Hi list readers
A FYI: I am far from expert in these things but I noticed that a kernel
with a known bug affecting AMD graphics is about to enter the unstable
distribution [1], and possibly the testing distribution as well.
[1]:"""
I would like to upload linux version 6.1.6-1 to unstable.
[...]
Notably though there is no fix for #1028451
"""
So I quote below from that bug report [2][3] for readers here so that you
can decide if you want to go read it.
My words end here, the rest of this message is quotes from the footnotes
given at the bottom.
[2]: """
Basically this issue breaks all usage of Displayport MST on amdgpu systems.
Which roughly translates to breaking external monitors for everyone using
an USB-C docks with multiple display outputs (which is pretty common these
days) on AMD laptops. As well as those like myself who daisy-chain display
port monitors with an amdgpu using graphics card.
So I would expect this impacts a lot of people :/ Which is also why there
is loads of activity and duplicates on the fd.o bug now that 6.1 is
trickling into distributions.
For what it's worth; The revert as currently suggested also reverts big
chunks for Intel and nvidia based GPUs, which unsurprisingly the
maintainers of those aren't too thrilled about. And really i'd be amazed if
it doesn't cause regressions for those systems... Unless the AMD folks pull
a small/targetted fix out their hats, this is likely going to take weeks if
not months before it's resolved in a way that's acceptable for 6.1.y :/....
"""
[3]: """
The revert may cause much wider issues which upstream may or may not care
(much) about. And it would be a divergence from upstream.
Getting wider testing of the 6.1 kernel is something I find much more
important. There could be other issues lurking which would not get exposure
and therefor wouldn't get fixed until this bug would be fixed.
Uploading 6.1.6 now would give (us/)upstream a couple of more days to
figure out a potential *better* way to deal with it. One which should be
acceptable for the upstream Stable Kernel maintainers.
But I wouldn't let this bug cause further delays to Testing. Testing is
meant to test things for the next Stable release and things can and will
break from time to time. If people can't deal with that, they should not
be running Testing.
"""
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2023/01/msg00169.html
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#35
[3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1028451#40