If you are having problems with the gentoo-sources kernel
You may find the process being described below a bit long-winded, and you may decide to skip some steps. However, once you file a bug report, we may ask you to do some steps you have skipped, depending on the information we need. Interpret the following as
the perfect way to report a kernel bug!
- Check the issues & solutions page first! Chances are that we are aware of the problem and have already provided a solution.
- Make sure you are running the latest release, and if you aren't, upgrade and check that the issue hasn't already been fixed. This may involve you going into the testing tree:
mkdir -p /etc/portage
echo "sys-kernel/gentoo-sources" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
emerge -up gentoo-sources
- If you compiled your kernel with "make oldconfig", then clear your .config and manually configure it all again. You'd be suprised at how many problems this fixes. Sometimes it is user error, sometimes it is just oddities with the kernel build system. I personally don't like "make oldconfig".
- Attempt to reproduce the problem on the equivalent stable "vanilla" kernel release. For example, if you are having the problem with gentoo-sources-2.6.9-r3, then you should try to reproduce the problem on development-sources-2.6.9. This helps us to narrow down whether the problem is introduced by the gentoo patchset, or if it exists in the upstream kernel that we are based on.
If the problem is present in the stable vanilla release, then attempt to reproduce the problem on the newest release candidate vanilla kernel (if there is one). In the above example, you would now go on to test and see if the issue is still present in development-sources-2.6.10-rc1 (assuming -rc1 is the latest release candidate).
- Research your problem on our bugzilla and forums. If you think its appropriate, you may also wish to try searching on Google and the central kernel bugzilla. Maybe someone else has provided a solution - even if this is the case, please continue on to filing a bug, we'd like to hear about it.
- In the previous step, if you found that someone else has already reported the bug on our bugzilla, then please add yourself to the CC list of that bug and post a comment saying that you have the same problem, and add any information you have gathered from the above steps. Otherwise, carry on to the next step.
- File a bug on our bugzilla. Describe your problem in full, and detail the results of the steps you have performed above. Include obvious details such as which kernels are affected by the problem, and paste the output from "emerge info" where asked.
If you think it is relevant, you may wish to post your .config file and the output of "dmesg". Please do not paste these in the Details box, but instead, post them as a text/plain attachment after you have submitted the bug report.
- Wait for a response from a developer. We're busy people, we might not always be very quick at responding. If we do request more info, please provide it as soon as you can.
If you had deduced in the previous steps that this issue is present in the latest release-candidate kernel, then we may close the bug, asking you to post a bug report at the upstream central kernel bugzilla. Don't be offended by this - we are interested in solving the problem, but its not always on our territory. However we do prefer to hear about issues users are having, and you will have fulfilled this by filing the bug with us first.
If we have asked you to file the bug upstream, then please check that nobody else has already reported it there. In your report, be sure to mention that the problem exists on the plain kernels from kernel.org, rather than only saying the problem is experienced on the Gentoo kernel.
Once you have posted the upstream bug, please return to the Gentoo bug and update the URL field with the URL of the upstream bug report. Once the bug has been solved with the upstream developer, please post a new comment on the Gentoo bug informing us of this, and we'll consider (where appropriate) importing the fix into gentoo-sources.
Finally, thanks for your co-operation! By doing the above, you will have helped anyone else with the same issue, and if you identified and helped solve a core kernel issue then the entire Linux community will have benefitted out of your efforts. Although its very easy to ignore bugs hoping that they will be fixed for the next release, *someone* needs to report them for them to be fixed.