Linux kernel 6.1 or 6.6 for OpenWrt 24.x release?

[Christian Marangi (Ansuel)]

Il giorno sab 3 feb 2024 alle ore 18:55 Janusz Dziedzic
<janusz.dziedzic at gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
> sob., 3 lut 2024 o 13:08 Hauke Mehrtens <hauke at hauke-m.de> napisał(a):
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I track the status of the Linux kernel 6.1 migration in this github
> > issue: https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/14546
> >
> > There are still many targets on kernel 5.15 without testing support for
> > kernel 6.1 in OpenWrt master. I assume that we need at least 4 months to
> > get everything to 6.1 and more or less stable. Kernel 6.1 support is
> > also missing for some important targets like lantiq, realtek and ramips.
> >
> >
> > Which kernel should we use for the next major OpenWrt release?
> > We have two options and I would like to get some feedback on these:
> >
> > 1. Do the OpenWrt 24.X release with kernel 6.1. Branch off when all or
> > most of the targets are on kernel 6.1 by default.
> > 2. Do the OpenWrt 24.X release with kernel 6.6. Branch off when all or
> > most of the targets are on kernel 6.6 by default. Do not do any stable
> > OpenWrt release which supports kernel 6.1.
> >
> > Doing a OpenWrt release with multiple kernels cases too much maintenance
> > effort from my point of view based on previews experience.
> >
> >
> > I think with kernel 6.1 we can branch off at around May 2024. With
> > kernel 6.6 we could probably branch off around September 2024. The final
> > release will be out about 2 to 4 months later.
> >
> > Currently OpenWrt releases are about 1.5 years behind the Linux LTS
> > releases. When we use kernel 6.1 for the next release we will continue
> > to stay 1.5 years behind. When we switch to kernel 6.6 and do not do any
> > release with kernel 6.1 we will probably only stay 10 months behind
> > Linux LTS kernels.
> >
> > There is already a PR requiring kernel 6.6:
> > https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/14357
> >
> >
> > Currently I would prefer to use kernel 6.6 to get closer to the recent
> > Linux LTS releases.
> >
>
> 6.6 for sure if possible.
>
> Just curious - any reason to not support both or even 5.15? And target
> could decide about it in mk?
> Eg. newest ATH/QCA that base a lot on newest kernel and backports just
> could choose it?
> For older one we already have work done - so just change generic
> patches directory into generic-kernel_ver?
> Or this is more work and problems?
>

We usually try to stick to a common kernel across all target for stable release
for consistency and to prevent and handle regression in the generic target.

Also it's really a way to force target on getting updated... If it
wasn't for this
reason we would probably have stuff stuck at 4.19.