A Proposal To Update Ubuntu's Kernel/Mesa/GNOME Components On A Monthly Basis

[Filiprino]

Monthly kernel and mesa updates are great.
Gnome rolling release is the same KDE is doing with KDE Neon. So if I do change to KDE Neon I'll also have KDE rolling release along kernel and mesa. That would work with Kubuntu too.
There are many packages which could go the way of rolling release. Ffmpeg, coreutils, binutils, build-essential, apache, nginx or java are some packages which come to mind. We already got Firefox on Ubuntu and KDE on KDE Neon and even Kubuntu if you use their PPA.

[autechy]

But now the 4.15 kernel is around the corner there's some regret because I really could do with HDMI audio through my 480. My choices are:
- Cope without HDMI audio until about May when the next release of Fedora is projected
- Hope the guy who did the copr repo for the AMD kernel patches sorts out support for Fedora 27
- Learn about compiling my own kernel
- Go back to Arch

Or none of the above, just get this: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug
Currently on 4.15-rc4, don't forget to add amdgpu.dc=1 to kernel params.

[kaprikawn]

Fedora updates the kernel. Just do dnf upgrade --refresh to get major releases. No need for a copr repo or building a kernel. The copr repo was useful for when DC was out of tree. Major kernel updates usually land a couple weeks after they get released upstream or you can enable rawhide to get them as soon as they are packaged at your own risk.

I didn't know that, that's really useful. I'm liking Fedora more and more, it's turning out great. Thanks for the info!

[nomadewolf]

I've recently migrated my gaming machine from Arch to Fedora because I wanted a more curated experience and got tired of small issues. For example, I couldn't immediately get an 8bitdo controller working on Arch, and I knew I had a bit of reading ahead of me on bluetooth, game controllers and whatever else on the Arch wiki. In the same situation, with the same DE on Fedora, the controller showed up and worked straight out of the box, no fuss.

But now the 4.15 kernel is around the corner there's some regret because I really could do with HDMI audio through my 480. My choices are:
- Cope without HDMI audio until about May when the next release of Fedora is projected
- Hope the guy who did the copr repo for the AMD kernel patches sorts out support for Fedora 27
- Learn about compiling my own kernel
- Go back to Arch

None of those seems appealing. I don't think the majority of people who run rolling-release distros need rolling release for every piece of software. I couldn't care less if I'm running an older version of my file browser. The advantages of rolling release for me are the kernel and mesa, everything else isn't a priority. If they do this, I'd really consider migrating to Ubuntu because it gives me everything I want. I really think it's a good idea.

You've spent your whole life up to this point without hdmi audio. What does it hurt to wait a few more months?

[FishPls]

This is a good proposal IMO.

[Otus]

How would this allow stabilization for LTS? Seems that would require a quiet period with manually approved application updates in the months before (like current release process) flying in the face of the goals of constant updates and lack of flag days.

[garegin]

I like the Windows model better, where the drivers are pushes as regular updates. DirectX is updated too. As I understand video drivers have Mesa, X, DRI and kernel components.

[newwen]

I like the Windows model better, where the drivers are pushes as regular updates. DirectX is updated too. As I understand video drivers have Mesa, X, DRI and kernel components.

unless kernel driver changes are backported (which takes work and can introduce bugs) you need to update the kernel, as kernel module api is unstable by design. The windows driver model doesn’t work with Linux.

[garegin]

Exactly. We need a stable kernel API. There’s really no way around it. Hardware enablement is the closest you can get to timely driver updates. But since the kernel people are strongly against it, this is the best you gonna have.

[EthraZa]

HS! I'm all for it.