Kernel upgrades to support old software, old hardware, or both

Posted Jul 15, 2024 19:53 UTC (Mon) by jjs (guest, #10315)
In reply to: Why old architectures are sometimes important by geofft
Parent article: The 6.10 kernel has been released

I guess I didn't make myself clear. The BOF was about how to handle upgrades on such systems. So either upgrading the OS (and potentially software - although I got that some of them did that already) on the old hardware that couldn't be replaced easily, or upgrading the (OS, hardware) to support the old binary software.

Regarding point 1 - actually some of them DO want to upgrade the OS, even if they can't directly access the hardware easily. They may even upgrade the software itself. The key is the hardware that exists is where they need it, but isn't easily swapped out.

Regarding point 2 - yes, we're talking about old proprietary binaries. The machines it runs on are breaking down, but they don't want to change out the software because it works. Solution: Run the old software on new hardware. Issue: New HW may be different CPU. OS may be different. But if it runs the software, they're fine. If it's not, they're not.

Regarding the discussions in that BOF (and elsewhere, I've had the discussions many times). I'm expressing their requirements (at least as presented). One group wanted upgrades to the SW (to include Linux kernel) on old HW in the field. Another group wanted to run old binaries on new systems. Was it wise? Was it the best choice? That's separate from "This is what we want, how do you propose to supply it."

One thing to think about - yes, 2.4 source code still exists and can be compiled. But who's providing support for it? The expressed interest was in upgrading to supported (now called LTS?) kernels. Which means periodically, they need to move kernel versions.

We see similar problems with Android and support for upgrades (slightly different problem, but still - how to upgrade the kernel, especially with proprietary drivers).

IBM, DEC, and HP (at least 20+ years ago) spent considerable effort to ensure those old binaries ran on new HW / OS just fine. And companies paid big money to get that. Which is why IBM, DEC,and HP provided the service. I've been out of that realm for quite a while, have no idea if anyone does that anymore.