Bug#1073979: Please consider enabling the dm-clone module (CONFIG_DM_CLONE)

[Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org>]

Hi Rob,

On Mon, May 05, 2025 at 02:43:53PM -0500, Rob Leslie wrote:
> Hi Salvatore,
> 
> Thanks for the follow-up.
> 
> > On May 4, 2025, at 4:27 PM, Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org> wrote:
> > 
> > Thanks for following up on
> > https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1073979#12
> > 
> > this misses some explanations. DM_CLONE is still marked experimental
> > (since the initial commit and never got removed) upstream, can you
> > elaborate why it is believed we should enable this despite in the
> > Debian provided kernel?
> 
> 
> DM_CLONE is useful to have available in certain circumstances. I have successfully used it more than once over the years to do live data migrations. It was a hassle to build custom kernels just for this, but in the end quite worth it. Having DM_CLONE available as a module in Debian by default would greatly simplify the lives of others finding themselves in similar situations. The fact that more than one bug was filed requesting it shows there is interest.
> 
> Although marked experimental, I have experienced no problems with it. I note that DM_CACHE is also marked experimental, yet already enabled in Debian despite this.
> 
> Thanks for your consideration.

Thanks for sharing the background. I will repare a merge request for
the version which will be included in forky and in the next
experimental upload including the configuration change.

Regards,
Salvatore