Nixpkgs: Expose installer ISO's with a newer kernel

[worldofpeace]

Describe the bug
Spending some time #nixos freenode, I've noticed people regularly have this issue with the installer ISO not starting because the kernel doesn't have support for their hardware.
Here's a support request that reached us recently #69583.

So usually to help people I find a download link on hydra like

• https://hydra.nixos.org/build/100951153/download/1/nixos-minimal-new-kernel-19.09beta181.64e38f246ae-x86_64-linux.iso

But the NixOS website has no links for people to easily find it, it's also not part of the channel.

We also have other configurations available

• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/installer/cd-dvd/sd-image-aarch64-new-kernel.nix
• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/installer/cd-dvd/installation-cd-graphical-kde-new-kernel.nix

It appears the graphical images aren't built at all.

Because I've had to direct people to those links so many times I think we should expose all of these images.

The details of this I'm not sure about, but I can say that it does for sure help __someone__.

[samueldr]

One of the issues we need to tackle is figure out something like #59863.

Every time the kernel updates, zfs lags behind (understandbly). If we want the new kernel image to be publicized, it needs to be a channel blocker, if it is a channel blocker, it will be blocked for a couple days every upgrades.

[matthewbauer]

Anyone know how other distros handle this? I've never heard of newer hardware not booting with certain kernel versions, but I suppose it could happen. My expectation would be that the kernel would boot fine, but not be able to take advantage of all of the newer hardware available. The current kernel should be on 4.19 which is still pretty new! I wonder if there is some kernel config we can set to enable support for this hardware on 4.19.

[worldofpeace]

@matthewbauer I know Ubuntu has LTS and interim releases. And for their LTS they have what they call a hardware enablement stack update, and the interim release tends to have a pretty new kernel.
Though in general, they have a very patched kernel.

[samueldr]

Most often "not booting" should be phrased "have no video output, even with a bunch of modesetting options". This seems to come in waves when the most recent LTS gets older. This time with the LTS spanning a full year of NixOS releases I would bet that we'll see an uptick in those cases.

[worldofpeace]

Hmm, another example in the wild where someone had to suggest to use this image

• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/live-cd-usb-not-booting/5006

[worldofpeace]

Another one I believe: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/blank-screen-booting-on-nixos-usb-iso/5176/8 :frowning: .

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[matthewbauer]

Still important