Kernel features and Cloud (and GCE)

[Andrew Jorgensen <ajorgens@google.com>]

Hi everyone!

The Debian images in Google Compute Engine use the Debian cloud
kernel. This has been working well for us, because it includes the
VirtIO, NVMe, and gVNIC drivers that are needed for most GCE machine
types. As we move forward, additional kernel features are needed to
support all features of current and future machine types.

For example, we’re going to make an Intel 6300ESB watchdog device
available, and that needs a driver that’s been in Linux a long time
but isn’t enabled in the cloud kernel. For that one, another Debian
user +1’d the request because it would benefit users of other
KVM-based clouds (including private clouds). We can enumerate other
examples, but many of those also require backports or a future Debian
release.

Recently in response to another feature request for the cloud kernel,
Noah Meyerhans mentioned that, “historically the cloud kernels have
specifically targeted Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure.”

So we have the problem that the Debian cloud kernel supports some, but
not all, of the devices our shared users need, and we’re not sure of
the right way to solve that. We wondered if we should switch the
images to the generic kernel, or if there’s a way we could help the
cloud kernel support more clouds, or if there’s a better solution we
haven’t thought of.

What’s the best way to solve some of these problems?

Kind regards,
Andrew Jorgensen