Fedora 38 Plots Path To Unified Kernel Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fedora 38 Plots Path To Unified Kernel Support

Red Hat and Fedora engineers are plotting a path to supporting Unified Kernel Images (UKI) with Fedora Linux and for the Fedora 38 release in the spring they are aiming to get their initial enablement in place...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-38-Unified-Kernel-Part-1

[pdbecid]

This sure is going to ruffle some feathers.

*Grabs Popcorn*

[chuckula]

I'm the opposite of this: I custom compile my kernel for my hardware and I don't even need an initrd.

What I'd like to see is an intelligent kernel configuration utility that auto-detects your hardware, self-configures for an optimized build, and even lets you know exactly what firmware files your system needs so I don't have to do the massive housekeeping to delete unnecessary cruft like I do now.

[Jbk0]

Fedora really likes to push the Linux ecosystem forward. Looking forward to many bugfixes and improvements to UKIs, until soon more distros implement that OOTB alongside Secure Boot!

[You-]

I'm the opposite of this: I custom compile my kernel for my hardware and I don't even need an initrd.

What I'd like to see is an intelligent kernel configuration utility that auto-detects your hardware, self-configures for an optimized build, and even lets you know exactly what firmware files your system needs so I don't have to do the massive housekeeping to delete unnecessary cruft like I do now.

Would work as long as you dont change hardware after initial install.

[Berniyh]

I'm the opposite of this: I custom compile my kernel for my hardware and I don't even need an initrd.

Pretty sure, you can do that in the future as well. There is zero reason why it shouldn't be possible.
This is only targeting distributions that ship kernel binaries.

What I'd like to see is an intelligent kernel configuration utility that auto-detects your hardware, self-configures for an optimized build, and even lets you know exactly what firmware files your system needs so I don't have to do the massive housekeeping to delete unnecessary cruft like I do now.

That sounds like a dangerous minefield.
Just imagine all of the "That util faild on my system and now it doesn't boot any more" kind of bug reports that distributions (and the kernel) would get …

Having said that, there isn't that much point in configuring the kernel specifically for your system with regards to drivers, other than compile time. And the latter is unimportant if you use binaries anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I've been compiling my own kernel since more than 15 years, but I mostly continue doing it only out of habit.
Realistically speaking, the effort I put into it isn't worth the minor improvements that the custom configuration might bring.
The only real advantage it gives me is that – like you – I don't need an initrd.*

* actually, I still need one to set up root, but it's not kernel specific, very simplistic and I only update 2-3 times per year.

[cynic]

as a loyal Fedora user, this sounds really awful.

I sometimes need (or just like to) use the grub command line to alter on the fly the system options at boot.
Also, I tend to avoid secure boot as long as my hardware allows me to do so.

I just hope this Unified Kernel thing will always be an opt-in (or at least there's a way to opt out without too much tweaking).

[erniv2]

For my taste the standard kernels are too monolithic they could put more stuff in as a module, also the problem with compiled in drivers is if the probe sequence fails you are stuck while for a module you can just set some modparm and get away with it.

But as a Nvidia user i see headaches coming again with this Unified approach it will probably get even more annoying to get rid of the kernel driver for the nvidia module.

[chuckula]

Would work as long as you dont change hardware after initial install.

As a practical matter, how often do people really change hardware.
Even if you are on the OMG I NEED A NEW GPU EVERY YEAR bandwagon, it's not that often.

[Britoid]

as a loyal Fedora user, this sounds really awful.

I sometimes need (or just like to) use the grub command line to alter on the fly the system options at boot.
Also, I tend to avoid secure boot as long as my hardware allows me to do so.

I just hope this Unified Kernel thing will always be an opt-in (or at least there's a way to opt out without too much tweaking).

I believe the plan is to allow some boot flags to still be passed.

There will always still be the option to use a custom initrd (rhel deployments out there need it), but this is to cover the 99%. Which is fine. I reckon the scripts will be adjusted to automatically switch to a custom initrd build if needed (e g nvidia)