Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in 2025
This was a particularly busy month for me in terms of Debian
contributions.
It started with a week in Hamburg for the MiniDebConf. I talked to
many colleagues face-to-face and worked on various bugs and
maintenance tasks. I m pleased to have finally found the time to
reproduce and fix the boot-time crashes in the parallel port
subsystem that have been reported
many times recently.
A series of easily exploited kernel LPE (local privilege execution)
issues were published this month, mostly with very little coordination
with distributions. Salvatore and I had to upload fixes for these at
roughly weekly intervals. All of these fixes needed to be applied to
4 different upstream branches (currently 5.10, 6.1, 6.12, and 7.0) and
7 Debian branches (including backports).
- Debian packages:
- cis-tools:
- dracut:
- Bugs:
- replied to #1131809: dracut: ppc64el autopkgtest are flaky and take 7 hours per run (and discussed it in-person in Hamburg)
- Bugs:
- firmware-free:
- Bugs:
- Merge requests:
- firmware-nonfree:
- Merge requests:
- closed !68: Draft: Update bullseye in line with buster
- reviewed and merged !146: gencontrol: s/initramfs-tools/update-initramfs/
- merged !147: control: stop suggesting initramfs-tools
- opened and merged !148: Update to 20260519
- opened and merged !149: Include more firmware in binary packages
- opened !150: Update and remove obsolete package relations
- Merge requests:
- gnome-shell:
- Bugs:
- replied to and reassigned #1135951: linux-image-6.12.85+deb13-amd64: secure data is visible when waking from suspsend
- Bugs:
- initramfs-tools:
- Bugs:
- Merge requests:
- reviewed !142: Handle simple-framebuffer drivers and framebuffer_coreboot built as modules
- closed !150: Do not install ARM/RISCV specific modules on other architectures
- closed !173: Draft: Introduce copy_file helper program to replace copy_file function
- opened and merged !195: unmkinitramfs: Make it compatible with Busybox cpio
- reviewed !196: add module to add fw files from DT firmware-name properties
- Uploads:
- uploaded version 0.148.4 to trixie
- ktls-utils:
- Merge requests:
- merged !5: Update to 1.4.0
- Uploads:
- uploaded version 1.4.0-1 to unstable
- Merge requests:
- linux:
- Bugs:
- replied to #1130365: linux-image-6.18.15+deb14-amd64: kernel panic during startup
- replied to #1136800: linux-image-7.0.4+deb14-amd64: fails to boot
- replied to #1136894: linux-image-7.0.4+deb14-amd64: Kernel Panic - AMDGPU crash
- replied to #1136978: linux-image-7.0.4+deb14-amd64: kernel NULL pointer dereference
- replied to and closed #1137202: linux-image-7.1-amd64: Kernel panic on boot
- replied to #1137203: bnx2: ifupdown-hotplug fails at boot, no network, regression from 5.10.0-42
- replied to #1137642: linux-image-7.0.7+deb13-amd64: Failed to load Bluetooth driver
- Merge requests:
- closed !1720: arm64: Enable Renesas RZ/G2L features
- merged !1759: [arm64] Enable AIR_EN8811H_PHY as module
- merged !1792: [arm64] Enable BST platform support
- closed !1817: [sparc64] Add patches to fix user stack sync and add clone3() syscall
- merged !1837: [arm64] Enable configs for Qualcomm RB1 boards
- reviewed !1845: [amd64,arm64] Enable KEXEC_HANDOVER and LIVEUPDATE
- merged !1878: [riscv64] Enable CMA and DMA_CMA. Set CMA_SIZE_MBYTES=64
- merged !1884: [amd64] Enable Intel USBIO bridge driver and submodules
- opened !1904: Improve package descriptions for most of the kernel packages
- reviewed and merged !1906: Enable SND_SOC_SDCA_CLASS and SND_SOC_SDCA_ FDL, HID, IRQ for Panther Lake audio support
- opened and merged !1910: Add backported patches for Dirty Frag attack
- merged !1911: Qualcomm Monaco and Talos support
- merged !1913: d/watch: migrate to version 5
- reviewed !1936: [sparc64] Add nvme module to scsi-modules udeb
- reviewed !1948: [amd64] Enable Intel Platform Hardware Support Drivers
- opened and merged !1951: Fix dirtying of the source tree when building tools
- merged !1954: 7.0 backport Fix for fragnesia (CVE-2026-46300) and variants
- merged !1955: 6.12 backport Fix for fragnesia (CVE-2026-46300) and variants
- opened !1956: Draft: Enable a fully parallel build
- Uploads:
- (LTS) uploaded versions 5.10.251-2, 5.10.251-3, 5.10.251-4, 5.10.251-5, 5.10.257-1 to bullseye-security
- uploaded versions 6.12.85-1~bpo12+1, 6.12.86-1~bpo12+1, 6.12.88-1~bpo12+1, 6.12.90-1~bpo12+1, 6.12.90-2~bpo12+1 to bookworm-backports
- uploaded versions 6.19.14-1~bpo13+1, 7.0.10-1~bpo13+1, 7.0.4-1~bpo13+1, 7.0.7-1~bpo13+1, 7.0.9-1~bpo13+1 to trixie-backports
- Bugs:
- (LTS) linux-6.1:
- Uploads:
- uploaded versions 6.1.170-1~deb11u1, 6.1.170-3~deb11u1, 6.1.172-1~deb11u1, 6.1.174-1~deb11u1 to bullseye-security
- Uploads:
- miniramfs:
- Bugs:
- replied to #1132532: miniramfs: Missing cpio dependency
- Bugs:
- nfs-utils:
- wireless-regdb:
- Uploads:
- uploaded version 2026.03.18-1 to unstable
- Uploads:
- Debian non-package bugs:
- Mailing lists:
- debian-boot:
- debian-devel:
- replied to Licensing of licenses
- debian-kernel:
- posted Agenda items for kernel-team meeting on 2026-05-13
- posted and replied to [RFC] Using SimpleDRM in the initramfs
- replied to [bjarniig@simnet.is: kernel-img.conf.5: warning from lint ]
- debian-lts-announce:
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4560-1] linux security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4561-1] linux-6.1 security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4572-1] linux security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4574-1] linux-6.1 security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4587-1] linux security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4588-1] linux-6.1 security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4606-1] linux security update
- posted [SECURITY] [DLA 4607-1] linux-6.1 security update
- linux-hyperv:
- linux-perf-users:
- posted and replied to [PATCH 0/3] Fix out-of-tree build of some tools
- linux-sh:
- linux-trace-kernel:
- netdev:
- (mostly LTS) stable:
- replied to Linux 5.15.205
- posted [5.10,5.15] i3c: fix uninitialized variable use in i2c setup
- posted [6.6] fbdev/vt8500lcdfb: Initialize fb_ops with fbdev macros
- posted [6.6] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
- posted [6.6] x86/CPU/AMD: Move the Zen3 BTC_NO detection to the Zen3 init function
- posted [7.0] perf loongarch: Fix build failure with CONFIG_LIBDW_DWARF_UNWIND
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 002/589] ASoC: SOF: topology: reject invalid vendor array size in token parser
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 027/589] xfrm: Wait for RCU readers during policy netns exit
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 072/589] media: uvcvideo: Use heuristic to find stream entity
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 095/589] ALSA: usb-audio: fix null pointer dereference on pointer cs_desc
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 096/589] scsi: ufs: core: Improve SCSI abort handling
- posted [PATCH 5.10 1/2] Revert RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 101/589] rxrpc: Fix key quota calculation for multitoken keys
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 114/589] arm64: dts: imx8mq-librem5: Dont mark buck3 as always on
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 176/589] KVM: nSVM: Mark all of vmcb02 dirty when restoring nested state
- replied to [PATCH 5.10 177/589] KVM: nSVM: Sync NextRIP to cached vmcb12 after VMRUN of L2
- posted and replied to [PATCH 5.10 2/2] RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- posted [PATCH 5.10-5.15] apparmor: validate default DFA states are in bounds
- posted [PATCH 5.10-6.1] fbdev: vt8500lcdfb: Fix dma_free_coherent() cpu_addr parameter
- posted [PATCH 5.10-6.1] x86/CPU/AMD: Move the Zen3 BTC_NO detection to the Zen3 init function
- replied to [PATCH 5.10] Revert s390/cio: Fix device lifecycle handling in css_alloc_subchannel()
- posted [PATCH 5.10] Revert s390/cio: Fix device lifecycle handling in css_alloc_subchannel()
- posted [PATCH 5.10] net: skbuff: preserve shared-frag marker during coalescing
- posted [PATCH 5.10] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
- posted [PATCH 5.10] phy: renesas: rcar-gen3-usb2: Fix msleep() in atomic context
- posted [PATCH 5.10] selftests: forwarding: lib: Add helpers for checksum handling
- posted [PATCH 5.15 1/2] Revert RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- posted [PATCH 5.15 2/2] RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- replied to [PATCH 5.15.y] net: usb: lan78xx: Fix double free issue with interrupt buffer allocation
- posted [PATCH 5.15] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
- posted [PATCH 5.15] selftests: forwarding: lib: Add helpers for checksum handling
- posted [PATCH 6.1 1/2] Revert RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- posted [PATCH 6.1 2/2] RDMA/rxe: Fix double free in rxe_srq_from_init
- posted [PATCH 6.1] apparmor: validate default DFA states are in bounds
- posted [PATCH 6.1] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
- posted [PATCH 6.1] selftests: forwarding: lib: Add helpers for checksum handling
- posted [PATCH 6.6] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
- replied to [PATCH net] net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through pskb_copy()
- posted [PATCH] parport: Fix race between port and client registration
The last (software) piece of sorting out a local voice assistant is tying the
I am currently transitioning my GPG/GPG key from
Reduce the size of your c: partition to the smallest it can be and then turn off windows with the understanding that you will never boot this system on the iron ever again.
The following contributors got their Debian Developer accounts in the last two months:

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