It's Easy To Help Test Linux Kernel Stable Release Candidates

Stemming from the attention shined on the matter of uncertainty how long the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel will be maintained due to a current lack of committed support, stable maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman penned a new blog post outlining the (easy) process of testing new kernel release candidates and simply reporting the feedback.

As noted last week when shining light on the issue with Linux 5.10 LTS currently marked as being maintained through just the end of 2022, Greg is looking for more organizations to commit to testing (and using) the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel before he will commit to maintaining it for six years or so as has recently been the case for long term support kernels.

The support he is looking for is basically to be testing new stable kernel release candidates when he announces them. After running them on your "systems/workloads/tests/whatever", to simply report your results to him if there are any problems. That reporting can be done either publicly or privately depending upon your preference. Of course, given the few day period from a point release RC to announcing it as stable, that testing needs to be done punctually.

Details over on Greg's blog at Kroah.com.

As for whether he has decided if Linux 5.10 LTS will be maintained past EOY 2022, he noted, "As of this point in time (February 3, 2021), I do not have enough committments by companies to help out with this effort to be able to say I can do this for 6 years right now (note, no response yet from the company that originally asked this question...)" The company in question for that original thread/complaint over Linux 5.10 LTS support length was an engineer from Broadcom.