Question about Kernel versions (new Aurora user)

Aurora
1

I know Aurora was forked from Kinoite, and I’ve recently switched from a Fedora/Windows dual boot to a single Aurora-dx install.

All that being said, I’ve been running Kinoite on a separate drive to acclimate myself to the atomic workflow, and I notice they’re running 6.12.x while Aurora is running 6.11.x.

Does the Aurora kernel get updated frequently? Is it far behind Kinoite’s cycle? I only ask because Intel’s XE iGPU drivers are just starting to mature, which means a huge improvement in performance for my hardware as they get farther along in development. Those drivers are bundled into the kernel, so I’m really relying on kernel updates for these improvements.

This is more of a curiosity than anything, I have been enjoying Aurora so far and can see myself using this long term.

Thanks!

2

Aurora uses different kernels depending on whether you are using the stable tag vs the latest tag. The kernel from latest is the upstream Fedora kernel (6.12.x at the moment.) The kernel from stable uses the kernel from Fedora CoreOS (6.11.x currently).

The CoreOS kernel should move to 6.12 sometime soon – I can’t seem to find a link to a schedule, so I’m unsure when.

Sidenote: we’re currently considering pinning the stable kernel to 6.11.x depending on whether some hardware regressions in 6.12 are ironed out before CoreOS releases a new kernel. See Kernel pin for 6.11.8 in stable images · Issue #82 · ublue-os/aurora · GitHub for more info on that.

If the pin happens or not, you can still get the most up-to-date Fedora kernel by using latest instead of stable.

3

I found that the Bluefin docs give some more details about the gated kernel cadence, which applies to Aurora as well for the most part: Administrator's Guide | Bluefin

1 Like
4

So I take it I’d need to rebase to switch tags/kernels, which makes sense. I’ll stay put for a while and make do with what I have.

Thank you!