Re: Uploading linux (6.18.3-1)

[Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org>]

Hi Cyril,

On Sat, Jan 03, 2026 at 05:00:49AM +0100, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
> Hi Salvatore,
> 
> And thanks again for those mails, much welcome. Especially when they're
> not about “no packaging changes”. ;-)

Thanks for the feedback.

> I'm pinpointing a few things that I should look into (which I cannot do
> right away).
> 
> Salvatore Bonaccorso <carnil@debian.org> (2026-01-02):
> >   * Make dracut the preferred initramfs generator.
> 
> This caught my eye but I see you're addressing that below.
> 
> >   * Move dtb into modules directory.
> 
> This too, I suppose this might impact some packages like raspi-firmware
> (maintainers bcc'd) which copy some DTBs around.

FTR, this is this change:
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/merge_requests/1730
it required a followup as
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/c660788db61eea9d22bc429b987441b05b9302bb
and https://tracker.debian.org/news/1699493/accepted-u-boot-efi-dtb-5-source-into-unstable/

Thanks for checking other potentially impacted packages.

> >   * Split modules out of kernel-image udeb.
> 
> I suppose this is about shuffling .ko between udebs, so that might be
> transparent for the installer's runtime.

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/merge_requests/1747

> >   * [arm64] Add initial Raspberry Pi 5 support
> >     - enable MMC_SDHCI_BRCMSTB, GPIO_BRCMSTB, PINCTRL_BRCMSTB
> >       and PINCTRL_BCM2712 as modules
> >     - enable OF_OVERLAY
> >     - enable MISC_RP1 as a module
> 
> I had seen a few required patches land upstream lately, it's good to see
> the configuration options are getting in as well!
> 
>   https://salsa.debian.org/raspi-team/image-specs/-/issues/74

Ack glad if you are happy :)

> > So we cover a couple of further HW support enablements, the introduction
> > of a base package for version sync, enablement of building rust drivers
> > and features and the switch to dracut as the preferred initramfs
> > generator.
> > 
> > The switch of the preferred initramfs generator to dracut is a first
> > step towards the plan to switch to dracut by default. There is work
> > planned to make support for d-i, Benjamin is aiming to make a list of
> > packages that ship initramfs-tools hooks in Debian.
> 
> I was going about the existence of such a list. :)

Yep, the list does not exist yet. Should follow.

> Bug reports, patches, MRs are welcome for d-i components. If bug reports
> are precise enough (what needs changing, what the target should look
> like), I suppose we could help write patches… but that would require some
> heavy learning session (at least for me) as my only bit of dracut-related
> knowledge is that dracut-install exists and is used by recent
> initramfs-tools versions…

Ben Hutchings was planning to work on the d-i part to contribute the
support. I assume you will hear from us soon we start with that.

Regards,
Salvatore