Re: Trixie-backports : 6.18 LTS kernel
Hello Salvatore,
Thank you for your reply.
There are two scenarios that I encounter quite frequently:
- When I try to install Debian on recent hardware, I sometimes need a newer kernel than the one provided by default. Otherwise, installation is sometimes impossible. In such cases, I would need an ISO that allows me to choose the kernel before the installer loads into RAM, which is not currently the case. Currently, I can only choose a kernel via the advanced menu that will update my installation post-install. Actually I cannot take advantage of this when booting the ISO, which limits compatibility to hardware recognized by the basic LTS kernel.
- For the hardware that I have been able to soft-engineer with the basic Debian kernel, in some cases I would like to be able to provide better compatibility for certain devices. To do this, I may need a more recent kernel.
I am very grateful to you for making the new kernels available to us in Backports. However, their versions are constantly changing (6.17, then 6.18, 6.19, etc.), which doesn't always suit me.
To answer your question, I would have liked, if possible, for Backports to include a new permanent official folder that could be named, for example, “New LTS kernel”.
The idea would be to have the choice (as in Arch Linux) to use a more recent LTS kernel permanently, while benefiting from its security updates as with the basic LTS kernel.
In my experience, using a very recent kernel with an Nvidia graphics card and its proprietary driver can be difficult... sometimes you have to wait several weeks for Nvidia to provide a new driver for it to work again... And witching to an AMD or Intel GPU is not a viable solution for me.
I don't know if it's a bot that automatically compiles the kernels or if it needs to be done manually by you.
If you have an automated kernel compilation system and its management is not too complex for you in terms of workload, I would be extremely happy to be able to benefit on Backports from the newer LTS kernels when they become available, if that were possible for you.
Thank you for the excellent work you and all the Debian teams do for the community.
Best regards.
Philippe
PS Please excuse my poor English, I'm using an online translator...
> Le 11.12.2025 10:26 CET, Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org> a écrit :
>
>
> Hi Philippe,
>
> On Sun, Dec 07, 2025 at 04:49:08PM +0100, phamiet@bluewin.ch wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Would it be possible for you to create a folder for us in
> > Trixie-backports containing the new 6.18 LTS kernel and its future
> > security updates include ?
>
> Once we move the packaging to 6.18.y and upload to unstable, we need
> to wait it migrates to testing. Once this is done the trixie-backports
> will be based on the 6.18.y series.
>
> *But* once 6.19.y is uploaded to unstable and then moves to testing
> the next trixie-backports will move to be based on it.
>
> In short: there won't be separte longterm packaged 6.18.y versions in
> Debian. Noting that explicitly as I'm not sure if the question refers
> to have 6.18.y wich is upstream a LTS kernel for longer term in Debian
> itself.
>
> Or did you just mean the availablity of a newer version as right now
> in trixie-backports?
>
> Regards,
> Salvatore
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