10 mo. ago • 97%

Do new patches that are incorporated in the "stable tree" of older kernel versions make it back into the distros?

Hi! This is a bit of a newbie question, so please bear with me.

I purchased a laptop that has a specific hardware issue under Linux (the keyboard does not function). A patch fixing the issue was approved for 6.8 and incorporated in the "stable tree" of older kernels: 5.4, 5.10, 5.15, 6.6, 6.7, etc.

My question is: Do distros ship with an updated kernel that incorporates all the patches? Or does the user need to update after installation for the patches to be applied? I imagine that it may perhaps vary from distro to distro, but I honestly don't know.

The question is relevant for me because, potentially, I would have to install the actual distro and update, rather than just try out a live version.

14 comments

The distros usually take care of that, often they add or backport additional patches too but the patches in the stable upstream kernel your distro kernel is based on are incorporated as well (unless there is specific reason to revert them because the patch is known to cause more issues than it fixes). Obviously only as long as the distro is fully supported, after that it might depend on the exact LTS policy or if it is completely out of support you should get a new version of the distro.

20
- This is an excellent answer. My eli5 addition is this:
  
  It depends on your distro. Distros that do more hand holding and more compatibility without additional operator involvement will be more likely to backport or use a stable kernel with backports like these. Examples: Ubuntu/Fedora/Mint. Distros that focus on system stability will take much longer to integrate backports like these, ex: Debian. And masochists will tell you to do it yourself, ex: lfs, arch.
  
  5
  
  In Arch there are AUR packages for specific versions so you don't have to do it yourself. Arch is about picking and choosing your packages, but not really about actually building/patching things on your own like LFS or Gentoo.
  
  Although picking a rolling-release distro and then using an outdated kernel does seem counter-intuitive.
  
  3
  
  Usually the more stable distros just use older LTS versions because their last major release is longer ago on average but they still release security fixes for those versions quickly (assuming a distro with the resources to handle security support at all).
  
  1
- Thanks, I appreciate the comment. It is logical that there is not one-size-fits-all approach. I will dig into the specifics of distros of interest for more information.
  
  2
- unless there is specific reason to revert them because the patch is known to cause more issues than it fixes
  
  Just experienced this for the first time on Debian last month. They had some issues with a kernel update corrupting some filesystems or something, and while the new kernel was right there available in the Discover app, they had blocked the download as an emergency measure.
  
  2
The distro you're using and the model of laptop and a link to the bug/commit would make it easier to answer what you can expect.

1
- The TongFang GMxXGxx needs IRQ overriding for the keyboard to work, is also sold as the Eluktronics RP-15 (TongFang GMxXGxx DMI board_name).
  
  commit df0cced74159c79e36ce7971f0bf250673296d93 upstream
  
  I am not using any distro right now because of the keyboard issue, and I do not feel comfortable patching it by myself.
  
  I am actually trying to figure out which distro to try out now that the patch has been incorporated.
  
  1

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