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Debian kernel team keeps track of the kernel package bugs in the Debian Bug
Tracking System (BTS). For information on how to use the system see http://bugs.debian.org. You can also
submit the bugs by using the reportbug command from the package
with the same name. Please note that kernel bugs found in distributions
derived from Debian (such as Knoppix, Mepis, Progeny, Ubuntu, Xandros, etc.)
should not be reported to the Debian BTS (unless they can be also
reproduced on a Debian system using official Debian kernel packages). Derived
distributions have their own policies and procedures regarding kernel
packaging, so the bugs found in them should be reported directly to their bug
tracking systems or mailing lists.
Nothing in this chapter is intended to keep you from filing a bug against one of the Debian kernel packages. However, you should recognize that the resources of the Debian kernel team are limited, and efficient reaction to a bug is largely determined by the amount and quality of the information included in the bug report. Please help us to do a better job by using the following guidelines when preparing to file the bug against kernel packages:
Do the research. Before filing the bug search the web for the
particular error message or symptom you are getting. As it is highly unlikely
that you are the only person experiencing a particular problem, there is always
a chance that it has been discussed elsewhere, and a possible solution, patch,
or workaround has been proposed. If such information exists, always include
the references to it in your report. Check the current bug
list to see whether something similar has been reported already.
Collect the information. Please provide enough information with your report. At a minimum, it should contain the exact version of the official Debian kernel package, where the bug is encountered, and steps to reproduce it. Depending on the nature of the bug you are reporting, you might also want to include the output of dmesg (or portions thereof), output of the lspci -vn. If applicable, include the information about the latest known kernel version where the bug is not present, and output of the above commands for the working kernel as well. Use common sense and include other relevant information, if you think that it might help in solving the problem.
Try to reproduce the problem with "vanilla" kernel. If you
have a chance, try to reproduce the problem by building the binary kernel image
from the "vanilla" kernel source, available from http://www.kernel.org or its mirrors,
using the same configuration as the Debian stock kernels. For more information
on how to do this, look at Building a custom kernel from
Debian kernel source, Section 4.3. If there is convincing evidence that
the buggy behavior is caused by the Debian-specific changes to the kernel, the
bug will usually be assigned higher priority by the kernel team. If the bug is
not specific for Debian, check out the upstream kernel bug database to see if it
has been reported there. If you are sure that it is an upstream problem, you
can also report your bug there (but submit it to Debian BTS anyway, so that we
can track it properly).
Use the correct package to report the bug against. All the binary
kernel packages are produced from a single linux-2.6 source
package. Because of that, the usual way for d-k team members to scan for bugs
is to look at the list of bugs for the linux-2.6 source package,
available at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=linux-2.6.
It is therefore crucial that you report the bug against one of the binary
packages listed on that page (check that it shows up on that page after you
do!). If in doubt, file the bug against the linux-2.6 package.
Failure to follow that rule will drastically reduce the chances that your bug
will be noticed by the kernel team and acted upon.
Bugs involving PREEMPT. Even in the latest kernels making the kernel preemptible (by enabling the CONFIG_PREEMPT configuration option) will occasionally lead to problems in form of occasional kernel oops. For this reason this option is disabled in Debian kernel packages, so problem can only be triggered with a custom kernel. It is known to the upstream kernel developers and it is most likely that kernel team will not be able to do anything about it.
Bugs involving ACPI. While ACPI (Advanced Control and Power Interface)
support in Linux kernel has matured greatly in the 2.6 series, it occasionally
causes problems (misrouted interrupts, failure to go into or return from the
sleep/hybernation/suspend mode, thermal problems) on newer laptop models. They
may be caused both by bugs in the kernel code or (more likely) in the ACPI
interface of a particular machine. As resolution of such bugs requires access
to the machine in question, it is pretty unlikely that kernel team will be able
to do something about it. Consider reporting the problem to the Linux ACPI mailing
list along with the submission to the Debian BTS. As a workaround,
try booting the kernel with some combination of boot options
acpi=off, pci=norouteirq, pci=noacpi,
and nolapic to see if that improves the situation.
Bugs involving tainted kernels. If a kernel crashes, it normally prints out some debugging information, indicating, among other things, whether the running kernel has been tainted. The kernel is referred to as tainted if at the time of the crash it had some binary third-party modules loaded. As kernel developers do not have access to the source code for such modules, problems involving them are notoriously difficult to debug. It is therefore strongly recommended to try and reproduce the problem with an untainted kernel (by preventing the loading of binary modules, for example). If the problem is due to the presence of such modules, there is not much the kernel community can do about it and it should be reported directly to their authors.
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Debian Linux Kernel Handbook
version 1.0.1, Wed Jan 24 21:46:35 PST 2007