Backports

The Backports Project enables old kernels to run the latest drivers.

“Backporting” is the process of making new software run on something old. A version of something new that’s been modified to run on something old is called a “backport”.

The Backports Project develops tools to automate the backporting process for Linux drivers. These tools form the backports suite.

History

The Backports Project started in 2007 as compat-wireless. It was renamed to compat-drivers as the project’s scope broadened beyond just wireless network drivers. Nowadays, the project is known simply as backports.

As of the 3.10-based release, over 830 device drivers had been backported.

Recent versions of backports support mainline kernels back to version 3.0. The older backports-3.14 supports all kernel versions back to version 2.6.26.

• Releases
• Latest releases
• Documentation
• Reporting bugs & security vulnerabilities
• Code
• Config brainstorming
• Documentation/backports/hacking
• Git trees you will need
• Adding new driver
• Linux kernel backports license
• Mailing list
• IRC
• Social Media
• Meetings

Resources

• Daily snapshots: (linux-next) (linux-stable)

• git repository

• Bugzilla bug tracker: (notes)

• Increasing Automation in the Backporting of Linux Drivers Using Coccinelle - Luis R. Rodriguez, Julia Lawall (12 pages)

• Automatically Backporting the Linux Kernel - Luis Rodriguez (54 minutes), SUSE Labs Conference, České Budějovice, October 2014

• An Introduction to Coccinelle Bug Finding and Code Evolution for the Linux Kernel - Julia Lawall (1 hour 58 minutes), SUSE Labs Conference, České Budějovice, October 2014

• An Update on the Linux Backports Project - Luis R. Rodriguez, Qualcomm Atheros (43 minutes), LinuxCon and CloudOpen Conference, New Orleans, October 2013