Kernel Vanilla Repositories

Package repository with Linux vanilla kernels for Fedora

The Fedora kernel vanilla repositories contain various RPM packages that contain vanilla builds of various Linux kernel versions. These packages are meant for Fedora users that want to access the latest stable or or in-development versions of Linux quickly and comfortably. In addition, one of the repositories is meant for users who want to check if problems are specific to the Fedora kernel or present in the upstream kernel as well.

How to use these repos

How to use, the TLDR version

Download the definitions for the Kernel vanilla repositories:

curl -s https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kernel-vanilla.repo

Run this to install the latest mainline kernel:

sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-mainline update

Run this if you want the latest stable kernel instead:

sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-stable update

Run this if you want the a vanilla version of the latest Fedora kernel:

sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-fedora update

Reboot. That's it – at least often, as sometimes additional steps are necessary:

• Is UEFI Secure Boot active on your system (mokutil --sb-state will tell you)? In that case you have to disable it in your BIOS Setup or via mokutil --disable-validation. This is required to run kernels from these repositories, as they are not signed with a key that your System considers trusted.

• The newly installed kernel will normally get started by default. If that's not the case there likely is something fishy with your boot configuration. For example, if you start Fedora using a boot manger from a different Linux install you'll have to boot into that and update its boot loader configuration; in Ubuntu you for example do that by running update-grub.

• The "dnf update"-command doesn't offer anything to install? Then the version of the latest kernel package installed on your machine is higher than the version of the latest kernel packagers offered in the chosen kernel-vanilla repository. Then the maintainers of the latter might are lagging behind (they sometimes are on holiday, too), hence it might be the best to stick to the kernel your have.

If you just want to use kernels from the vanilla repositories for a short test make sure you boot into the stock Fedora kernel again once you finished your tests. After that you can then you can uninstall the vanilla kernel packages with a comment like sudo dnf remove $(rpm -qa 'kernel*' | grep '.vanilla.knurd' ) and everything will be as before.

If you like to permanently use kernels from these repos you might want to run one of these commands, depending on the which type of kernels you want:

sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-mainline
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-stable

That way "dnf" will automatically install newer packages from those repositories once they get pushed there.

Note: This TLDR-instructions focused on the two main repositories. There are more for other use cases described below. Also make sure to read the FAQ.

How to use, the verbose version

Configure the repositories

First download the repository definitions for DNF:

curl -s https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kernel-vanilla.repo

This will install a repo file with following repos:

repository	description	target users	example versions
kernel-vanilla-mainline	the latest version from the mainline series	those who want the latest mainline Linux	4.4, 4.5-rc0-git1, 4.5-rc1, 4.5-rc1-git2
kernel-vanilla-mainline-wo-mergew	the latest kernels from the Linux mainline series, except during the merge window, when it will contain the latest release mainline kernel or a stable kernel based on it.	those who want the latest mainline kernel, but want to avoid development versions from the merge window (like 4.5-rc0-git1) – that the phase in the development cycle when the bulk of changes get merged for a new kernel version	4.4, 4.4.1, 4.5-rc1, 4.5-rc1-git2
kernel-vanilla-stable	the latest non-development version from the mainline or stable kernel series	those who want the latest Linux stable kernel	4.4, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3
kernel-vanilla-fedora	contains a vanilla build of the latest kernel which Fedora currently ships or has in its update queue; most of the time this repository will contain the same kernels as kernel-vanilla-stable, except for times when Fedora hasn't yet jumped to the latest version released from the mainline series.	those who want to check if a vanilla kernel shows the same bug or behaviour as the Fedora kernel	4.3.12, 4.3.13, 4.4.3, 4.4.4

Decide yourself which one of those you want to use. The following examples assume you want to use the kernel-vanilla-mainline repository, hence you need to adjust the commands to use a different repository.

Install a kernel from the repository

Run this command to install the latest kernel from the kernel vanilla mainline repo:

sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-mainline update

Alternatively you can permanently enable that repository to make DNF automatically install new kernel packages when updating the system:

sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-mainline
sudo dnf update

When you install a kernel from the repository for the first time DNF will ask you if you trust the public key that is used to verify the signature of the packages from the kernel vanilla repositories. It will look like this:

Retrieving key from https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/RPM-GPG-KEY-knurd-kernel-vanilla
Importing GPG key 0x863625FA:
 Userid     : "Thorsten Leemhuis (Key for signing vanilla kernel rpms) <fedora@leemhuis.info>"
 Fingerprint: 7C71 B4C9 BF71 7876 635F 3205 4534 BEED 8636 25FA
 From       : https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/RPM-GPG-KEY-knurd-kernel-vanilla
Is this ok [y/N]: 

DNF will proceed once you acknowledge this.

Important notes

Please be aware that

• none of the developers that maintain the Fedora kernel is involved in the maintenance of the Fedora kernel vanilla repositories
• most systems work better and run in a more secure manner with the official Fedora kernels
• if you don't know what above commands do then you likely should not use these repositories or its packages

More details about the kernel vanilla repos

What kernel versions do the repos currently contain?

Look at this file or cut'n'paste these lines if you want to query the latest status yourself:

releases="28 27 26"; branches="mainline mainline-wo-mergew stable fedora"; \
for branch in ${branches} ; do for release in ${releases} ; do
  queryresult=$(dnf repoquery --repofrompath=repo,http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla-${branch}/fedora-${release}/x86_64/ --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=repo --available --latest-limit=1 -q kernel 2>/dev/null)
  echo "${branch} ${release} ${queryresult:-not_available}" 
done; done | column -t | sed 's!kernel-0:!!; s!.x86_64!!;'

Who is behind this effort?

Right now the kernel vanilla repositories for Fedora are maintained by Thorsten Leemhuis (aka "knurd") only. Maybe over time people join to help, that's why this text is written as if a team is keeping care of the repositories.

How can I uninstall all kernels from the kernel vanilla repositories

Boot into a stock Fedora kernel and run

sudo dnf remove $(rpm -qa 'kernel*' | grep '.vanilla.knurd' )

DNF will then show what is about to get uninstalled; review that list carefully and make sure you still have a none vanilla kernel on your system, otherwise you loose the ability to boot your installation. Better abort if something looks fishy.

What is the goal of these repositories? Are these kernels as good as those Fedora provides?

These and many other questions are answered in the FAQ about the kernel vanilla repositories.

Known issues and differences

The following sections will list differences to Fedora's proper kernel packages that might be relevant to users. It will also list known problems specific to the packaging of the vanilla kernels.

General

• none known

ToDo list

• enable some of the staging drivers Fedora avoids
• automate builds more to keep repos more up2date
• create stable-testing repo