USHIFT-6711: Allow potential kernel upgrade in bootc images

[ggiguash]

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved kernel development package installation by standardizing the installation approach across all system environments. The build process now uses a consistent strategy that attempts to install the specific kernel version package first, followed by automatic fallback support when needed. This enhancement ensures more reliable dependency resolution and reduces potential build failures during the installation process.

[openshift-ci-robot]

@ggiguash: This pull request references USHIFT-6711 which is a valid jira issue.

Warning: The referenced jira issue has an invalid target version for the target branch this PR targets: expected the bug to target either version "5.0." or "openshift-5.0.", but it targets "openshift-4.22" instead.

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[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Repository YAML (base), Central YAML (inherited)

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: 99406cc9-e34c-44bc-801e-4637b083b8b0

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 987ae4d and 3708686.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• test/image-blueprints-bootc/templates/build-serialsim.sh.template

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Walkthrough

The script simplifies kernel-devel installation by removing OS-distribution branching and unconditionally installing the versioned package with a fallback to the matched variant on failure, across a single template file.

Changes

Kernel-Devel Installation Simplification

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Kernel Installation Logic test/image-blueprints-bootc/templates/build-serialsim.sh.template	Removed /etc/os-release source and ID == "rhel" conditional check. Replaced with unconditional kernel-devel-${KERNEL_VER} install, falling back to kernel-devel-matched if installation fails.

Estimated Code Review Effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 12

✅ Passed checks (12 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: modifying kernel installation logic in bootc images to allow potential kernel upgrades by unconditionally attempting to install a specific kernel version.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Stable And Deterministic Test Names	✅ Passed	The custom check for stable Ginkgo test names is not applicable to this PR. The PR modifies only a shell script template for kernel installation, not any test files with test names.
Test Structure And Quality	✅ Passed	Custom check requests Ginkgo test code review, but PR only modifies build-serialsim.sh.template (bash script). No Ginkgo tests present in this PR.
Microshift Test Compatibility	✅ Passed	The PR modifies build-serialsim.sh.template, a shell script, not a Ginkgo e2e test. The custom check applies only to new Ginkgo e2e tests, so it is not applicable here.
Single Node Openshift (Sno) Test Compatibility	✅ Passed	Check not applicable. PR modifies a shell script template for bootc image building, not Ginkgo e2e tests. SNO compatibility check only applies to new e2e test code.
Topology-Aware Scheduling Compatibility	✅ Passed	PR modifies only a shell script template for bootc builds, not deployment manifests, operator code, or controllers. No scheduling constraints introduced.
Ote Binary Stdout Contract	✅ Passed	PR modifies only a shell script template for image building. OTE Binary Stdout Contract check applies to Go-based test binaries only. No OTE code is modified.
Ipv6 And Disconnected Network Test Compatibility	✅ Passed	This PR modifies a shell script template (build-serialsim.sh.template) for bootc image builds, not Ginkgo e2e tests. The check applies to e2e tests only.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[agullon]

/retest

[agullon]

/lgtm

I can see in the logs this is working:

rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: + KERNEL_VER_ARCH=5.14.0-687.5.2.el9_8.x86_64
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: + export KERNEL_VER
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: + export KERNEL_VER_ARCH
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: + dnf install -y kernel-devel-5.14.0-687.5.2.el9_8
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Updating Subscription Management repositories.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: subscription-manager is operating in container mode.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: rhel-9.8-appstream                              6.0 MB/s | 8.5 MB     00:01    
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: rhel-9.8-baseos                                 1.1 MB/s | 2.2 MB     00:01    
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: rhel-9.8-early-kernel                           7.4 MB/s | 9.5 MB     00:01    
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: No match for argument: kernel-devel-5.14.0-687.5.2.el9_8
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Error: Unable to find a match: kernel-devel-5.14.0-687.5.2.el9_8
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: + dnf install -y kernel-devel-matched
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Updating Subscription Management repositories.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: subscription-manager is operating in container mode.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:04 ago on Mon May 11 13:19:19 2026.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Dependencies resolved.
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: ================================================================================
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals:  Package                Arch    Version               Repository           Size
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: ================================================================================
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals: Installing:
rhel98-bootc-source-optionals:  kernel-devel-matched   x86_64  5.14.0-687.5.1.el9_8  rhel-9.8-appstream  922 k

[openshift-ci]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: agullon, ggiguash

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[agullon]

/cherrypick release-4.22

[openshift-cherrypick-robot]

@agullon: once the present PR merges, I will cherry-pick it on top of release-4.22 in a new PR and assign it to you.

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/cherrypick release-4.22

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[ggiguash]

/verified by ci
/cherrypick release-4.22

[openshift-cherrypick-robot]

@ggiguash: once the present PR merges, I will cherry-pick it on top of release-4.22 in a new PR and assign it to you.

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In response to this:

/verified by ci
/cherrypick release-4.22

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[openshift-ci-robot]

@ggiguash: This PR has been marked as verified by ci.

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In response to this:

/verified by ci
/cherrypick release-4.22

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[openshift-ci]

@ggiguash: all tests passed!

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[openshift-cherrypick-robot]

@ggiguash: new pull request created: #6651

Details

In response to this:

/verified by ci
/cherrypick release-4.22

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