Re: slowly decommission bugzilla? (was: Re: kernel.org tooling update)

Andrew Morton
2026-02-26T17:04:26Z

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:44:32 +0100 Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info> wrote:

> * Create a new front page that tells users that they most likely are in
> the wrong place. The text could look like this:

I think it would be best, please. Bugzilla has never worked for us.

> """
> Welcome! Note: The kernel.org bugzilla is slowly being decommissioned!
>
> This bug tracker is a kind of failed experiment, which at the same time
> still is useful sometimes and thus for now kept alive. Due to this and
> how vendors utilize the Linux kernel, you are most likely in the wrong
> place to report your bug.
>
> To find the right place, check the Linux kernel's [MAINTAINERS
> file](https://docs.kernel.org/process/maintainers.html). Most of the
> time it will tell you to report bugs by email with some mailing lists in
> CC. Bugs with all the kernel's modern graphics drivers, on the other
> hand, [must be submitted to a Gitlab
> instance](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm) – and a small number of
> subsystems want reports in issue trackers of dedicated Github projects
> or this bug tracker.

Perhaps point people at scripts/get_maintainer.pl

Or heck, add a front-end to get_maintainer right here in this web page.
People paste in a pathname and it spits back a bunch of email
addresses.

> For more details on this and reporting Linux kernel bugs in general, see
> the [official step-by-step guide on reporting
> issues](https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/reporting-issues.html#step-by-step-guide-how-to-report-issues-to-the-kernel-maintainers).
> It covers all the important aspects, including one that is often missed:
>
> In case somebody else compiled your Linux kernel, you most likely have
> to report bugs to said vendor – like Linux Mint, Red Hat, Ubuntu, or
> SUSE. That is because the majority of the Linux developers only care for
> bugs occurring with kernels built from Linux sources that are pristine
> (aka "vanilla") or nearly so. Kernels using independently developed
> kernel modules are therefore just as unsuitable for reporting bugs upstream.