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{{admon/warning|This is a draft document that describes a package repository that is neither announced not ready for public consumption, as some of the details might change during the boot-up-phase the repositories are in at the moment. And this page definitely needs someone that proof reads it…}}
= Package repository with Linux vanilla kernel packages for Fedora =


= kernel-vanilla packages for Fedora =
The [http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/ Linux kernel vanilla repositories for Fedora] offers RPM packages containing vanilla builds of different Linux kernel version lines. These packages are meant for Fedora users that want to access the latest stable versions or pre-releases of the Linux kernel quickly and comfortably. There is also one repositories meant for users who want to check if problems they face are specific to the Fedora kernel or present in the upstream kernel as well.


== Overview ==
= How to use these repos =


This page contains information about a [http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/ set of package repositories] on fedorapeople.org that contain RPMs of Linux vanilla kernels built for Fedora. Vanilla in this scope means "unmodified", hence these packages do not contain any of those enhancements to the Linux source the Fedora developers integrate into the Linux kernel packages that Fedora normally uses.
== How to use, the TLDR version ==
Currently there is only one repository:


* [http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla-mainline/fedora-18/ kernel-vanilla-mainline for F18] ([http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla-stable/ repo file]) -- Latest Linux mainline kernel
Download the definitions for the Kernel vanilla repositories:
<pre>
curl -s https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kernel-vanilla.repo
</pre>


The plan is also to provice these
Run this to install the latest mainline (aka pre-release) kernel:
<pre>
sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-mainline update
</pre>


* kernel-vanilla-mainline for F17 -- latest mainline development kernel (aka latest 3.x snapshot)
Run this if you want the latest stable kernel instead:
* kernel-vanilla-stable for F17 and F18 -- latest Linux stable series kernel (aka latest 3.x.y kernel)
<pre>
* kernel-vanilla-stable-testing for F17 and F18 -- latest Linux stable series kernel in testing (aka latest 3.x.y-rc kernel)
sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-stable update
</pre>


To use those kernels download the repo file and put it in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and install the kernel you want with yum; the packages are signed with [http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xD7927A2FCC9DBCAB this key].
Reboot. That's it – at least often, as sometimes additional steps are necessary:


Please note a few important things:
* Is UEFI Secure Boot active on your system? If you're usure run <code>mokutil --sb-state</code> to check. If it is, you'll have to disable it in your BIOS Setup or via <code>mokutil --disable-validation</code>. This is required to run kernels from these repositories, as they are not signed with a key that a typical systems trust.


* none of the developers that maintain the Fedora kernel is involved in this effort
* The newly installed kernel will normally get started by default. If that's not the case there is likely 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 the latter and update its boot loader configuration; in Ubuntu you for example do that by running <code>update-grub</code>.
* most systems work better and are run in a more secure manner with the official Fedora kernels (that's the long story short)
* the usage instructions are brief on purpose; if you don't understand them, then you likely should not use these packages


For more information see the FAQ.
* 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. In that case the kernel vanilla repositories are lagging behind (its maintainers sometimes are on holiday, too), hence it might be the best to stick to the kernel your have.


== FAQ ==
If you just want to use kernels from the kernel 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 uninstall the vanilla kernel packages with a comment like <code>sudo dnf remove $(rpm -qa 'kernel*' | grep '.vanilla.knurd' )</code> and everything will be as before.


=== For users ===
If you would 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:


==== Who is behind this effort? Can we trust the people behind it? ====
<pre>
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-mainline
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-stable
</pre>


Right now the kernel-vanilla repositories are maintained by [[user:thl|Thorsten Leemhuis (aka "knurd")]] only. Mybe a few other people join to help over time, that's why this text is written as if a team is keeping care of the repositories.  
That way "dnf" will automatically install the latest packages from those repositories.


You have to decide yourself if you can trust the packages from these repositories. If it is any help: Some of those that use or contribute to Fedora since a while will know that Thorsten has quite a history of Fedora contributions, even if he was not that much active in the past two years. You can assume he has no interest in ruin his reputation quickly by providing crap in these repositories. On the other hand you should know that Thorsten started these repositories to learn more about the kernel and kernel development; so expect he'll make some mistakes along the way. And be reminded that using vanilla kernels has some known downsides and risks (see below).
Note: This TLDR-instructions focused on the two main repositories: mainline and stable. There are two more (called mainline-wo-mergew and Fedora) for other use cases described below.  


==== What's the goal? ====
A few common questions about these repos are answered in the [[Kernel_Vanilla_Repositories-FAQ|FAQ]].


The main ideas is to help upstream development, which in the end will be of benefit for Fedora as well. With the packages from the mainline repositories it for example is quite easy to test kernels that are still under development and report bugs early. The kernels from the stable repositories on the other hand make it easy to check if a bug that happens with a kernel from Fedora is specific to it or also present in the newest vanilla kernel; if that is the case users can directly work with upstream on working out solutions for the problem and don't have to go through the sometimes overworked and quite busy developers that maintain the Linux kernel packages in Fedora.
== How to use, the verbose version ==


==== Are the kernels from the kernel-vanilla repositories as good as those Fedora provides? ====
=== Configure the repositories ===


No. There are several reasons for why not; the most important ones:
First download the repository definitions for DNF:


* the developers that take care of the kernel package in Fedora are far more experienced in packaging kernels and kernel development than those that take care of the kernel-vanilla repositories
<pre>
* the kernels that get used in Fedora or released as proper update get a lot of testing; the kernels from the kernel-vanilla repositories get nearly no testing
curl -s https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/thl/kernel-vanilla.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kernel-vanilla.repo
* some of the kernel-vanilla repositories contain kernels that are still under heavy development and sometimes are known to have serious bugs
</pre>
* the official Fedora kernels sometimes contain changes that fix security problems or other crucial bugs before they get upstream


But the non-development kernels found in the kernel-vanilla repositories should work fine for a lot of situations and should normally be as good as a self-compiled kernel.
This will install a repo file with following repos:


==== Are the kernels safe to use? ====
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 15%;"|repository
!style="width: 35%;"|description
!style="width: 30%;"|target users
!style="width: 15%;"|example versions
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| kernel-vanilla-mainline
| a pre-release or git-snapshot from Linux main development branch
| those who want the latest mainline Linux
| 4.4, 4.5-rc0-git1, 4.5-rc1, 4.5-rc1-git2
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| kernel-vanilla-mainline-wo-mergew
| similar to the kernel-vanilla-mainline repo, except during the merge window, when it will contain the latest released 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
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| 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
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| 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
|}


Depends on your definition of "safe".  
Decide yourself which one of those you want to use. The following examples assume you want to use the <code>
kernel-vanilla-mainline</code> repository, hence if you want to use a different repository you'll need to adjust the commands accordingly.


The Linux kernel is a complex piece of software which contains bugs. Those lead to data loss sometimes; in very rare situations they can even lead to hardware defects. Those bugs might only show up under specific circumstances -- for example when a specific mix of hardware is used with a specific kernel version that was built with a specific configuration. It might be unlikely that such a bug is triggered by one of the non-development kernels from the kernel-vanilla repositories, but it's definitely possible. Self compiled kernels bear the same risk; chances of hitting serious bugs are lower for kernels that have undergone widespread testing already.
=== Install a kernel from the repository ===


In other words: The kernels from the kernel-vanilla repositories will work just fine for most people. But use them on your own risk and have backups handy, as there is a small risk those kernels might damage your data or your system.
Run this command to install the latest kernel from the kernel vanilla mainline repo:
<pre>
sudo dnf --enablerepo=kernel-vanilla-mainline update
</pre>


==== Should everything work with those kernels that works with the official Fedora kernels? ====
Alternatively you can permanently enable that repository to make DNF automatically install new kernel packages when updating the system:


No. Vanilla kernels are not that different from the kernels Fedora provides, but the latter include a few enhancements. Each was added for a good reason to make Fedora better, hence these improvements are missing when you use the vanilla Linux kernels.
<pre>
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled kernel-vanilla-mainline
sudo dnf update
</pre>


When this text was written Fedora for example included utrace in their Linux kernels to support userspace tracing with systemtap; hence that won't work with the kernels from the kernel-vanilla repositories. The kernels from Fedora sometimes include fresher drivers which some systems will require to work properly. And sometimes there are inter-dependencies between drivers in kernel and userland. The nouveau driver for graphics hardware from Nvidia was one such driver, as it had no stable API yet when this text was written; that's why the DRM/KMS driver in the kernel was marked as "staging" back then. The Mesa 3D or X.org drivers included in a particular Fedora release therefore might depend on the exact nouveau DRM/KMS driver which is part of the kernels Fedora ships for this release; thus the nouveau drivers for Mesa 3D and X.org that are part of a certain Fedora release might not work properly with kernels found in the kernel-vanilla repositories, as the latter might contain an older or newer nouveau DRM/KMS driver which are incompatible.
When you install a kernel from the repository for the first time DNF will ask you if you trust the [https://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xD7927A2FCC9DBCAB public key] that is used to verify the signature of the packages from the kernel vanilla repositories. It will look like this:
<pre>
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]:
</pre>


The non-development kernels found in the kernel-vanilla repositories therefore should work on a lot of systems, but on some systems they will be worse than the kernels Fedora provides.
DNF will proceed once you acknowledge this.  


==== Where to report bugs ====
= Important notes =


If the Linux kernels in the packages from these repositories show any bugs please report them upstream to the Linux kernel developers, just as you would after installing a Linux kernel yourself with the sources available at [http://kernel.org kernel.org]; that way all the bug reports go to the place where the people hang out that know how to fix them.
Please be aware that


In case there are bugs in the packaging sent a mail to [[user:thl|Thorsten Leemhuis (aka "knurd")]].
* 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 understand what above commands do then you likely should not use these repositories or its packages


==== Will this repository also ship updates userland components like drivers or udev that match the kernels in the repositories? ====
= More details about the kernel vanilla repos =


No, as there should be no need to, as the interfaces between the kernel and userland software should never change in an incompatible way; Linus Torvalds makes this pretty clear every now and then.
== What Linux kernel versions do the various branches currently contain? ==


That is the long story short. There are a lot of situations where the world is more complicated:
Look at [http://www.leemhuis.info/files/kernel-vanilla/repostatus.txt the file repostatus.txt] or execute the following script to query the latest status locally:


* above mentioned rule does not apply to staging drivers, so situations might arise where the vanilla kernels are not usable for people that need staging drivers for their system. Apart from the nouveau drivers that shouldn't bother to many people; and time will tell how bad the situation is for nouveau.
<pre>
* Fedora sometimes might contains software that depends on bits that are not upstream
releases="33 32 31"; \
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!!;'
</pre>


And even with this rule sometimes a new mainline kernel versions brings changes that require updates userland software. Three examples:
== Who is behind this effort?  ==


* the version number jump from 2.6.39 to 3.0 confused some software
Right now the kernel vanilla repositories for Fedora are maintained by [[user:thl|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.  
* in rare cases fixing security problems was only possible my changing the interfaces in an incompatible way
* sometimes nobody notices early enough that interfaces have changed


It remains to be seen how often we hit such issues and how bad they are; how we deal with them will need to get discussed on a case by case basis. In some cases we might have to other solution then to add new versions of other software to the repositories. But the plan is to avoid this.
== How can I uninstall all kernels from the kernel vanilla repositories ==


==== Do you plan to provide packages for "linux-next" or "linux-rt" as well? ====
Boot into a stock Fedora kernel and run
<pre>
sudo dnf remove $(rpm -qa 'kernel*' | grep '.vanilla.knurd' )
</pre>
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. 


For now: No. I know there is some interest in packages for them, but maintaining those will consume a lot of time regularly and we have not enough resources to do it properly right now.
== What is the goal of these repositories? Are these kernels as good as those Fedora provides? ==


The CCMA people also build RT kernels already and it might be the best for everyone to not compete with them and simply ignore RT here.
These and many other questions are [[Kernel_Vanilla_Repositories-FAQ|answered in the FAQ about the kernel vanilla repositories]].


Packaging -next kernels might not be a good idea in general; it might be wise to leave -next to people that hand build kernels.
= Known issues and differences =


But [[user:thl|get in contact]] if you think investing time in these makes sense.
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.


==== Do you plan to provide vanilla kernels for RHEL and derivatives like CentOS and SL? ====
== General ==


Sounds like a good addition. But there are people more familiar with these dists that provide such packages already. It would mean  additional work, too; and we currently have no one that would regularly run such kernels. So for now we won't get our feet wet in that area. But if you want to step up and help, [[User:thl|get in contact]].
* none known


==== Do you plan to provide packages for longterm kernels ====
= ToDo list =


Unlikely. Mail goal of the kernel-vanilla repositories is to help upstream kernel development; but longterm kernels are a dead end and quite far away from mainline development, so they would not fit that well. But it might make sense for RHEL and derivatives, if those will ever be supported by this effort.
* create stable-rc repo
 
* maybe ship debuginfo packages
==== What configuration do those kernels use? ====
* automate builds more to keep repos more up2date
 
* maybe enable some of the staging drivers Fedora avoids
Basically the same configuration the Fedora kernels use. Maybe a few staging drivers might get turned on to help their development, but apart from it the plan is to stick closely to what Fedora does.
 
==== Why don't you put these kernels in Fedoras main repositories ====
 
The current consensus is: That's not a good idea, as that would make them more "official" and people might simply use those packages without knowing what their downsides are.
 
That's the long story rough and short. And sure, there are reasons why having vanilla kernels in the main repositories make sense. Feel free to start a discussion on [https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel Fedoras devel mailing list], we'll watch and might jump in.
 
Putting the kernels in a well know 3rd party add-on repository for Fedora might make sense, but some of the problems would be similar; and there are others problems, as then users might ask to build add-on modules for those kernels, too. In other words: Would need discussion and careful evaluation.
 
==== Are those kernels really unpatched? ====
 
No, they contain a handful of very small changes that are needed for packaging.
 
From time to time the packages might use patches that are necessary temporary to make the kernel build or usable for most people; fixes like these will normally head upstream quickly and hence vanish from the vanilla packages again soon. And this normally should only happen with mainline development kernels, not with stable versions.
 
==== How up2date will those repositories be? ====
 
Time will tell, but we do the work in our spare time. Sometimes the day job and this strange thing called "real life" leave not much time to work on these kernels, so there will be a lag.
 
=== For contributors and developers ===
 
==== Can you please include this patch? ====
 
No. Get your patch merged upstream, then the change you are interested in will automatically show up in these packages (and in Fedora and other distributions, too)
 
==== Is there a Git tree somewhere? ====
 
[http://fedorapeople.org/cgit/thl/public_git/kernel.git/ Sure].
 
Let us know if we should do modifications to allow others to contribute to or benefit from this git tree better.
 
==== What Fedora versions will be supported ====
 
The plan is to support the most recent Fedora version for the stable and mainline repositories. The latter will also be provides for the distribution that is currently under development (rawhide on the first half of a devel cycle iteration or the alpha/beta/rcs in the second half)
 
==== Why are there no debug kernels and not even debuginfo packages ====
 
The space on repos.fedoraprople.org is limited, hence limiting the number of kernels we can provide. The debuginfo packages are also quite big, which makes them hard to handle. If there is interest, then may in the sort or medium timeframe solutions can be found to provide these packages.
 
==== Why don't you commit your changes to Fedora's kernel git repo on pkgs.fedoraproject.org? ====
 
Maybe that would make sense. But it bears the risk that a commit is done to a wrong branch and disturbs the work of the Fedora kernels maintainer. Further: Not all of those that contribute to Fedora can commit there. That's similar with the fedorapeople git repository, but the docs indicate others can be given access with the help of ACLs.
 
But whatever: Git is made for distributed development, so simply clone it and send pull requests if you have any additions.
 
==== Can I help ====
 
Of course. [[user:thl|Talk to Thorsten]]; best if you come with some ideas what you can and want to do.
 
==== Do you plan to work together with those that take care of the kernel packages in Fedora? ====
 
Definitely. But it remains to be seen how it looks like in practice.
 
==== Please stop providing alternative kernel packages, they take attention away from the kernels Fedora provide and thus harm Fedora! ====
 
That's a valid concern, but I think the benefits outweigh the downsides.
 
That again is the long story short. Just to get a little bit deeper into it: Similar arguments could be used to argue that Fedora should stop shipping patched kernels, as those take attention away from the upstream kernel. Up to a point such an argument is valid, too, but there are good reasons why Fedora patches its kernels.
 
Maybe in the long term Fedora can ship vanilla kernels as regular kernel. That would be best for all, but a goal that would take quite some effort and time to reach. Might be worth start a discussion on [https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel Fedoras devel mailing list] how to get closer to that goal.
 
==== Why did you drop the "-vanilla" postfix that normally gets added to the "name" macro when you build a vanilla kernel RPM locally? ====
 
I've thought about dropping or leaving it for a while, as both schemes have various benefits and downsides. In the end I went for dropping it due to reasons like this:
 
* nearly every other repository in Fedoraland that ships variants of a packages that are included in Fedora do not change the name
* the postfix breaks things like "fedpkg srpm" on the git checkout
* external solutions that heavily depend on the naming scheme fedora used (like the akmod/kmod stuff used in some external repositories) should just work
* yum would not recognize kernel packages with a "-vanilla" postfix as "installonly" and thus would perform a regular update for vanilla packages instead of installing them parallel to the current one
 
== 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 lists known problems specific to the packaging of the vanilla kernels.
 
Please note that these section will not lists any issues known in kernel version that are packaged, as it's best to maintain that information in a central place. So for a list of known bugs in the kernels packaged look at the [https://bugzilla.kernel.org/ the upstream bugtracker] and the [[http://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel|archives]] of mailing lists like the [http://www.tux.org/lkml/ LKML]].
 
=== General ===
 
No issues known.
 
==== ToDo ====
 
* enable some of the staging drivers Fedora avoids (basically those a well known add-on repository for Fedora ships as add-on package)
 
=== F18 ===
 
No issues known.

Revision as of 18:08, 13 April 2020

Package repository with Linux vanilla kernel packages for Fedora

The Linux kernel vanilla repositories for Fedora offers RPM packages containing vanilla builds of different Linux kernel version lines. These packages are meant for Fedora users that want to access the latest stable versions or pre-releases of the Linux kernel quickly and comfortably. There is also one repositories meant for users who want to check if problems they face 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 (aka pre-release) 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

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

  • Is UEFI Secure Boot active on your system? If you're usure run mokutil --sb-state to check. If it is, you'll 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 a typical systems trust.
  • The newly installed kernel will normally get started by default. If that's not the case there is likely 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 the latter 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. In that case the kernel vanilla repositories are lagging behind (its maintainers 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 kernel 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 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 would 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 the latest packages from those repositories.

Note: This TLDR-instructions focused on the two main repositories: mainline and stable. There are two more (called mainline-wo-mergew and Fedora) for other use cases described below.

A few common questions about these repos are answered in 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 a pre-release or git-snapshot from Linux main development branch 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 similar to the kernel-vanilla-mainline repo, except during the merge window, when it will contain the latest released 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 if you want to use a different repository you'll need to adjust the commands accordingly.

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 understand what above commands do then you likely should not use these repositories or its packages

More details about the kernel vanilla repos

What Linux kernel versions do the various branches currently contain?

Look at the file repostatus.txt or execute the following script to query the latest status locally: 

releases="33 32 31"; \
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

  • create stable-rc repo
  • maybe ship debuginfo packages
  • automate builds more to keep repos more up2date
  • maybe enable some of the staging drivers Fedora avoids
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