r/archlinux • u/Weak_Coat_9036 • 1d ago
QUESTION Does anyone use linux-mainline kernel?
/r/arch/comments/1xayjz8/does_anyone_use_linuxmainline_kernel/14
u/archover 1d ago edited 1d ago
My experience, and observation here is supported alternative kernels provide little or no practical performance increase.
I will wait to see what others say.
Good day.
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u/FryBoyter 17h ago
I use the ZEN kernel myself, and based on that, I agree with you. If I weren't too lazy to modify a few scripts, I'd probably use the default kernel.
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u/SnooCauliflowers7198 21h ago
That matches what I've seen too. Most people are better off sticking with the standard kernel unless they have specific hardware that needs newer drivers. The headaches usually outweigh any marginal gains you might see.
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u/YoShake 9h ago
I switched to zen long time ago, and after testing a bit couple things it seemed working a bit faster (edit: on dell devices). It also saved me couple headaches when mainline did get some bugs and it stayed like that for couple minor versions - afair that was with 6.3.X version.
Checked that, confirmed, got back to zen. Also pointing those who get into troubles to either rollback or install zen or LTS additionally for such cases.
One flaw I encountered with zen is that it didn't get patches for virtualbox (prolly other virtualization solutions) that get into mainline thus I had troubles starting VMs with hardware support.While also having LTS I did boot with it maybe twice to nail down networking problems.
For 2 yrs still updating all 3 kernels, not even single idea whatfor, but as with arch it's better safe than sorry.
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u/C0rn3j 1d ago
Only people who desperately need a feature from the very latest rc/mainline kernel and they can't afford to wait a couple weeks for it.
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u/Hamilton950B 1d ago
And even those people can often just use the testing kernel rather than have to build their own.
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u/YoShake 8h ago
don't forget about those who encountered bugs and desperately would like to have a fully working OS without rolling back kernel along with its headers and dependencies.
Ahhh and drivers.Lots of cases for that. Even I asked after 7.2.1 was released if anyone encountered tango down after update. I praise my own foresight as enough people answered that they had to switch kernel or rollback after getting into troubles.
7.2.2 fixed many initial bugs
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u/n1mras 1d ago edited 1d ago
I picked up a 9070xt graphics card when it was new and even though Arch ships the latest kernel the early drivers had issues. At that point I ran the mainline kernel for a while to get access to the latest fixes asap, mainline is not stable so once the driver stabilized in the full releases i swapped back.
Edit: this is the only time i felt the need to touch it - I assume its primarily for kernel devs.
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u/backsideup 1d ago
This is misleading and compares green oranges with ripe oranges. 'mainline' kernels are published directly by linus and only encompass the release-candidates (RCs) and the .0 release. After that maintainership is usually taken over by other developers, gkh in most cases, and the "mainline" moves to the next round of RCs. So you never want to use this as the default kernel, only for kernel development and bug/compliance testing.
arch packages the linux kernel from .1 on and barely carries any patches. It's one of the most vanilla official kernel packages you will find on any distro.