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Bug 706294

Summary: sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel Application for USE=experimental
Product: Gentoo Linux Reporter: Tuxine <nancy154>
Component: Current packagesAssignee: Distribution Kernel Project <dist-kernel>
Status: UNCONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal CC: cruzki123, darkbasic, esteve.varela, hilobakho, kcelbert, me, mgorny, plevine457, sam, vovan, zurabid2016
Priority: Normal    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---

Description Tuxine 2020-01-25 11:32:53 UTC
The new ebuild from gentoo-kernel has generated approval and joy among many users. In this context a request:

It would be very nice if you could integrate "IUSE=experimental" from genpatches into your ebuild.

With these two flags "savedconfig" and "experimental" we have all the possibilities that gentoo-sources also offers.


Thank you
Comment 1 Michał Górny archtester Gentoo Infrastructure gentoo-dev Security 2020-01-25 11:49:11 UTC
Do you actually use any of the features provided by experimental patches?  I skipped them because they didn't seem very useful for generic configs.  OTOH, I don't really understand why they are optional given that AFAICS they don't change anything by default.
Comment 2 Vladimir 2020-09-16 12:28:10 UTC
Hi all. 
I know some ppl loving CONFIG_MNATIVE. Despite it's obviously not generic feature, having ability for transparent migration to portage-management kernel updates with exactly same functionality (achieved by savedconfig) is nice, imo.
Comment 3 Vlad 2020-09-21 09:35:03 UTC
Hello,

We're using CONFIG_MNATIVE from the experimental patches and ZSTD compression. Yes, I agree that they are optional, but if you provide 'savedconfig' feature, IMHO 'experimental' would be useful as well and they're maintained for 'gentoo-sources' anyway.
Comment 4 Esteve Varela Colominas 2020-12-16 12:35:30 UTC
Chiming in since I dropped the GCC patch in my /etc/portage/patches and a snippet to set CONFIG_MZEN=y in my /etc/kernel/config.d.
The main usecase of this kernel to me is avoiding the whole kernel upgrade song and dance, and just having it upgrade overnight with everything else without intervention. I got sick of missing kernel drivers for peripherals when I need to use them, and digging through the kernel config for them, not to mention the times I've had performance issues due to some kernel config I didn't know, so running a "generic", portage-managed kernel relieves me of the duty and worry, despite only running it on one machine. I use `-march=znver` in my make.conf, so why wouldn't I apply it to the kernel as well?
Comment 5 Peter Levine 2021-03-08 23:44:27 UTC
I started using sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel a month ago.  Having manually built the kernel from gentoo-sources for the last 16 years, I think auto-building the kernel without having to deal with ugly hooks is one of this distro's greatest advancements in years.  I have always used the experimental patch.  It adds a small but measurable gain (see https://github.com/graysky2/kernel_gcc_patch) and -march=native adds cache-line heuristics, I believe.

(In reply to Michał Górny from comment #1)
> Do you actually use any of the features provided by experimental patches?  I
> skipped them because they didn't seem very useful for generic configs. 
> OTOH, I don't really understand why they are optional given that AFAICS they
> don't change anything by default.

So I'll ask naively, why not merge gentoo-sources into gentoo-kernel?  You can add "generic" USE flags for a generic build, "source" USE flag for full source installation, etc...  Why maintain the two separately when they're so logically similar?
Comment 6 Kyle Elbert 2022-02-10 11:09:07 UTC
I too use CONFIG_MNATIVE and would like to take advantage of the easy handling of the kernel and external module rebuilding gentoo-kernel has.

For now I just patch the ebuild to add it, but it'd be nice not to have to do it myself.
Comment 7 darkbasic 2022-06-13 10:45:02 UTC
> Having manually built the kernel from gentoo-sources for the last 16 years, I think auto-building the kernel without having to deal with ugly hooks is one of this distro's greatest advancements in years.

I HAVE to quote this, so valuable.

While I don't use the kernel_compiler_patch (because I'm on ppc64) I would definitely use it on x86.
Comment 8 Joonas Niilola gentoo-dev 2022-08-04 12:03:00 UTC
(In reply to Kyle Elbert from comment #6)
> I too use CONFIG_MNATIVE and would like to take advantage of the easy
> handling of the kernel and external module rebuilding gentoo-kernel has.
> 
> For now I just patch the ebuild to add it, but it'd be nice not to have to
> do it myself.

Rather use /etc/portage/patches/sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel - you'll only need to update the patch when jumping between major versions, or when upstream updates their patch https://github.com/graysky2/kernel_compiler_patch
Comment 9 zurabid2016 2023-07-05 16:08:39 UTC
I can step up and implement it, in case no one is against the change
Comment 10 Rahil Bhimjiani 2023-07-13 08:53:14 UTC
Came here to request it. "experimental" patches is the only thing keeping me from moving to gentoo-kernel. It would be great convenience to have it in repo instead of manual hacks.