, I'd like to tackle the > next firmware issue: HWE backports. > > The problem at the moment is that backporting firmware to LTS releases for > their respective HWE kernels often negatively impacts users running the GA > kernel. Old kernel with new firmware is not a combination that firmware > vendors typically test. Firmware updates between Ubuntu releases have grown > significantly in recent years, resulting in larger backports and a higher > chance of regressions. This approach to firmware backports has long been a > thorn in the side of the SRU team, and rightly so. Just the recent backports > to Noble for the 7.0 HWE kernel introduced at least two AMD regressions for > 6.9 kernel users :-( > > To address this, I’d like to propose introducing linux-firmware-hwe (along > with HWE variants for all subpackages). HWE kernels would depend on > linux-firmware-hwe, which in turn would provide and break linux-firmware so > only one set of packages can be installed at a time. > > This will prevent regressions for GA-only users. For systems that have both > GA and HWE kernels installed, all kernels will load the HWE firmwares, > meaning users might still encounter firmware-related issues when booting the > GA kernel. The only complete workaround for that scenario would be installing > both GA and HWE firmwares side-by-side in separate directories and pointing > the respective kernels to load from their own paths. However, that introduces > a whole new set of non-trivial challenges so I'm not considering this at this > moment. > > I’d like to introduce this in Stonking first and then backport it to Resolute > before the first HWE kernel lands there. > > I'd love to hear your feedback, suggestions, questions, comments, ... > > Thanks > ..Juerg > > IIRC the kernel will look at /lib/firmware/`uname -r` before /lib/firmware/. So how about a symlink building system? Bear with me. * linux-firmware-hwe could put everything in /lib/firmware/hwe. * linux-firmware-oem could put everything in /lib/firmware/oem. * Then every HWE kernel package could ship a symlink for /lib/firmware/`uname -r` -> /lib/firmware/hwe. * Every OEM kernel package could ship a symlink for /lib/firmware/`uname -r` -> /lib/firmware/oem. "Generic" firmware would still be in the "regular" /lib/firmware/ directory. -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
