Ubuntu's Great Mainline Kernel PPA Hasn't Been Working Since Mid-September

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu's Great Mainline Kernel PPA Hasn't Been Working Since Mid-September

One of the very convenient features for Ubuntu Linux users who want to run the very newest upstream kernel releases or simply test a new kernel build for verifying bug fixes or functionality has been the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA. It's been around for years, backed by Canonical, and very convenient for fetching pre-built AArch64 / ARM / POWER / RISC-V / x86_64 kernel binaries as Debian packages... With options of stable/test kernel versions as well as daily packages. Sadly, it's been broken once again and has been in that manner since mid-September...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-Mainline-PPA-2024-Break

[Danny3]

That's sad to hear!
I haven't visited it in a pretty long time, but I was planning to visit it again as soon as the 6.12 is released.
Hopefully they fix it by then.

[varikonniemi]

It seems that no-one there is actually on top of things and they break without anyone even noticing.

[Raziel Anarki]

i've read somewhere (on their forums or disqus) that they are moving datacenters, and setting up a new build pipeline... i hope they resume the builds soon, can't wait, i like to be on the edge

[sophisticles]

I find it hard to believe that anything open source can possibly be broken.

More likely it is user error, I don't know what's so hard about RTFM.

[mirmirmir]

There's an ongoing effort to snap up the kernel. That's why they care less on keeping the ppa up.

Also why do I keep saying up? What's up with that? Does mi ingles even make sense?

[JMB9]

The PPA is quite convenient (if existing) - but it only is made for the last LTS (and the later STS version) - so not even for 22.04 LTS
it can be used after 24.04 was released (due to libc dependency problems) - and it is without any support.
I asked Shuttleworth (mail Fri, 7 May 2021 15:06:19, "Request for 'better HWE' on the Ubuntu Desktop - following stable
mainline Linux and Mesa stack (e.g. for gamers)") about getting for the desktop a follow mainline (kernel and mesa) - so
a tracking HWE for stable and current systems.
After using both:
* https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ *
* https://launchpad.net/~ernstp/+archive/ubuntu/mesarc *
for a new workstation and it worked just wonderful for me the entire phase till exverything was nicely supported
(and I tied to do the same for the new workstation - but only Mesa can be updated and I have to wait
the ages till next Hardware Enablement [HWE] get available).

The reply was just:
~~
Thank you for your mail. My team and I do review all correspondence and
will respond if we can be of assistance.

Mark
~~
and that was all.
At it seems the desktop was not of any concern unfortunately - and nothing has changed till today.

With the speed of HW development, a HWE of 1/2 a year gap with 1/4 year delay for STS or next LTS to get
that stack into available HWE is really bad. This may even be necessary for servers today - but is not
acceptable for desktop/workstation use.

So I may soon go back to Debian (if that experience pleases me as it did in the 1990-ies) as LTS is even
unstable when YY.MM.1 is released, the snap hell is terrible (similar is flatpack - no one needs sanboxing
on a good desktop - with convergency that idea was great - but sticking to it now is just stupid and a security
nightmare with all those different libraries used).
I would wish the user can determine if snaps are wished for or should be forbidden on that system.
The base is Debian so all things had Debian packages - maybe for fresh version it may be an advantage,
but even then I would prefer to wait and not getting a no longer reliable system.

So what is necessary is a semi supported PPA (if it stucks or did not build someone should be mailed and
should look to get it up at least in a few days - not 6+ weeks which happened sevreal times) for the desktop
to follow mainline (kernel x.y.5 and later and Mesa YY.Q.3 and later - named FHWE for fast hardware enablement).
There was many info on Phoronix about Canonical helping the desktop engagement - but even thereafter it is
much worse than the years before - like 24.0.1 being an upgrade desaster (while no one I know would make
upgrade but just fresh installation; otherwise there are always problems).
All those probems also reported here on Phoronix.

So this PPA has never worked nicely and it was reported and discussed on Phoronix a lot ... so this is just
a heads up that the mainline Ubuntu kernel PPA is broken again ... for more than 6 weeks.
So nothing new ... and the PPA is not usable as long as dependencies are not met for all LTS still in support.
And this was never a goal - it always only tracked the latest LTS.
What Ubuntu/Canonical delivers is much worse than several years before - and that is not ok.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Both OpenSUSE and Fedora have kernel builds from latest mainline available, and they don't seem to break for weeks / months on end .

[ahrs]

Both OpenSUSE and Fedora have kernel builds from latest mainline available, and they don't seem to break for weeks / months on end .

That is because they don't have a bunch of custom patchsets like Ubuntu does. If one of their patches fails to apply correctly then their builds likely end up breaking until the offender is rebased properly.

[drwilliams]

I have been building mainline stable kernels for Ubuntu LTS for personal purposes, but if someone wants to give them a try, have at it:

https://castour.net/linux/amd64/

I have generic, lowlatency and real time builds which I typically do within 24 hours of a new version being tagged. Since I build on Ubuntu LTS w/the default gcc, dynamic modules built w/dkms compile without issue.

Disclamer: I am not a kernel developer, I cannot debug any issues you might encounter. But I do dogfood them on my personal system for about a year now. YMMV