UpstreamKernelBugs

Revision 3 as of 2008-12-10 20:38:30

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Summary

The goal is to define and improve the Ubuntu to upstream kernel bug reporting process and relationship.

Rationale

We are in a position to connect end users with the upstream kernel developers. We should focus on facilitating the communication between the two parties. Currently, when a bug is reported against the Ubuntu kernel it is not necessarily tested and reported against the upstream kernel. Testing the upstream kernel currently requires knowledge on how to build and install the upstream kernel from source. This is not something every Ubuntu kernel bug reporter is comfortable doing. As a result, bugs do not get tested and escalated upstream. With the majority of Ubuntu kernel bug fixes originating from the upstream kernel, we've become a bottleneck to getting bugs resolved. A bug in the upstream kernel is a bug in the Ubuntu kernel.

Querying the upstream kernel bugzilla, there are currently 1306 bugs in an open state ("New", "Assigned", "Reopened", "Verified", "Deferred", "Needinfo"). Compare that to the 4150 bugs in an open state ("New", "Incomplete", "Confirmed", "Triaged", "In Progress", "Fix Committed") against just the "linux" kernel package in Launchpad and it's easy to see why we need to improve in this area.

Use Cases

  • Ubuntu user John experiences a kernel oops every time he boots his system. John should also test the upstream kernel to verify if he is able to trigger this oops when booting the upstream kernel. If the issue exists with the upstream kernel, John should notify the upstream kernel developers of the issue.
  • Ubuntu user Sue has a new usb wifi dongle that is not working in Ubuntu. Sue tests the upstream kernel and discovers the device works perfectly. Sue should work with the Ubuntu kernel devs to narrow down the fix that should be pulled into the Ubuntu kernel.

Assumptions

Implementation

  1. Work with the Ubuntu kernel team to provide an upstream vanilla kernel package that our users can easily install and test.
    • Build at least the latest -rc candidate and final release upstream kernels
    • Work on re-educating our bug reporters to test the upstream kernel and report their bugs upstream.
    • Send a weekly notice of issues reported by Ubuntu users to lkml and file suitable bugs in the kernel bugzilla
  2. Enable kerneloops by default and enable apport to detect and report bugs from oopses on the next boot
    • Add extra version info to identify the kernel as an Ubuntu kernel so that oops reports are more useful to upstream
    • Ensure that the hardware certification infrastructure takes proper advantage of the oops reports - this includes booting the system with a working kernel / in a working mode to let apport generate the bug report

Unresolved issues

BoF agenda and discussion

How can bug reports be forwarded better to the upstream developers and kernel bug tracker?

  • automation of reporting a kernel bug report upstream - similar to apport
    • or at least a tool for the QA team to forward them more easily
    • focus on not saturating upstream with poor reports
  • ubuntu qa team can not be a middle man for bug reporters
    • education of Ubuntu users
    • test upstream vanilla kernel and file upstream bug if necessary
    • Ubuntu QA Team to work on direct communication of bugs with upstream mailing lists
  • important to reproduce/confirm bugs if possible

flag bugs that are on "supported" hardware - a system that ships with Ubuntu

  • these bugs should be identified in Launchpad and higher priority

check if kernel has debugging enabled by default ~/ubuntu-intrepid/debian/config$ grep -rn "CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL" * amd64/config:529:CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL=y i386/config:556:CONFIG_DEBUG_KERNEL=y

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