I was assigned 6.25 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 17.5 hours from earlier months. I worked 11.5 hours this month and returned 7.75 hours to the pool, so I will carry over 4.5 hours to December. I updated linux-4.19 to include the changes in DSA-4772-1, and issued DLA-2417-1 for this. I updated linux (4.9 kernel) to include upstream stable fixes, and issued DLA-2420-1. This resulted in a regression on some Xen PV environments. Ian Jackson identified the upstream fix for this, which had not yet been applied to all the stable branches that needed it. I made a further update with just that fix, and issued DLA-2420-2. I have also been working to backport fixes for some less urgent security issues in Linux 4.9, but have not yet applied those fixes.

I was assigned 16 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 9.75 hours from August. I only worked 8.25 hours this month, and will return excess hours to the pool. I attended and participated in the LTS team meeting on the 24th. I updated linux-4.19 to include the changes in the buster point release, and issued DLA-2385-1. I began work on an update to the linux (Linux 4.9 kernel) package.

I was assigned 16 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, but only worked 6.25 hours this month and have carried over the rest to September. I finished my work to add Linux 4.19 to the stretch-security suite, providing an upgrade path for those previously installing it from stretch-backports (DLA-2323-1, DLA-2324-1). I also updated the firmware-nonfree package (DLA-2321-1) so that firmware needed by drivers in Linux 4.19 is also be available in the non-free section of the stretch-security suite. I also reviewed the report of the Debian LTS survey and commented on the presentation of results. This report was presented in the Debian LTS BoF at DebConf.

I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, but only worked 5 hours this month and returned the remainder to the pool. Now that Debian 9 'stretch' has entered LTS, the stretch-backports suite will be closed and no longer updated. However, some stretch users rely on the newer kernel version provided there. I prepared to add Linux 4.19 to the stretch-security suite, alongside the standard package of Linux 4.9. I also prepared to update the firmware-nonfree package so that firmware needed by drivers in Linux 4.19 will also be available in stretch's non-free section. Both these updates will be based on the packages in stretch-backports, but needed some changes to avoid conflicts or regressions for users that continue using Linux 4.9 or older non-Debian kernel versions. I will upload these after the Debian 10 'buster' point release.

I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, and worked all 20 hours this month. I sent a final request for testing for the next update to Linux 3.16 in jessie. I also prepared an update to Linux 4.9, included in both jessie and stretch. I completed backporting of kernel changes related to CVE-2020-0543, which was still under embargo, to Linux 3.16. Finally I uploaded the updates for Linux 3.16 and 4.9, and issued DLA-2241 and DLA-2242. The end of June marked the end of long-term support for Debian 8 "jessie" and for Linux 3.16. I am no longer maintaining any stable kernel branches, but will continue contributing to them as part of my work on Debian 9 "stretch" LTS and other Debian releases.

For about two months I've been working on a new project, debplate, which currently lives at benh/debplate on Salsa. This is a template system for Debian packages, primarily intended to ease building multiple similar binary packages from a single source. With some changes, it could also be useful for making multiple source packages consistent (issue #9). I want debplate to be capable of replacing the kernel team's existing template system and a lot of its custom scripting, but it is also meant to a general tool. I believe it's already capable of supporting source packages with relatively simple needs, and there are some examples of these in the debplate source. My long-term goal is that debplate will replace most team-specific and package-specific template systems, making those source packages using it less unusual and easier to contribute to. I gave a short talk about debplate at MiniDebConf Online on Sunday.

I was assigned 17.25 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, and carried over 2.5 hours from April. I worked all 19.75 hours this month. I sent a request for testing an update of the linux package to 3.16.83. I then prepared and, after review, released Linux 3.16.84. I rebased the linux package onto that and sent out a further request for testing. I then backported some additional security fixes, but have still not made an upload. I attended the LTS contributor meeting on IRC.

I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, and carried over 8.5 hours from March. I worked 26 hours this month, so I will carry over 2.5 hours to May. I sent a (belated) request for testing an update of the linux package to 3.16.82. I then prepared and, after review, released Linux 3.16.83, including a large number of security fixes. I rebased the linux package onto that and will soon send out a request for testing. I also spent some time working on a still-embargoed security issue. I did not spend signficant time on any other LTS activities this month, and unfortunately missed the contributor meeting.

I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative, and carried over 0.75 hours from February. I only worked 12.25 hours this month, so I will carry over 8.5 hours to April. I issued DLA 2114-1 for the update to linux-4.9. I continued preparing and testing the next update to Linux 3.16. This includes a number of filesystem fixes that require running the "xfstests" test suite. I also replied to questions from LTS contributors and users, sent to me personally or on the public mailing list.

I was assigned 20 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and worked 19.25 hours this month, so I will carry over 0.75 hours to March. I prepared and, after review, released Linux 3.16.82. I then rebased the Debian package onto that, but haven't yet sent a request for testing. I have started preparing and testing the next update to Linux 3.16. I backported the Linux 4.9 package that was included in the stretch point release (Debian 9.12) and uploaded it to jessie. I prepared DLA 2114-1 covering this update. I also replied to questions from LTS contributors and users, sent to the lts-security alias or on the public mailing list.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 9 hours from September. I worked 20 hours and will carry over 4 hours to the next month. I prepared and uploaded an update to dnsmasq to fix some urgent security issues. I issued DLA-1124-1 for this update. I prepared and released another update on the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch (3.2.94) and I began preparing the next update, but I didn't upload an update to Debian.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 6 hours from August. I only worked 12 hours, so I will carry over 9 hours to the next month. I prepared and released another update on the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch (3.2.93). I then rebased the Debian linux package onto this version, added further security fixes, and uploaded it (DLA-1099-1).

One of the reasons which made me switch my old 17" BenQ monitor for a Dell U2413 three years ago was it had an integrated SD card reader. I find very convenient to take camera's card out, plug the card into the monitor and click on KDE device monitor's option Open with digiKam to download the photos or videos.

But last week, when trying to reconnect the USB cable to the new board just didn't work and the kernel log messages were not very hopeful:

[190231.770349] usb 2-2.3.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 15 using xhci_hcd
[190231.890439] usb 2-2.3.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=0307
[190231.890444] usb 2-2.3.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[190231.890446] usb 2-2.3.3: Product: USB3.0 Card Reader
[190231.890449] usb 2-2.3.3: Manufacturer: Realtek
[190231.890451] usb 2-2.3.3: SerialNumber: F141000037E1
[190231.896592] usb-storage 2-2.3.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[190231.896764] scsi host8: usb-storage 2-2.3.3:1.0
[190232.931861] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic- SD/MMC/MS/MSPRO  1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[190232.933902] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[190232.937989] sd 8:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
[190243.069680] hub 2-2.3:1.0: hub_ext_port_status failed (err = -71)
[190243.070037] usb 2-2.3-port3: cannot reset (err = -71)
[190243.070410] usb 2-2.3-port3: cannot reset (err = -71)
[190243.070660] usb 2-2.3-port3: cannot reset (err = -71)
[190243.071035] usb 2-2.3-port3: cannot reset (err = -71)
[190243.071409] usb 2-2.3-port3: cannot reset (err = -71)
[190243.071413] usb 2-2.3-port3: Cannot enable. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
...

I was sure USB 3.0 ports were working, because I've already used them with a USB 3.0 drive, so first thought was the monitor USB hub had failed. It seemed unlikely that a cable which has not been moved in 3 years was suddenly failing, is that even possible?

But a few moments later the same cable plugged into a USB 2.0 worked flawlessly and all photos could be downloaded, just noticeably slower.

A bit confused, and thinking that, since everything else was working maybe the cable had to be replaced, it happened I upgraded the system in the meantime. And luck came into rescue, because now it works again in 4.9.30-2+deb9u5 kernel. Looking at the package changelog it seems the fix was this usb:xhci:Fix regression when ATI chipsets detected . So, not a bad cable but a little kernel bug ;-)

Thanks to all involved, specially Ben for the package update!

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 1 hour from July. I only worked 10 hours, so I will carry over 6 hours to the next month. I prepared and released an update on the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch (3.2.92), and started work on the next update. I rebased the Debian linux package on this version, but didn't yet upload it.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and worked 14 hours. I will carry over 1 hour to the next month. I prepared and released an update on the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch (3.2.91), and started work on the next update. However, I didn't make any uploads to Debian this month.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 5 hours. I worked all 20 hours. I spent most of my time working - together with other Linux kernel developers - on backporting and testing several versions of the fix for CVE-2017-1000364, part of the "Stack Clash" problem. I uploaded two updates to linux and issued DLA-993-1 and DLA-993-2. Unfortunately the latest version still causes regressions for some applications, which I will be investigating this month. I also released a stable update on the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch (3.2.89) and prepared another (3.2.90) which I released today.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 3 hours. I worked 13 hours and will carry over 5 hours. I prepared a security update for sudo and issued DLA-970-1. I backported several security fixes for the Linux kernel, but have not yet uploaded a new version. I also continued catching up with the backlog of fixes for the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch.

I was assigned 15 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and worked 13.25 12 hours. I prepared a security update for the Linux kernel and issued DLA-922-1. I also continued catching up with the backlog of fixes for the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch. I released stable update 3.2.88 at the start of the month and am now preparing the next stable update.

I was assigned 14.75 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and worked all of these hours. I prepared a security update for the Linux kernel and issued DLA 849-1. I also continued catching up with the backlog of fixes for the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch. I released stable update 3.2.87 and started preparing the next stable update.

I was assigned 13 hours of work by Freexian's Debian LTS initiative and carried over 15.25 from January. I worked 19 hours and have returned the remaining 9.25 hours to the general pool. I prepared a security update for the Linux kernel and issued DLA-833-1. However, I spent most of my time catching up with a backlog of fixes for the Linux 3.2 longterm stable branch. I issued two stable updates (3.2.85, 3.2.86).