Public bug reported:
[ Impact ]
Backporting new firmware for HWE kernels to LTSes is a constant source
of pain and always results in problems. To limit the risk we always try
to backport only select firmwares that we think are safe but we never
get it 100% correct. There main issues are typically:
1. Some backported firmware that the HWE kernel needs is also loaded by
the GA kernel which can cause issues for GA kernel users. New firmware
with old kernels is a combination that firmware vendors typically don't
test and is not really supported.
2. Missing HWE firmwares. Finding the exact firmwares that a particular
kernel wants it not trivial. We're constantly missing blobs so when LTS
users upgrade to a newer HWE kernel they sometimes experience
regressions and HW that used to work no longer does because firmware is
missing. We also deliberately exclude firmwares that we *think* might
cause issues for GA kernel users.
3. Identifying and backporting firmwares is an expensive task and the
results are never satisfying for both the firmware package maintainers
and (more importantly) the users.
[ Fix ]
Introduce a new set of firmware packages: linux-firmware-hwe-<foo>. The
idea is that HWE kernels depend on linux-firmware-hwe (instead of linux-
firmware) which installs the same firmware binaries as the Ubuntu
release where the HWE kernel comes from. Take Resolute as an example.
The first HWE kernel for Resolute will be 7.3 from Stonking. The new set
of linux-firmware-hwe for Resolute will be a backport of linux-firmware
from Stonking. The full set, no backporting of individual blobs. That
way we have the same combination of kernel+firmware in both the interim
and the LTS releases.
The caveat with this is that it's not possible to have both linux-
firmware and linux-firmware-hwe installed at the same time (we might
work around that in the future). So you either have the firmwares for
the GA kernel *or* the firmwares for the HWE kernel. But you can have
both GA *and* HWE kernels installed at the same time. So depending on
which kernel and which firmware you have installed or selected to boot,
you can still run a combination of old kernel + new firmware or new
kernel + old firmware.
Note that linux-firmware-hwe-<foo> in interim releases will just be
metapackages that depend on linux-firmware-<foo>.
[ Test Case ]
TBD
[ Where Problems Could Occur ]
TBD
** Affects: linux-firmware (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2170922
Title:
Introduce linux-firmware-hwe
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