[RFC] Removing sys-kernel/vanilla-kernel

Michał Górny <[email protected]> Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:35:44 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.gentoo.devel
Organization	Gentoo
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hello,

TL;DR: I'm wondering if anyone is actually using sys-kernel/vanilla-
kernel, and what are their reasons for not using sys-kernel/gentoo-
kernel instead.


Back when I've started the Distribution Kernel project, I mirrored
the gentoo-sources/vanilla-sources split and created both sys-
kernel/gentoo-kernel and sys-kernel/vanilla-kernel packages.  Part of
the reason for that was that gentoo-kernel was patched to the latest
upstream release using genpatches rather than upstream patches.

Today, I don't think there's a really good reason to keep vanilla-
kernels.  sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel is using the upstream point-release
patch.  The recent series of CVEs meant that the vanilla-kernels kept
being vulnerable.  Furthermore, until the latest batch, they didn't even
build with gcc-16.  Overall, maintaining an additional package that's
not tested at all feels like a hassle and an unnecessary slowdown to the
bumps.  So unless someone has a very good reason to keep vanilla
kernels, I'd like to remove them entirely.

So, is anyone around here using them, or knows anyone who does?  If so,
what are their reasons?

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny

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