Arch-Based Manjaro Linux 21.3 Released

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Arch-Based Manjaro Linux 21.3 Released

For fans of the desktop-minded, easy-to-use Manjaro Linux distribution that is built atop Arch, the Manjaro 21.3 "Ruah" release was christened this weekend...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Manjaro-21.3-Released

[user1]

I really don't understand Manjaro's kernel policy. There are periods like now, when they only stick to LTS kernels, but in other periods they have releases that use the latest kernel and also the same release, but with an LTS kernel as an option.

[direc85]

As a somewhat-bleeding-edge user, I have had my fair share of issues on many kernel releases. I vote the "LTS as a starting point" approach. I don't *know* their kernel policy, however.

Oh look, Calamares with better LUKS support! Just last week I spent a few hours getting my new encrypted setup to work. Certainly giving it a spin on my other setup RSN!

[skeevy420]

I really don't understand Manjaro's kernel policy. There are periods like now, when they only stick to LTS kernels, but in other periods they have releases that use the latest kernel and also the same release, but with an LTS kernel as an option.

Their policy is they offer an assload of kernels and you have to be keen on what you select. They offer pretty much every single kernel.org kernel, a couple of realtimes, and it is up to you to determine what kernel you should run. For most everyone that's usually the newest supported kernel unless you have a reason not to use it; or the latest LTS kernel like direc85 mentions. But they offer so many just in case the newest supported kernel breaks your system you'll be able downgrade and hopefully get back on track.

For a prime example of what I mean, I'm currently using an EOL 5.17.15 kernel while waiting on ZoL 5.18+ support. Since 5.17 has EOL'd my choices are to downgrade to 5.15 or upgrade to 5.18. Because ZoL doesn't support 5.18 and I'm using some 5.17 features not available on 5.15, my only options are to either patch 5.15 for AMD Pstate, MGLRU, and (I think) Zenpower or tweak some blacklists under /etc/modprobe.d to use modules/features available with 5.15 (I'd rather not do the latter).

Well, that's not fully true. I have the option of doing nothing at all and staying on 5.17 for another week or two until ZoL has their 2.1.5 release -- which looks to be fairly soon. Honestly, I might just sit on my hands for a week or two because downgrading my custom kernel is more effort than it is worth.

[lumks]

Michael could you for the next time please stop selling Manjaro as "This is (about) Arch Linux"? Manjaro is by now capable to stand on own feet and the Arch Community also doesn't want to have things to do with Manjaro. It's OK to mention this somewhere as footnote but it's nothing that should be in the top position, or even in the header.

[Linuxxx]

I really don't understand Manjaro's kernel policy. There are periods like now, when they only stick to LTS kernels, but in other periods they have releases that use the latest kernel and also the same release, but with an LTS kernel as an option.

I still remember the huge backlash Canonical faced when announcing that their enterprise-minded Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will stick to the upstream 5.15 Linux LTS kernel, even though they also offer Linux 5.17 aswell.

Double standards are just taken for granted nowadays, it seems...

[itoffshore]

I got tired of having to manually install linux-hardened (it's not in the manjaro repos) - & switched to EndeavourOS. Other than that Manjaro's stability was nice.

For anyone interested in signed Out of Tree kernel modules - arch-sign-modules is well tested now.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Michael could you for the next time please stop selling Manjaro as "This is (about) Arch Linux"? Manjaro is by now capable to stand on own feet and the Arch Community also doesn't want to have things to do with Manjaro. It's OK to mention this somewhere as footnote but it's nothing that should be in the top position, or even in the header.

Is it really though? If Arch disappeared tomorrow, what happens to Manjaro? They are syncing almost the entirety of their package universe from Arch. Title seems appropriate.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I still remember the huge backlash Canonical faced when announcing that their enterprise-minded Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will stick to the upstream 5.15 Linux LTS kernel, even though they also offer Linux 5.17 aswell.

Double standards are just taken for granted nowadays, it seems...

Rolling everything else + LTS kernel is a bit strange to me as well. I understand offerings like Neon / Argon. Stable everything else + latest fast moving DE makes sense. However, one of the big selling points of rolling is the newest kernels. I don't want LTS kernels on Tumbleweed. Hell, Fedora is on 5.18.5!

[user1]

Rolling everything else + LTS kernel is a bit strange to me as well. I understand offerings like Neon / Argon. Stable everything else + latest fast moving DE makes sense. However, one of the big selling points of rolling is the newest kernels. I don't want LTS kernels on Tumbleweed. Hell, Fedora is on 5.18.5!

Since Manjaro is supposedly targeted at novice users (or at least they're one of Manjaro's target audiences), I guess it mainly sticks to LTS kernels in order to avoid breakages with Nvidia or other proprietary drivers. Linux Mint for example, is even more conservative in that sense. With Mint 20 series, its developers refuse to ship it with newer HWE kernels like vanilla Ubuntu LTS point releases, so the latest release (20.3) still ships kernel 5.4 which is about 2.5 years old(!). They publicly said in their blog that this is in order to avoid problems with proprietary drivers.