Packaging patched kernels Was: GNU Linux-libre 6.15-rc7-gnu: rust help needed

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]

On Thu, 22 May 2025 07:44:02 -0300
Alexandre Oliva <lxoliva at fsfla.org> wrote:
> As long as free distros carry rust tools (and eventually catch up
> version-wise), I'm afraid I don't think we're going to remove rust
> code from Linux in bulk: GNU Linux-libre aims at minimal changes for
> GNU FSDG compliance.  So for now we'll clean up pieces that would
> conflict with the FSDG, and leave the rest alone.

This is indeed up to the distributions to (also) propose kernels
with extra patches (or not).

For people interested in having kernels without a dependency on Rust,
Parabola has been providing kernels with extra patches for a long time
now, though this also increases maintenance so Parabola is also
discussing which kernels to keep and which to remove.

In Parabola it basically boils down to finding time to maintain
additional kernels packages, so it is also not impossible to add
additional kernel packages as long as people volunteer and commit to
properly maintain them.

Hyperbola already removed Rust, so there is nothing to do there.

Guix also accepts new packages though there is not enough reviewers to
review patches, so getting patches in can be long and/or difficult.

I've also no idea if additional kernels are welcome there or not and for
which purpose. 

Though the Rust support in Guix is fine for 64 bit architectures, but
for 32bit ones, there is basically no Rust support because mrustc cannot
bootstrap the Rust compiler because it uses more than 4GiB of RAM and
32bit architectures have a limit of 4 GiB per process (with a 64bit
kernel) or 3GiB (with a 32bit kernel) even with things like PAE. So
Guix might be interested in that for now, at least until a better way
to bootstrap rust is found.

For Trisquel and PureOS both tend not to want to maintain extra
packages, so here the option is probably to talk with Jason self or do
something like what Jason self is doing.

As for Dragora, I've no idea, also note that the kernel version there
is quite old (6.1.23 instead of 6.1.140) so it might be more important
to help update the packages there than add support for new things.

And in general there is also a lot to do in rolling release
distributions as well (Guix and Parabola) either to update packages or
fix things that were broken due to some updates, so helping them to do
that might also be more important than adding additional packages for
patched kernels, but maybe it's possible to do both?

Denis.
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