Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo-sources : stable versions
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:27:49
Message-Id: CAGfcS_mm00Qt=7K9dSohJPX9h0Yr5fpqJb-94Td3a5FeaA6TEg@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo-sources : stable versions by Bill Kenworthy
1 On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 1:51 AM Bill Kenworthy <billk@×××××××××.au> wrote:
2 >
3 > I think its more complex than just falling behind - anything later gets
4 > the spectre fixes etc. and it appears not to be quite stable yet in some
5 > cases.
6
7 This may have been your intent and I might be misreading your email,
8 but I just wanted to make it clear that recent longterm kernels should
9 have spectre fixes. Now, the OP's 4.9.16 obviously won't have those,
10 but that isn't the current Gentoo stable release. The current Gentoo
11 stable appears to be 4.9.95, which is from April, so I imagine it
12 wouldn't have fixes for the latest spectre variant, assuming it is
13 vulnerable. Well, that is unless it has been backported - I'm too
14 lazy to go look at the patches. I'm sure the ~arch gentoo-sources has
15 them at 4.9.109, but again I didn't check upstream logs.
16
17 The main reason I use upstream kernels is because between previous
18 messing around with btrfs and current use of zfs I'm a bit sensitive
19 to what kernel I'm on and my needs aren't entirely aligned with the
20 goals of the Gentoo kernel team. That isn't an indictment on them -
21 the nature of a distro is to cater to the typical user, and when
22 you're not a typical user you have to know when to deviate. The
23 ability to do this is one of Gentoo's selling points, but when you do
24 you're a bit on your own.
25
26 --
27 Rich