--- title: How continuous integration can help you keep pace with... description: Companies shipping Linux-based products often get stuck on outdated kernel versions because heavy downstream modifications make rebasing prohibitively... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How continuous integration can help you keep pace with the Linux kernel | daily.dev og:description: Companies shipping Linux-based products often get stuck on outdated kernel versions because heavy downstream modifications make rebasing prohibitively... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/gSAdkYE6Q.png og:image:alt: How continuous integration can help you keep pace with the Linux kernel og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How continuous integration can help you keep pace with the Linux kernel **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Companies shipping Linux-based products often get stuck on outdated kernel versions because heavy downstream modifications make rebasing prohibitively expensive. Collabora advocates staying close to upstream by contributing changes back and rebasing regularly on LTS releases. To support this, they have been working on continuous integration of FOSS components, including contributions to kernelci.org, which builds and boots-tests multiple kernel configurations across diverse hardware. Current gaps include automatic bisection to pinpoint regression-introducing commits and broader functional test coverage beyond build and boot. Collabora has also worked on extending the IGT test suite to cover all DRM drivers generically, adding CRC-based frame comparison APIs, and integrating Chamelium board support for display testing. Google and Bosch have sponsored parts of this work. Better CI infrastructure reduces the cost of upstreaming and rebasing, making it feasible for more companies to stay current with mainline Linux. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does kernelci.org help detect Linux kernel regressions? kernelci.org builds multiple configurations of different kernel trees and submits boot jobs to labs around the world, collating results. It detects at an early stage any changes that break builds or prevent specific hardware from completing boot. A current limitation is that it cannot automatically identify which specific commit introduced a regression, requiring manual investigation or repository owner notification. _Engineers tracking kernel regressions across hardware targets follow developments like these on daily.dev._ ### Why do companies end up shipping Linux kernels that are several years old and no longer receiving security updates? Companies ship old kernels because their downstream trees have been so heavily modified compared to upstream that rebasing onto newer mainline releases becomes prohibitively expensive to budget and plan. The large delta between mainline and downstream sources makes the stabilization cost after each rebase unpredictable, so companies defer the work until the kernel is years out of date and no longer receiving security patches. _Teams deciding how to manage downstream kernel debt find relevant industry experience shared on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How continuous integration can help you keep pace with the Linux kernel","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:56:57.038Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:18:06.818Z","description":"Companies shipping Linux-based products often get stuck on outdated kernel versions because heavy downstream modifications make rebasing prohibitively...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7a7a628a083f362144ed330777dc9de0?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7a7a628a083f362144ed330777dc9de0?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collabora Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collabora Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZGZ0FjqS--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438306/logos/collabora?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux,cicd","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collabora Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How continuous integration can help you keep pace with the Linux kernel"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-continuous-integration-can-help-you-keep-pace-with-the-linux-kernel-gsadkye6q#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does kernelci.org help detect Linux kernel regressions?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"kernelci.org builds multiple configurations of different kernel trees and submits boot jobs to labs around the world, collating results. 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