Re: [PATCH 6.6 0000/1226] 6.6.145-rc2 review

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@web.de>]

On 24.07.26 08:17, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 02:21:28PM +0200, Frank Scheiner wrote:
>> [...]
>> Of course we are hobbyists, we're doing it for the fun of it. If you
>> want to learn more, please head over to:
>>
>> https://epic-linux.org/
> 
> Cool, but what happens when these last kernels with support for the
> platform goes end-of-life?  While running things in emulators is fun,
> how will future userspace code that needs newer kernel features ever be
> possible?

Actually it is already possible:

Our autobuilder built and  builds all current stable kernel versions.
The post 6.6 ones with patches on top (see e.g. [1]), like for mainline.
The stable kernels are also run-tested with Ski, which only requires a
few extra patches post linux-4.19.y depending on version ([2]). Also we
follow glibc and make it "work" for us ([3]).

[1]: https://github.com/linux-ia64/linux-stable-rc/tree/__mirror/patches

[2]: https://github.com/linux-ia64/ski/tree/hp-sim-for-linux

[3]: https://github.com/linux-ia64/glibc-ia64/

I hope I can get qemu-system-ia64 working in GHA in the future, so we
can also run-test non-Ski kernels there.

Mainline is also tested weekly (most of the time) on real hardware
([4]). So stable kernels post 6.6 always start in a working state. I
believe I even tested the older ones at least once on real hardware,
too.

[4]: https://epic-linux.org/#!machines/

Cheers,
Frank