Re: Wired networking problems after guix system reconfigure

[Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Can I pin my system to a specific kernel version without modifying the
files in my local guix git repository?

Here's why I want to do this. By using git bisect, I've determined that
the following change introduced the regression I mentioned in my
previous email:

6b0d24b gnu: linux-libre: Update to 4.4.

This change updated linux-libre from 4.3.3 to 4.4, so the problem was
introduced somewhere inbetween.

As a temporary workaround, I've added a linux-libre-4.3 variable to the
(gnu packages linux) module in my local guix git repository, which
allows me to use that variable in my GuixSD system configuration
file. This is basically the same thing that was done in commit adddd5b,
in which a linux-libre-4.1 variable was added to enable Libreboot X200
users to work around a different known kernel regression [1].

This is great! Now networking works again in GuixSD on my Dell Inspiron
1520 laptop. However, this workaround is a little awkward. Because it's
a patch in my local guix git repository, I'll have to tediously re-apply
it every time I update the git repo. In addition, judging by commit
adddd5b, it looks like the linux-libre kernel versions in (gnu packages
linux) are somehow intertwined with other parts of the system. For
example, that commit also modified Makefile.am (but I'm not sure why).

This makes me wonder: Is it possible to define my own kernel version
outside of the guix checkout (perhaps by way of GUILE_LOAD_PATH) for use
in my GuixSD operating system configuration file? I believe this can be
done for packages in general, but I'm not sure if it's easy to do for
the linux-libre kernel specifically. I'd like to do this, since it would
make it easier to keep using my workaround, and it might also make it
easier to perform a git bisect of the linux-libre changes between 4.3.3
and 4.4 to determine the exact cause of the regression and report it
upstream.

If anyone has experience doing this, I'd love to talk with you.

Thank you,
Chris

[1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=22274