Update Linux to 6.18

[sayanchowdhury]

Testing done

CI: https://jenkins.flatcar.org/job/container/job/packages_all_arches/490/

• Changelog entries added in the respective changelog/ directory (user-facing change, bug fix, security fix, update)
• Inspected CI output for image differences: /boot and /usr size, packages, list files for any missing binaries, kernel modules, config files, kernel modules, etc.

This might help: flatcar/Flatcar#2424

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the Flatcar/CoreOS kernel stack to Linux 6.18.26, including new kernel sources/modules/kernel ebuilds, updated kernel configuration for amd64/arm64, and compatibility fixes for the legacy NVIDIA 550.163.01 driver against newer kernel APIs.

Changes:

• Bump kernel sources to 6.18.26 (new coreos-sources, coreos-modules, coreos-kernel ebuilds + updated Manifest).
• Add/refresh downstream kernel patch set under coreos-sources/files/6.18/ (secure-boot/lockdown-related, build tooling tweaks).
• Extend old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01 to support kernels up to 6.18 via additional patching and src_prepare adjustments.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 23 out of 23 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01-r2.ebuild	Bump supported kernel max to 6.18 and add NVIDIA 550 build-fix patches + in-tree sed adjustments.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0001-mm-use-vm_flags_reset-to-avoid-GPL-only-vma_start_wr.patch	Adapts NVIDIA mm/VMA flag helpers for Linux 6.15+ GPL/export changes.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0002-nvidia-drm-550.163.01-pass-drm_format_info-to-nv_drm.patch	Updates NVIDIA DRM fb_create plumbing for Linux 6.17+ API change (format info param).
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0003-nvidia-use-hrtimer_setup-for-Linux-6.15.patch	Switches to hrtimer_setup() for Linux 6.15+ in the open kernel module path.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0004-nvidia-uvm-guard-iommu_dev_enable_disable_feature-fo.patch	Guards removed IOMMU SVA enable/disable calls for Linux 6.16+.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0005-nvidia-uvm-guard-SMMU-WAR-code-with-UVM_ATS_SMMU_WA.patch	Makes ARM64 SMMU WAR code conditional to avoid non-ARM build issues.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/Manifest	Adds distfiles entries for linux-6.18 + patch-6.18.26.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/coreos-sources-6.18.26.ebuild	New kernel sources ebuild for 6.18.26 with patch list for Flatcar deltas.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0001-pahole-support-reproducible-builds.patch	Enables reproducible-build support in pahole flags.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0002-Revert-x86-boot-Remove-the-bugger-off-message.patch	Reverts upstream removal needed for dm-verity hash storage per commit message.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0003-efi-Add-an-EFI_SECURE_BOOT-flag-to-indicate-secure-b.patch	Adds EFI secure boot flag plumbing and secureboot.c addition.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0003-efi-add-an-efi_secure_boot-flag-to-indicate-secure-b.patch	Duplicate alternate-form patch file for EFI secure boot flag plumbing.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0004-efi-Lock-down-the-kernel-if-booted-in-secure-boot-mo.patch	Adds lockdown-on-secure-boot behavior and related Kconfig/API changes.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0004-efi-lock-down-the-kernel-if-booted-in-secure-boot-mo.patch	Duplicate alternate-form patch file for secure-boot lockdown.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0005-mtd-phram-slram-Disable-when-the-kernel-is-locked-do.patch	Disables phram/slram mappings under kernel lockdown (security hardening).
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0005-mtd-disable-slram-and-phram-when-locked-do.patch	Duplicate alternate-form patch file for phram/slram lockdown behavior.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0006-arm64-add-kernel-config-option-to-lock-down-when-in-.patch	Adds arm64 secure-boot lockdown config/plumbing via FDT params.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/files/6.18/z0007-tools-hv-fix-cross-compilation-for-ARM64.patch	Fixes Hyper-V tools Makefile logic for ARM64 cross builds.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/coreos-modules-6.18.26.ebuild	New modules ebuild for 6.18.26: builds vmlinux+modules and installs minimal build tree.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/commonconfig-6.18	New shared kernel config fragment for 6.18 (common options).
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/amd64_defconfig-6.18	New amd64-specific config fragment for 6.18.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/arm64_defconfig-6.18	New arm64-specific config fragment for 6.18.
sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-kernel/coreos-kernel-6.18.26.ebuild	New kernel build/install ebuild for 6.18.26 (dracut/bootengine integration).

Suppressed comments (1)

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01-r2.ebuild:167

• Same issue as above: \b is not a portable/working word-boundary in sed. If this substitution doesn't match, del_timer_sync() won't be renamed and the build will still fail on kernels where it was renamed/removed. Prefer \< / \> for word boundaries.

	find "${S}" \( -name '*.c' -o -name '*.h' \) \
		-exec sed -i 's/\bdel_timer_sync\b/timer_delete_sync/g' {} + || die

---

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[dongsupark]

I think we should run Jenkins CI for all providers, especially for such a big Kernel bump.

[dongsupark]

Why is the kernel config CRYPTO_CRC32C is needed for building old nvidia drivers?

[chewi]

Nothing in the kernel depends on this, and nothing enables it by default, as far as I can see. It has something to do with iSCSI.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 22 out of 25 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Suppressed comments (4)

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01-r2.ebuild:162

• The sed expression uses \b as a word-boundary, but in GNU sed regex \b is a backspace escape, not a word-boundary. This means the replacement likely never happens and the EXTRA_CFLAGS→ccflags-y migration won’t take effect on 6.15+ builds.

	find "${S}" \( -name 'Kbuild' -o -name 'Makefile' \) \
		-exec sed -i 's/\bEXTRA_CFLAGS\b/ccflags-y/g' {} + || die

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01-r2.ebuild:167

• Same issue here: \bdel_timer_sync\b won’t match as a word-boundary in GNU sed (\b is backspace). The rename to timer_delete_sync likely won’t be applied, defeating the intended compatibility fix.

	find "${S}" \( -name '*.c' -o -name '*.h' \) \
		-exec sed -i 's/\bdel_timer_sync\b/timer_delete_sync/g' {} + || die

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0002-nvidia-drm-550.163.01-pass-drm_format_info-to-nv_drm.patch:143

• This patch claims to use the conftest symbol (NV_DRM_FB_CREATE_TAKES_FORMAT_INFO) instead of a hardcoded kernel version check, but the function prototype in nvidia-drm-fb.h is guarded by LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= 6.17. That can desync the prototype from the call sites guarded by defined(NV_DRM_FB_CREATE_TAKES_FORMAT_INFO) (e.g. with backports), causing build failures.

+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(6, 17, 0)
+    const struct drm_format_info *info,
+#endif

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0002-nvidia-drm-550.163.01-pass-drm_format_info-to-nv_drm.patch:263

• Same conftest-vs-version mismatch in the non-open kernel/nvidia-drm/nvidia-drm-fb.h hunk: the prototype is guarded by LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= 6.17, while the rest of the patch uses defined(NV_DRM_FB_CREATE_TAKES_FORMAT_INFO). These need to use the same condition to avoid signature mismatches on backports/custom kernels.

+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(6, 17, 0)
+    const struct drm_format_info *info,
+#endif

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 24 out of 27 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 23 out of 26 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Suppressed comments (4)

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers-550.163.01-r2.ebuild:167

• The del_timer_sync -> timer_delete_sync rewrite is applied unconditionally. That will break builds against kernels where timer_delete_sync() doesn't exist (older than the rename), even though this ebuild doesn't set a minimum supported kernel. Gate the rewrite on the target kernel version so older kernels keep del_timer_sync().

	# Linux 6.15 renamed del_timer_sync() to timer_delete_sync() (commit
	# d4b4c87). NVIDIA 550 calls del_timer_sync in nv.c and nv-nano-timer.c.
	find "${S}" \( -name '*.c' -o -name '*.h' \) \
		-exec sed -i 's/\bdel_timer_sync\b/timer_delete_sync/g' {} + || die

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0002-nvidia-drm-550.163.01-pass-drm_format_info-to-nv_drm.patch:143

• This patch introduces NV_DRM_FB_CREATE_TAKES_FORMAT_INFO as a conftest-based feature probe, but the nvidia-drm-fb.h prototype is guarded by a hardcoded LINUX_VERSION_CODE check. That can cause prototype/definition mismatches on backported kernels where the conftest macro is defined but the version check is false. Guard the prototype with the same conftest macro used everywhere else in this patch.

+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(6, 17, 0)
+    const struct drm_format_info *info,
+#endif

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0002-nvidia-drm-550.163.01-pass-drm_format_info-to-nv_drm.patch:263

• Same issue as above: the proprietary-tree nvidia-drm-fb.h prototype uses a LINUX_VERSION_CODE guard, but the rest of the patch uses the conftest macro. This can break on backports/non-standard versioning. Use NV_DRM_FB_CREATE_TAKES_FORMAT_INFO for the prototype guard.

+#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(6, 17, 0)
+    const struct drm_format_info *info,
+#endif

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/coreos-sources-6.18.45.ebuild:45

• There are duplicate 6.18 patch variants in files/6.18 (e.g. z0003-efi-add-..., z0004-efi-lock-down-..., z0005-mtd-disable-...) that are not listed in UNIPATCH_LIST, so they won't be applied by this ebuild. Keeping unused duplicate patches is confusing and makes it harder to tell what actually ships; either delete the unused variants or switch UNIPATCH_LIST to reference them.

UNIPATCH_LIST="
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0001-pahole-support-reproducible-builds.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0002-Revert-x86-boot-Remove-the-bugger-off-message.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0003-efi-Add-an-EFI_SECURE_BOOT-flag-to-indicate-secure-b.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0004-efi-Lock-down-the-kernel-if-booted-in-secure-boot-mo.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0005-mtd-phram-slram-Disable-when-the-kernel-is-locked-do.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0006-arm64-add-kernel-config-option-to-lock-down-when-in-.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0007-tools-hv-fix-cross-compilation.patch \
"

[ader1990]

Does this have a reason to be enabled? asking as a curiosity - if this is enabled, why not enable (Y) all of the Hyper-V modules?

We can get rid of this line as well https://github.com/flatcar/bootengine/blob/7727ec78da72e700e8fa1ce2144cb2476448d186/dracut/53ignition/module-setup.sh#L173.

[sayanchowdhury]

This is probably a miss from the HyperV debugging I was doing

[sayanchowdhury]

Unresolving the converstation.

CONFIG_HYPERV has been changed from tristate to bool - so would require to be enabled

[chewi]

Fair enough if it has to be y. That doesn't mean the rest has to be built-in though. We shouldn't bloat the core image for one platform unnecessarily.

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

There is a confirmed error-handling bug in the new NVIDIA UVM 6.18 compatibility patch (lost PTR_ERR value during unwind) that can return an incorrect error code.

Review details

Suppressed comments (2)

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/x11-drivers/old-nvidia-drivers/files/0006-nvidia-uvm-adapt-to-page_pgmap-and-make_device_excl.patch:159

• In hmm_make_device_exclusive_range(), the error code from make_device_exclusive() is lost: inside the IS_ERR(page) path, the unwind loop overwrites page with previously-acquired pages, so PTR_ERR(page) no longer returns the original error. This will return garbage (and can hide the real failure). Save the error before unwinding and return it.

+        page = make_device_exclusive(mm, addr, &g_uvm_global, &folio);
+        if (IS_ERR(page)) {
+            while (npages) {
+                page = pages[--npages];
+                unlock_page(page);
+                put_page(page);
+            }
+            npages = PTR_ERR(page);
+            break;

sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-sources/coreos-sources-6.18.45.ebuild:45

• files/6.18 currently contains duplicate patch variants (e.g. both z0003-efi-Add-… and z0003-efi-add-…, similarly for z0004 and z0005), but UNIPATCH_LIST only references one variant of each. Please consider deleting the unused duplicates to avoid ambiguity about which patch set is intended to ship.

UNIPATCH_LIST="
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0001-pahole-support-reproducible-builds.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0002-Revert-x86-boot-Remove-the-bugger-off-message.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0003-efi-Add-an-EFI_SECURE_BOOT-flag-to-indicate-secure-b.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0004-efi-Lock-down-the-kernel-if-booted-in-secure-boot-mo.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0005-mtd-phram-slram-Disable-when-the-kernel-is-locked-do.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0006-arm64-add-kernel-config-option-to-lock-down-when-in-.patch \
  ${PATCH_DIR}/z0007-tools-hv-fix-cross-compilation.patch \
"

• Files reviewed: 24/28 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Lite

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Critical NVIDIA proprietary-module compatibility issues and additional cleanup remain unresolved.

Get a fresh assessment by requesting another Copilot review.

Review effort: Lite
Findings: 2 · 4 · 2

Open (8)

• Apply UVM fixes to the proprietary module tree · New
• Add Linux 6.18 fixes to the proprietary module tree · New
• Retain SVA feature enablement for pre-6.16 kernels · New
• In the IS_ERR(page) path, the cleanup loop overwrites page with previously-acquired pages before…
• The conftest snippet returns the result of page_pgmap(NULL) from a function typed as int.…
• coreos-modules-6.12.105 installed a /usr/lib/modules/${KV_FULL}/source symlink (to build) for…
• Add changelog entry for Linux 6.18.45 update · New
• The 6.18 patch directory includes both git-format and quilt-style duplicates of the same patches…

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟡 Changes recommended

Unresolved critical and moderate findings remain in Hyper-V packaging, kernel sources/configuration, and NVIDIA compatibility.

Review effort: Lite
Findings: 2 · 1

Open (3)

• Preserve 6.12 sources or remove dependent packages · New
• Use compile conftest for hrtimer_setup detection · New
• Add matching perf 6.18 update · New

Resolved since last review (8)

• Add Linux 6.18 fixes to the proprietary module tree
• Apply UVM fixes to the proprietary module tree
• Retain SVA feature enablement for pre-6.16 kernels
• In the IS_ERR(page) path, the cleanup loop overwrites page with previously-acquired pages before…
• The conftest snippet returns the result of page_pgmap(NULL) from a function typed as int.…
• coreos-modules-6.12.105 installed a /usr/lib/modules/${KV_FULL}/source symlink (to build) for…
• Add changelog entry for Linux 6.18.45 update
• The 6.18 patch directory includes both git-format and quilt-style duplicates of the same patches…

[chewi]

I suspect that guidance is outdated.

[ader1990]

LGTM. Historically, this kind of change sometimes had the effect of breaking the hyper-v image by not building all the LIS drivers - need to verify that all drivers are built.

[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🔵 Needs a closer look

Unresolved critical and moderate build and compatibility issues remain.

Review effort: Lite
Findings: 1 · 1

Open (2)

• Use compile conftest for hrtimer_setup detection
• Add matching perf 6.18 update

Resolved since last review (1)

• Preserve 6.12 sources or remove dependent packages