linuxPackages: 4.19 -> 5.4 #78713

vcunat · 2020-01-28T15:38:08Z

Motivation for this change

It's a longterm version that has been out for quite some time:
5.4.15 and 5.5 are current. I've been using it, so far I'm not aware
of any issues with it.

Feature freeze for the next NixOS release is in two weeks,
so now seems to be high time to decide the default kernel version.
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-20-03-feature-freeze/5655

Things done

It's a longterm version that has been out for quite some time: 5.4.15 and 5.5 are current. I've been using it, so far I'm not aware of any issues with it. Feature freeze for the next NixOS release is in two weeks, so now seems to be high time to decide the default kernel version. https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-20-03-feature-freeze/5655

vcunat · 2020-01-28T15:40:32Z

I suppose we should be good even if we stick with 4.19 for 20.03. Details: EOL for 4.19 on the web is only Dec 2020, but it seems likely to get extended (I think I have seen that somewhere) and that 20.03 is planned to EOL before that anyway.

nixos-discourse · 2020-01-28T15:41:26Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-20-03-feature-freeze/5655/6

mweinelt · 2020-01-28T15:54:08Z

I haven't had issues with the 5.4 series so far either, so I'd be happy if we could pick that, especially since it provides support for Intels AX200 wifi cards, present in most newer laptops.

jonringer · 2020-01-28T17:07:31Z

I've been using 5.4 as well, and haven't experienced any issues.

wkral · 2020-01-28T17:14:17Z

I'll add that I've had no problems with the 5.4 kernel on my laptop. In fact I've been using linuxPackages_latest for some time since the 4.20 kernel had some updates that benefited my hardware. So I think this update would help folks with newer hardware.

Frostman · 2020-01-28T17:24:41Z

I'm running 5.4.x in my homelab (w/ ZFS) since the end of December without any issues.

fpletz

My AMD-based laptop only works with 5.0+ kernels and 5.4 finally fixed some lockups that could otherwise only mitigated with some weird kernel parameters.

Also have been running latest on different hardware and environment for quite some time. 👍

samueldr

I was going to do the same, ensure we stick with the "current latest LTS at the moment of release" we've been doing.

Ma27

Just wanted to point out 5.4 behaves weird when using VRFs (just run the test from #78476 with linuxPackages_5_4). Apart from that, the kernel seems perfectly fine, using it on several setups, so overall 👍

andir · 2020-01-28T22:08:05Z

@Ma27

Just wanted to point out 5.4 behaves weird when using VRFs (just run the test from #78476 with linuxPackages_5_4).

If this is the same thing that @WilliButz showed me in Munich then you should probably file an upstream kernel issue about it.

Besides that I am also in favor of upgrading to this kernel as it has been working flawlessly on my systems for a while now.

Ma27 · 2020-01-28T22:18:03Z

Yeah, I remeber that debugging session and I'm fairly certain that this is related. Let's see qhen I have sufficient time for investigation :)

worldofpeace

I also think we should do this 👍

cc @disassembler

worldofpeace · 2020-01-28T22:57:40Z

Ahh I just remembered, there is this bug and I don't think fixes have been backported for it

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/issues/614

yrashk · 2020-01-29T00:10:53Z

5.4 seems to have random freezes with an Intel (i915) driver. My system seems to be affected

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1780800
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/e7tb8i/intel_i915_random_freeze/
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/ed2ml8/latest_kernel_update_545_makes_my_pc_constantly/
https://linuxreviews.org/Linux_Kernel_5.5_Will_Not_Fix_The_Frequent_Intel_GPU_Hangs_In_Recent_Kernels

worldofpeace · 2020-01-29T00:30:23Z

5.4 seems to have random freezes with an Intel (i915) driver. My system seems to be affected

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1780800
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/e7tb8i/intel_i915_random_freeze/
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/ed2ml8/latest_kernel_update_545_makes_my_pc_constantly/
https://linuxreviews.org/Linux_Kernel_5.5_Will_Not_Fix_The_Frequent_Intel_GPU_Hangs_In_Recent_Kernels

Yeah, my aforementioned issue I believe is just one of the few mentioned.
The experience for (I believe certain?) Intel integrated GPU users is a problem.

samueldr · 2020-01-29T00:34:57Z

(Something I wanted to write way before people chimed in about issues.)

Anyone's pet issue with the latest kernel is irrelevant to the question of changing the default, I believe. The previous LTS, 4.19, is still available. There will always be issues for a subset of users with different kernel versions.

Unless there were egregious regressions or bugs in the newer kernel, waiting until 20.09 is only punting the issue 6 months. There will not be a new LTS to move to in the next 6 months. 4.19 is slated for a December 2020 EOL.

Furthermore, sticking with an older release really hampers adoption on new devices, as new hardware is released, especially on laptops, it often becomes the case we need to point users towards the "new kernel" variant of the ISO.

Though, considering that intel iGPU issue, which I'm pretty sure I faced with 5.2 or 5.3 while test running it, it would be good to list this as an "errata" for the release, or something. It is bound to become a new common grievance.

lovesegfault · 2020-01-29T00:38:14Z

I have issues with 5.4.x, some Intel (i915) driver bug that causes a freeze.
c.f. https://gitlab.manjaro.org/packages/core/linux54/issues/5
c.f. https://www.spinics.net/linux/fedora/fedora-users/msg494505.html

worldofpeace · 2020-01-29T00:47:47Z

(Something I wanted to write way before people chimed in about issues.)

Anyone's pet issue with the latest kernel is irrelevant to the question of changing the default, I believe. The previous LTS, 4.19, is still available. There will always be issues for a subset of users with different kernel versions.

Unless there were egregious regressions or bugs in the newer kernel, waiting until 20.09 is only punting the issue 6 months. There will not be a new LTS to move to in the next 6 months. 4.19 is slated for a December 2020 EOL.

Furthermore, sticking with an older release really hampers adoption on new devices, as new hardware is released, especially on laptops, it often becomes the case we need to point users towards the "new kernel" variant of the ISO.

Though, considering that intel iGPU issue, which I'm pretty sure I faced with 5.2 or 5.3 while test running it, it would be good to list this as an "errata" for the release, or something. It is bound to become a new common grievance.

I agree fully and ref #69687, punting to another release is a practice that will achieve nothing. I'm pretty sure this particular issue is affecting a lot of people so it's really inevitable people to be aware of it, it just shouldn't be a discussion we're having to why we shouldn't upgrade the default. But as you mentioned, something like an errata or anything is needed.

eadwu · 2020-01-29T01:53:26Z

Another guy with iGPU issues with 5.4. Managed to regain a suitable system by disabling picom and while I still get rcs0 hangs sometimes, they all managed to be recovered. But yeah, 5.4 isn't in a really ideal spot for 5.4.

Doesn't look like it'll be fixed in 5.4 currently though. Here's my sources,
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=250765
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/intel/issues/673

nixos-discourse · 2020-04-08T21:37:30Z

This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/go-no-go-meeting-nixos-20-03-markhor/6495/19

asymmetric · 2020-06-04T10:47:45Z

@worldofpeace should we mention the i915 issues in the release notes?

vcunat added the 9.needs: changelog label Jan 28, 2020

vcunat added this to the 20.03 milestone Jan 28, 2020

vcunat added 6.topic: kernel 9.needs: community feedback labels Jan 28, 2020

ofborg bot removed the 6.topic: kernel label Jan 28, 2020

ofborg bot added 8.has: package (new) 10.rebuild-darwin: 0 10.rebuild-linux: 101-500 labels Jan 28, 2020

fpletz approved these changes Jan 28, 2020

View reviewed changes

samueldr approved these changes Jan 28, 2020

View reviewed changes

Ma27 reviewed Jan 28, 2020

View reviewed changes

jonringer approved these changes Jan 28, 2020

View reviewed changes

worldofpeace approved these changes Jan 28, 2020

View reviewed changes

worldofpeace mentioned this pull request Jan 28, 2020

linux: 5.4.15 -> 5.5.0 #78704

Closed

10 tasks

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

linuxPackages: 4.19 -> 5.4 #78713

linuxPackages: 4.19 -> 5.4 #78713

vcunat commented Jan 28, 2020

vcunat commented Jan 28, 2020

nixos-discourse commented Jan 28, 2020

mweinelt commented Jan 28, 2020

jonringer commented Jan 28, 2020

wkral commented Jan 28, 2020

Frostman commented Jan 28, 2020 •

edited

fpletz left a comment

samueldr left a comment

Ma27 left a comment

andir commented Jan 28, 2020

Ma27 commented Jan 28, 2020

worldofpeace left a comment

worldofpeace commented Jan 28, 2020

yrashk commented Jan 29, 2020

worldofpeace commented Jan 29, 2020

samueldr commented Jan 29, 2020

lovesegfault commented Jan 29, 2020

worldofpeace commented Jan 29, 2020

eadwu commented Jan 29, 2020

nixos-discourse commented Apr 8, 2020

asymmetric commented Jun 4, 2020

linuxPackages: 4.19 -> 5.4 #78713

linuxPackages: 4.19 -> 5.4 #78713

Conversation

vcunat commented Jan 28, 2020

Motivation for this change

Things done

vcunat commented Jan 28, 2020

nixos-discourse commented Jan 28, 2020

mweinelt commented Jan 28, 2020

jonringer commented Jan 28, 2020

wkral commented Jan 28, 2020

Frostman commented Jan 28, 2020 • edited

fpletz left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

samueldr left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Ma27 left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

andir commented Jan 28, 2020

Ma27 commented Jan 28, 2020

worldofpeace left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

worldofpeace commented Jan 28, 2020

yrashk commented Jan 29, 2020

worldofpeace commented Jan 29, 2020

samueldr commented Jan 29, 2020

lovesegfault commented Jan 29, 2020

worldofpeace commented Jan 29, 2020

eadwu commented Jan 29, 2020

nixos-discourse commented Apr 8, 2020

asymmetric commented Jun 4, 2020

Frostman commented Jan 28, 2020 •

edited