Archive of posts from 2022
Debian LTS work, November 2022
In November I was assigned 24 hours by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative. I worked 9 of those hours and will carry over the remainder.
I updated the linux (4.19) package to the latest stable update, but didn't upload it. I attended the monthly LTS team meeting.
Debian LTS work, October 2022
In October I was not assigned additional time by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, but carried over 9 hours from September and worked all those hours.
I updated the linux (4.19) package to the latest stable update, but didn't upload it. I merged the latest bullseye security update into the linux-5.10 package, uploaded that, and issued DLA-3173-1.
Debian LTS work, August-September 2022
I have continued to work for Freexian on Debian LTS. In August I carried over 21 hours from July, and worked 13 hours. In September I was assigned an additional 17 hours, and worked 16 hours. I will carry over 9 hours into October.
In August, Debian 10 "buster" entered LTS status. I spent some time on the backport of Linux 5.10 for buster. While this previously existed in buster-backports, further changes were required to add it as an alternative kernel version in buster-security, particularly around code signing. When that was complete, I issued DLA-3102-1.
I also prepared and uploaded an update to the linux (4.19) package. I issued DLA-3131-1 for these changes.
Debian LTS work, July 2022
In July I was assigned 24 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative. I worked 3 hours and will carry over the rest to August.
In July, no Debian release was in LTS status. However, I spent some time finishing the DLA text for my upload of linux at the end of June. I also attended the LTS BoF at DebConf and the regular team meeting.
Debian LTS work, June 2022
In June I was not assigned additional hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, but carried over 16 hours from May and worked all of those hours.
I spent some time triaging security issues for Linux. I tested several security fixes for Linux 4.9 and 4.19 and submitted them for inclusion in the upstream stable branches.
I rebased the Linux 4.9 (linux) package on the latest stable update (4.9.320), uploaded this and issued the final DLA for stretch, DLA-3065-1.
Debian LTS work, May 2022
In May I was assigned 11 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 13 hours from April. I worked 8 hours, and will carry over the remaining time to June.
I spent some time triaging security issues for Linux, working out which of them were fixed upstream and which actually applied to the versions provided in Debian 9 "stretch". I rebased the Linux 4.9 (linux) package on the latest stable update, but did not make an upload this month. I started backporting several security fixes to 4.9, but those still have to be tested and reviewed.
Debian LTS work, April 2022
In April I was assigned 16 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 8 hours from March. I worked 11 hours, and will carry over the remaining time to May.
I spent most of my time triaging security issues for Linux, working out which of them were fixed upstream and which actually applied to the versions provided in Debian 9 "stretch". I also rebased the Linux 4.9 (linux) package on the latest stable update, but did not make an upload this month.
Debian LTS work, March 2022
In March I was assigned 16 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 8 hours from February. I worked 16 hours, and will carry over the remaining time to April.
I backported the mitigations for Spectre-BHB (CVE-2022-0001, CVE-2022-0002) on x86 processors, to Linux 4.9. I worked together with Salvatore Bonaccorso in preparing the kernel updates that were needed in all suites, and writing advisory text. I uploaded both the linux (4.9) and linux-4.19 packages to stretch, and issued DLA-2940-1 and DLA-2941-1.
I also triaged new issues that were reported later in the month.
Debian LTS work, February 2022
In February I was assigned 16 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 8 hours from January. I worked 16 hours, and will carry over the remaining time to March.
I spent most of my time triaging security issues for Linux, working out which of them were fixed upstream and which actually applied to the versions provided in Debian 9 "stretch". I also rebased the Linux 4.9 (linux) package on the latest stable update, but did not make an upload this month.
CI for the Debian kernel team
Starting just after Christmas, I have been working on CI for all the kernel team's packages on Salsa. The salsa-ci-team has done great work on producing a common pipeline that is usable for most packages with minimal configuration. However, for some packages a lot more work was required.
Debian LTS work, January 2022
In January I was assigned 24 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative. I worked 16 hours, and will carry over the remaining time to February.
I sent various backported security fixes for Linux to the stable mailing list, and they have been included in subsequent stable releases. I rebased the linux package on the latest 4.9-stable release, but did not yet upload it.
Debian LTS work, December 2021
In December I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative. I worked 16 hours, and the remaining 4 hours cancelled out my over-work in November.
I completed an update to the linux (4.9) package and issued DLA 2843-1.