Would someone like to convert the "how to install a kernel from Koji" Fedora magazine post to a quick-doc?

See: Downgrading to a previous kernel version - #2 by sampsonf

There’s a magazine post on installing a kernel from Koji:

I think this would make a great quick-doc. Would someone like to take this on? We’ll be happy to help you learn the necessary skills. It’s a great way to contribute and learn lots at the same time.

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@jetstream has kindly agreed to take this on :clap:

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thx @jetstream !!

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So, I looked at the comment from @pfrields in conjunction with the original Fedora Magazine article and followed the steps.

I have documented it for now in my original post as an update. Have a look, please.

To me it looks like enhancing the original Fedora Magazine post to include the additional steps. What do you guys think?

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Looks very good.

The thing with the magazine is that posts cannot be updated later. They’re published and represent information at that point in time. They’re more for outreach/marketing—not so much for actual technical documentation.

I think an article on “Installing kernel from Koji” would fit really well here:

The version lock bit is already documented here, so you can just link to this section:

I don’t think there’s a quick-doc on changing the default boot option, so that could probably be added as a new short quick-doc too.

This is a lot to type, even usingtab to auto-complete.

sudo dnf update ./kernel\* 

should suffice.
You can also remove the downloaded packages (likely >200 MB) after installation again.

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Is there a command to find out the exact version of 5.12.latest kernel?

Personally, I like more, less typing:
grubby --info=ALL
grubby --set-default-index=

The website https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=8 has the kernels that have been released for fedora. Check there.

How to use the search function at that page?

I tried to use “kernel-5.12” in the search field, and got nothing returned.

I just manually parse it and pick out what I want. The search did not work for me either.

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Did you change the search type to “Build” and then try “kernel-5.12*”. That should list them all:

https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/search?match=glob&type=build&terms=kernel-5.12*

The default search type is “package”, so it won’t match “kernel-5.12” since that isn’t a package name.

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Thank you!

Here’s my draft for submission. I have condensed it into a brief article for all to review.

@ankursinha FYI. Looking forward to guidance on the next steps on getting this into the quick-doc

[draft] quick-doc 1 - installing kernels from Koji

Koji is the build system Fedora developers use to build software for inclusion into Fedora. If there is a need to install a kernel different from the one that gets installed by default, these can be obtained from Koji.

The koji package makes this process much easier.

  • Install the koji package
$ sudo dnf install koji
  • Download and install the kernel

Below is a one-liner that creates a new unique temporary directory, downloads RPMs to it and installs them. This assumes we are working with the x86_64 architecture.

cd $(mktemp -d) && koji download-build --arch=x86_64 --arch=noarch kernel-5.12.18-200.fc33 && sudo dnf install *

This eliminates the need to clean up after installation and the risk of installing unwanted rpms accidentally.

[ credits to @augenauf ]

The following part of the above command downloads the kernel and its dependencies for the given architecture and kernel version.

koji download-build --arch=[arch] kernel-n.nn.nn-nnn.fcnn

where [arch] indicates the architecture i.e. x86_64

Additional Steps:

The following additional steps are often useful

  • Set the default boot option - so this boots automatically subsequently

See quick-doc ( link to new quick-doc - draft 2 below )

  • Add a versionlock to ensure this version is not deleted when kernel updates are installed

See quick-doc (Using the dnf versionlock plugin - Using the DNF software package manager :: Fedora Docs )

References

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[Draft] quick-doc 2 - setting an installed kernel to boot by default

To set a specific installed kernel to boot by default, use the following command:

sudo grubby --set-default /boot/vmlinuz-n.nn.nn-nnn.fcnn.x86_64

References:

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Thanks, that looks great.

Quick-docs follow the standard “pull request” model. Would you be familiar with that, otherwise I can give detailed instructions on how to go about it.

Here are the links in the meantime:

I am going through the above docs … need to work through the steps on raising a “pull request” … bear with me please while I work through it.

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No worries, please take your time, and if you have any queries at all, please post here and we’ll be happy to help.

Am stuck. Need a little help!!

So, here’s what I did so far:

Followed the guidance (How to contribute). Forked the pagure.io repo ( in my account space - don’t know if you will be able to view it). Then cloned the fork. Made the changes locally. Built and previewed locally using podman. Committed the change locally.

But I can’t push the change up to the remote (i.e. remote of my fork). I cloned over https. Does it work only over ssh?

I’ll set up ssh keys later anyway for future contributions. Just wondering if I could push this change over https for now.

[jetstream@workspace quick-docs]$ git commit -m "Added quickdoc for installing kernel from Koji"
[master 17fbd57] Added quickdoc for installing kernel from Koji
 2 files changed, 44 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 modules/ROOT/pages/kernel/installing-koji-kernel.adoc
[jetstream@workspace quick-docs]$ git push
fatal: unable to access 'https://pagure.io/forks/jetstream/fedora-docs/quick-docs.git/': The requested URL returned error: 403

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Take a look at this:

https://docs.pagure.org/pagure/usage/http_push.html?highlight=https

I’m not sure if direct push works, since Pagure isn’t managing registration etc. (it’s all being managed through the Fedora account system).

Are you not being prompted for your username/password when you try to push?

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I did expect a username/password prompt, but no. Maybe something wasn’t quite right in the way I had done it. Thanks @ankursinha for the reference link.

Had a read but couldn’t get it into my head. Eventually managed to set up ssh keys, so was able to push the changes.

Have opened my first pagure pull request. Let’s see how it goes!!

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