Kernel 2.6.21 backport in Feisty

[alfredio]

Hi backport people,
I'd like to see the 2.6.21 kernel backported in Feisty.

I know it is rather new software, however, I think there will be many users that will benefit from a 2.6.21 kernel. Indeed, the last version of the kernel includes the 1.0.14rc3 audio driver from alsa, which supports many recent motherboards (from sept 2006 until now, like the Asus M2N-MX, which has been discussed a lot for support on the ubuntu forums). In other words, having the 2.6.21 kernel in Feisty would be the "official" and, most of all, clean solution to many of the hardware problems affecting Ubuntu user that have relatively new hardware.

I already successfully compiled, packaged (with the Ubuntu/Debian way) and ran the 2.6.21 kernel, however I had problem with restricted-drivers, because they are handled differently from the standard Debian way. I also saw that git.kernel.org contains an ubuntu branch for the 2.6.21 kernel, so this may help you a lot.

I hope you can lend an hand to users like me that like to see their hardware supported.
(Another solution may be some documentation, or a complete tutorial, on how to generate a custom linux-restricted-module package the Ubuntu way, just like it is possible now to generate a custom kernel package the Ubuntu/Debian way).

Thank you very much for your support.

[nicolas2b]

Yes, it can be wonderful if it's in the feistybackport

[justinchudgar]

I would also like to see 2.6.21 as it contains the sensor modules necessary for my mobo. Since I have an Atheros NIC as LAN connection, having restricted-modules is critical for me. If anyone can direct me on how to compile 2.6.21 with the restricted modules, it would be greatly appreciated. Google has not guided me so far.

[jhewer]

I'd also love to see this, since CPU scaling doesn't work with the current kernel with my Via C7 processor. I've heard great things about CPU scaling in 2.6.21

Cheers

[k0001]

I'd love it! since without kernel 2.6.21, there's no support for w83627dhg sensor, which has been included in a lot of new motherboards lately.

lot's of new hardware support afaik in 2.6.21!

please backport it =)

[alfredio]

For those of you needing the 2.6.21 kernel in order to get the latest alsa drivers, I can report another solution. You will install the latest alsa driver with the current 2.6.20 kernel (tried, it works).

Please follow the instructions reported in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto
with the following patch:
In order to install the required tools, use the following command instead of the proposed one:

sudo apt-get install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext libasound2-dev

(that is: you also need gettext and libasound2-dev in order to compile)

The official Ubuntu instructions say that this SEEMS an intrusive operation (installing something from source, especially kernel drivers, is likely to break the apt package system), but actually it isn't. I hope they are right

Hope this can be useful to someone of you that is waiting for the 2.6.21 kernel, just to get the new alsa drivers...

[cjbehm]

Count me in for wanting a backport! I've built my own kernel in the past, but it's not something I want to do. I know I'll spend days sorting out all the stuff I break

[engla]

Don't you all know this won't happen? Backports doesn't do complicated packages. The kernel is problably one of the most complicated, and it updates several core libraries and ties to lots of core services..

[jerrylamos]

Well on this system I've got 2.6.22-1

uname -a
Linux Linux-Gutsy 2.6.22-1-generic #1 SMP Mon Apr 30 10:49:22 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

from Synaptic.

I installed the kernel package and edited menu.lst to point to the right kernel.

Now I'd previously changed feisty > gutsy in sources.list, enabled every Synaptic repository in sight, and did update and upgrade.

I don't know if you need the sources.list stuff for the kernel or not.

Cheers, Jerry

[mmxbass]

Agreed that something like this would be a serious service to the users. There's various hardware (not just mono sensors) that many of us depend on that simply does not work in 2.6.20 and is known to be functional in 2.6.21.