Hi Aurelien,
On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 06:36:33PM +0200, Andras Korn wrote:
> Package: libc6
> Version: 2.31-11
> Severity: normal
>
> Hi,
>
> due to
> https://salsa.debian.org/glibc-team/glibc/-/commit/6ddfa57577af0d96df9ddd7be401f5ce9a9bcc0f
> (a commit from 2004) the preinst script for glibc checks whether the
> "z" in the "x.y.z" of the kernel version is less than 255. If yes,
> the package refuses to install.
>
> I hit this problem on a box with a custom 4.9.266 kernel.
>
> Based on this lkml thread:
> https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/7pR0YCctzN9phpuEChlL7_SS6auHOM80bZBcGBTZPuMkc6XjKw7HUXf9vZUPi-IaV2gTtsRVXgywQbja8xpzjGRDGWJsVYSGQN5sNuX1yaQ=@protonmail.com/T/,
> the check is no longer needed because the kernel caps the version
> code it reports to 255, even if uname prints a higher number.
>
> Of course, you could conceivably still hit the problem with earlier
> kernels, so I suppose the logic of the check should be modified, not
> removed entirely, to be technically correct.
>
> If forced at gunpoint to make a guess, I would guess, though, that
> removing the check would have very little actual impact; it also
> doesn't protect the user from installing a kernel with an
> unsupported version number after having installed glibc.
Prompted by
https://lore.kernel.org/stable/YVAhOlTsb0NK0BVi@kroah.com/T/#t and
given this was addressed with
https://salsa.debian.org/glibc-team/glibc/-/commit/b3c76cf1cd0c8b6e4844c6362a45143c136a2900
is this something we should do consider as well for the older releases
where it is not acutally needed for people compiling their own custom
kernels?