[Users] I've noticed a new 'readykernel' package

[Frank Myhr]

Andre,

On 11/08/2016 05:10 PM, Andre Moruga wrote:
> Updated and tested kernel with Dirty COW fix for OpenVZ is now available at
> https://download.openvz.org/virtuozzo/updates/7.0/x86_64/os/Packages/v/vzkernel-3.10.0-327.36.1.vz7.18.8.x86_64.rpm

THANK YOU and the OpenVZ kernel team very much for testing and releasing this
updated stable kernel. I understand that resources normally limit such testing
to quarterly updates, and very much appreciate the exception you made in this
case of a critical vulnerability.


> all the intermediate updates are delivered to
> our commercial customers in rebootless (kpatch) format
> 
> As for the contributions to the community product, we still build these
> kernels for the "factory" repository.

I confess I am confused by the Virtuozzo & OpenVZ kernel development process. I
wonder if you could answer some questions and/or point to resources that address
them:

1) How (generally) are the commercial kpatches related to the OpenVZ kernel
code? Is it a case of select OpenVZ commits being cherry-picked and tested for
inclusion in the commercial kpatches? Or is it the other way around, with all
development being done on the commercial product, and some subset of patches
being contributed to the community project? Certainly there's no need to divulge
all details of your development process(es), but it would be very helpful to
have a better idea of the relationship between the Virtuozzo & OpenVZ kernels.
(I was under the possibly mistaken impression that they were practically
identical for OpenVZ 6.)


2) Why are factory builds apparently newer than available source code? I.e:
http://mirror.yandex.ru/mirrors/download.openvz.org/virtuozzo/factory/x86_64/os/Packages/v/
has 7.19.7 (and had 7.19.4, 7.19.5, and 7.19.6 before that)

while newest source code tag is still 19.3?:
https://src.openvz.org/projects/OVZ/repos/vzkernel/browse


3) Are older factory builds archived online somewhere?


4) I really like how the wiki is organized for OpenVZ 6 kernels. For instance:
https://wiki.openvz.org/Download/kernel/rhel6-testing/042stab120.7

I know your distribution model has changed significantly for OpenVZ 7, so it's
probably impossible to keep exactly the same wiki format for the OpenVZ 7
kernels. But it would be VERY helpful if for each factory kernel you could
publish in the wiki:

a) Link to factory kernel -- preferably a link that will keep working when a
newer factory build becomes available.

b) List of changes. The human-readable changes for the OpenVZ 6 kernels are
exemplary. But even an automatically-generated list of changes would be helpful.


> We... invite
> anyone from the OpenVZ community to contribute resources into testing of
> these intermediate kernel updates - we will be more than happy to cooperate
> and publish these kernels appropriately tagged as stable/community tested.
>
> So please consider it as open invitation and volunteering opportunity to
> contribute into the project

I do want to contribute to the community project.

With regard to testing kernels: as Volker Janzen has remarked, it is difficult
to know how to start. I'm not a kernel developer, but am certainly willing to
contribute some cpu time to testing, IF this will actually help OpenVZ kernel
developers (and eventually myself and the rest of the community) and not simply
waste everybody's time.

For now I will contribute with the wiki and with (modest) financial donations.

Thanks,
Frank