Test Days are often focused on testing Changes planned for an upcoming Fedora release, but they also regularly test important areas of the Fedora distribution, like upgrades, internationalization, graphical drivers, desktop environments, kernel updates, and others., see the Test Days webpage.
In today's tutorial I will show you how to test the kernel, see the kernel test week webpage.
Fedora contains the following kernel packages:
kernel — Contains the kernel for single, multicore and multiprocessor systems.
kernel-debug — Contains a kernel with numerous debugging options enabled for kernel diagnosis, at the expense of reduced performance.
kernel-devel — Contains the kernel headers and makefiles sufficient to build modules against the kernel package.
kernel-debug-devel — Contains the development version of the kernel with numerous debugging options enabled for kernel diagnosis, at the expense of reduced performance.
kernel-headers — Includes the C header files that specify the interface between the Linux kernel and user-space libraries and programs. The header files define structures and constants that are needed for building most standard programs.
linux-firmware — Contains all of the firmware files that are required by various devices to operate.
perf — This package contains supporting scripts and documentation for the perf tool shipped in each kernel image subpackage.
kernel-abi-whitelists — Contains information pertaining to the Fedora kernel ABI, including a lists of kernel symbols that are needed by external Linux kernel modules and a dnf plug-in to aid enforcement.
kernel-tools — Contains tools for manipulating the Linux kernel and supporting documentation.
You can see all events from Test Days on this webpage.
First, you need to install koji tool:
[root@desk mythcat]# dnf install koji.
Last metadata expiration check: 1:42:23 ago on Tue 27 Apr 2021 07:08:25 PM EEST.
Package koji-1.24.0-1.fc33.noarch is already installed.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!
The koji tool is the software that builds RPM packages for the Fedora project.
This command show all available kernel builds:
[root@desk mythcat]# koji list-builds --package=kernel --after="2021-04-09"
Build Built by State
------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- ----------------
kernel-5.11.13-100.fc32 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.13-200.fc33 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.13-300.fc34 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.14-100.fc32 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.14-200.fc33 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.14-300.fc34 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.15-100.fc32 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.15-200.fc33 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.15-300.fc34 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.16-100.fc32 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.16-200.fc33 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.11.16-300.fc34 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc7.189.eln110 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc7.189.fc35 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc7.20210416git7e25f40eab52.191.fc35 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc8.191.eln110 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc8.191.fc35 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc8.20210423git7af08140979a.193.eln110 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-0.rc8.20210423git7af08140979a.193.fc35 jforbes COMPLETE
kernel-5.12.0-198.eln110 jforbes CANCELED
kernel-5.12.0-198.fc35 jforbes COMPLETE
I download the kernel:
[root@desk mythcat]# koji download-build --arch=x86_64 kernel-5.12.0-198.fc35
Downloading: kernel-debug-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 243.62 KiB / 243.62 KiB
Downloading: kernel-modules-internal-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 399.58 KiB / 399.58 KiB
Downloading: kernel-debug-modules-internal-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 422.61 KiB / 422.61 KiB
Downloading: kernel-debug-modules-extra-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 2.28 MiB / 2.28 MiB
Downloading: kernel-modules-extra-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 2.19 MiB / 2.19 MiB
Downloading: kernel-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 243.52 KiB / 243.52 KiB
Downloading: kernel-debug-core-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 35.78 MiB / 35.78 MiB
Downloading: kernel-modules-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 31.24 MiB / 31.24 MiB
Downloading: kernel-core-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 33.92 MiB / 33.92 MiB
Downloading: kernel-debug-modules-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 31.97 MiB / 31.97 MiB
Downloading: kernel-devel-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 14.51 MiB / 14.51 MiB
Downloading: kernel-debug-devel-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64.rpm
[====================================] 100% 14.62 MiB / 14.62 MiB
The last step is update your kernel and see if is working well:
[root@desk mythcat]# dnf update kernel-*.rpm
Last metadata expiration check: 2:01:14 ago on Tue 27 Apr 2021 07:08:25 PM EEST.
The same or higher version of kernel is already installed, cannot update it.
The same or higher version of kernel-core is already installed, cannot update it.
Package kernel-debug not installed, cannot update it.
...
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
========================================================================================================
Installing:
kernel x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @commandline 244 k
kernel-core x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @commandline 34 M
kernel-devel x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @commandline 15 M
kernel-modules x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @commandline 31 M
kernel-modules-extra x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @commandline 2.2 M
Installing dependencies:
bison x86_64 3.6.4-3.fc33 fedora 860 k
flex x86_64 2.6.4-5.fc33 fedora 311 k
Removing:
kernel x86_64 5.11.14-200.fc33 @updates 0
kernel-core x86_64 5.11.14-200.fc33 @updates 74 M
kernel-devel x86_64 5.11.14-200.fc33 @updates 56 M
kernel-modules x86_64 5.11.14-200.fc33 @updates 30 M
kernel-modules-extra x86_64 5.11.14-200.fc33 @updates 1.9 M
Removing dependent packages:
kmod-nvidia-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64 x86_64 3:465.24.02-1.fc33 @@commandline 44 M
Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================
Install 7 Packages
Remove 6 Packages
Total size: 83 M
Total download size: 1.1 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
...
Installed:
bison-3.6.4-3.fc33.x86_64 flex-2.6.4-5.fc33.x86_64
kernel-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64 kernel-core-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64
kernel-devel-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64 kernel-modules-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64
kernel-modules-extra-5.12.0-198.fc35.x86_64
Removed:
kernel-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64
kernel-core-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64
kernel-devel-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64
kernel-modules-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64
kernel-modules-extra-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-5.11.14-200.fc33.x86_64-3:465.24.02-1.fc33.x86_64
Complete!
If you want to see kernel packages are installed, execute this command:
[root@desk mythcat]# dnf list installed "kernel-*"
Installed Packages
kernel-core.x86_64 5.11.15-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-core.x86_64 5.11.16-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-core.x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @@commandline
kernel-devel.x86_64 5.11.15-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-devel.x86_64 5.11.16-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-devel.x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @@commandline
kernel-headers.x86_64 5.11.16-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-modules.x86_64 5.11.15-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-modules.x86_64 5.11.16-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-modules.x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @@commandline
kernel-modules-extra.x86_64 5.11.15-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-modules-extra.x86_64 5.11.16-200.fc33 @updates
kernel-modules-extra.x86_64 5.12.0-198.fc35 @@commandline
kernel-srpm-macros.noarch 1.0-3.fc33 @fedora