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Alpine Linux 3.15 Released - Builds Off Linux 5.15, Drops MIPS64, SimpleDRM For FB

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  • #11
    Originally posted by tildearrow View Post

    Maybe compatibility? Zstd in kernel is a fairly new feature...
    Compatibility with what? Kernel and modules are tightly coupled. Either you have a version that supports it and all your modules can use it or you don't. There's no chance of mismatch there that can result on a properly running system.

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    • #12
      Originally posted by sinepgib View Post

      Compatibility with what? Kernel and modules are tightly coupled. Either you have a version that supports it and all your modules can use it or you don't. There's no chance of mismatch there that can result on a properly running system.
      With older kernels. As an example, my Arch system broke when I upgraded and mkinitcpio was set to generate Zstd-compressed initrd, so that prevented me from booting since my kernel (5.4) did not have Zstd baked in.

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      • #13
        Originally posted by sdack View Post
        Why use Gzip to compress kernel modules? Seems like an odd choice.
        Because it does not work with busybox modprobe. We actually used zstd first, and added the extra 1MB for kmod (same size as entire busybox btw...). But then it was discovered that there are also some kubernetes tools like `kube-router` that uses busybox modprobe. We ran some tests to compare with gz and the difference was not that big so it was simply not worth the downsides.

        See https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpin...-/issues/12857 for the details

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        • #14
          Originally posted by tildearrow View Post

          With older kernels. As an example, my Arch system broke when I upgraded and mkinitcpio was set to generate Zstd-compressed initrd, so that prevented me from booting since my kernel (5.4) did not have Zstd baked in.
          But that's my point. You can't have that scenario with modules because, unless they're made for the same kernel version, they are quite unlikely to work at all anyway. And if you know the kernel you build your modules against you know for certain whether it supports zstd or not. The mkinitcpio is a completely different scenario because initramfs is an interface with userspace and it's expected to be arbitrary as long as the file format matches and it provides some kind of init.

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          • #15
            Would it run on bare metal in combination with Vega dGPU?

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            • #16
              Should do. I run alpine on bare metal and also in dozens of containers

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              • #17
                Originally posted by ncopa View Post

                Because it does not work with busybox modprobe. We actually used zstd first, and added the extra 1MB for kmod (same size as entire busybox btw...). But then it was discovered that there are also some kubernetes tools like `kube-router` that uses busybox modprobe. We ran some tests to compare with gz and the difference was not that big so it was simply not worth the downsides.

                See https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpin...-/issues/12857 for the details
                What about adding Zstd support to busybox?

                It seems somebody tried it in September 2021, this year.

                Last edited by timofonic; 26 November 2021, 11:52 AM.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by timofonic View Post

                  What about adding Zstd support to busybox?

                  It seems somebody tried it in September 2021, this year.
                  As said, we are not there yet. I think it needs to first be added to busybox, and only after that we can use zstd for kernel modules. And there are no guarantees that a busybox implementation will have the performance benefits, as they focus primarily on size.

                  Feel free to work on getting it into busybox.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by Naib View Post
                    Should do. I run alpine on bare metal and also in dozens of containers
                    Had distinct issue with using Nvidia card on Alpine. Because musl and Nvidia driver didn't mix well. So I am curious whether AMDGPU would be also depending on the existence of glibc.

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