Bug#953680: linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos?

From	Laurence Parry <greenreaper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.bugs.dist, linux.debian.kernel
Subject	Bug#953680: linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos?
Date	2020-03-30 15:50 +0200
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> Kernel 5.6 was released yesterday
> from upstream, so isn't it a bit late
> now for 5.5?

From what I've seen, it's not unusual for Debian's kernel team to wait
several minor point releases until there is a kernel they're happy with -
indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if the policy is to wait until the initial
version of the *next* major release is out.

Often early kernel revisions have a fair share of issues - often not
limited to the new features added in that major release. They are typically
also backported to otherwise stable systems, so picking a good revision has
some importance. Meanwhile, most fixes do make it into earlier stable
kernels.

To take one example, 5.5.9 had a fix for btrfs' new checksum feature, which
didn't work properly with direct I/O. So if you updated to 5.5 on its
initial release and made a new FS to use it, you might have had an
unpleasant surprise and spent a lot of time debugging a problem.

There was also a nasty bug in early 5.2 releases which led to delayed
writes not being flushed to disk, and ultimately data loss. Unfortunately
in that case it was fixed too late and made it into Debian backports. But
usually, the delay helps to avoid that kind of thing.

Of course, if you really want a new feature, you can download and compile a
kernel yourself, either from kernel.org - which is what I ended up doing to
get those checksums - using Debian's git repo. But that has the risk of
not-fully-working code, so I'll probably be sticking with the 5.5.13 I have
rather than going to 5.6 right away.

As for a later release of 5.4, one of the Debian kernel team members
indicated on the list a few weeks ago that they preferred to go to 5.5,
which is what has ended up happening:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2020/03/msg00086.html

Best regards,
--
Laurence "GreenReaper" Parry

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Bug#953680: linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos? jim_p <pitsiorisj@gmail.com> - 2020-03-12 10:00 +0100
  Bug#953680: marked as done (linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When  will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos?) "Debian Bug Tracking System" <owner@bugs.debian.org> - 2020-03-30 10:20 +0200
  Bug#953680: linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos? jim_p <pitsiorisj@gmail.com> - 2020-03-30 14:00 +0200
    Bug#953680: linux-image-5.5.0-rc5-amd64: When will the stable version of 5.5 reach the repos? Laurence Parry <greenreaper@gmail.com> - 2020-03-30 15:50 +0200

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