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Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package

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On Sat, 2017-08-26 at 11:48 +0200, Thomas Goirand wrote:
> Dear Kernel maintainers,
> 
> As you may know, it's been years that Ubuntu is shipping a kernel
> designed for the cloud. Such a kernel is simply a version of the kernel
> that is stripped down for running on VMs. The point here is that VMs do
> not need all the drivers that we typically build for the generic Debian
> kernel (and if one still needs it, a fallback to the generic kernel is
> always possible). This makes the kernel binary package a lot smaller,
> and also potentially reduces the surface of attack in case of a security
> problem. For example, we wouldn't need ax25, appletalk and such, which
> are unfortunately automatically loaded in case matching packets are
> received by the kernel,

They aren't.

Ben.

> and which have been proven to be problematic in
> terms of security maintenance. Most hardware drivers would also go away.
> 
> Since it is only a mater of *removing* some modules, I don't think
> adding a cloud / VM kernel flavor would be a lot of maintenance. Though
> of course, as I wouldn't be the one doing it, it is not up to me to
> judge the amount of work.
> 
> Could we see this happening in Debian? Please let us know your thoughts.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Thomas Goirand (zigo)
> 
-- 
Ben Hutchings
One of the nice things about standards is that there are so many of
them.

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Thread

Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org> - 2017-08-26 12:00 +0200
  Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Martin Zobel-Helas <zobel@debian.org> - 2017-08-26 12:40 +0200
    Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2017-08-26 18:20 +0200
      Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Noah Meyerhans <noahm@debian.org> - 2017-08-28 01:50 +0200
        Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2017-08-28 02:40 +0200
          Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Noah Meyerhans <noahm@debian.org> - 2017-08-28 08:00 +0200
    Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org> - 2017-08-27 16:20 +0200
      Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Noah Meyerhans <noahm@debian.org> - 2017-08-28 16:10 +0200
  Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2017-08-26 18:20 +0200
  Re: Generating a cloud / VM kernel package Bastian Blank <waldi@debian.org> - 2017-08-28 14:10 +0200

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