Arch Linux

saga

Member

Registered: 2016-10-25

Posts: 14

I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

What package along with 'linux' should I blacklist if I don't want my kernel to be upgraded? Currently I've blacklisted 'linux' and 'linux-headers' in `/etc/pacman.conf`.  Do I need to blacklist 'linux-firmware' as well?

giannis-arch

Member

Registered: 2017-09-20

Posts: 20

Re: I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

only "linux" package in pacman's blacklist (IgnorePkg=.... in /etc/pacman.conf ) is enough...

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,323

Re: I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

only "linux" package in pacman's blacklist (IgnorePkg=.... in /etc/pacman.conf ) is enough...

With only linux in the blacklist what stops out of tree binary modules such as those provided by nvidia or broadcom-wl from being updated to an incompatible version?

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,645

Re: I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

What specific problem are you trying to solve by not upgrading the kernel? Have you tried the LTS kernel (linux-lts)?

giannis-arch

Member

Registered: 2017-09-20

Posts: 20

Re: I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

only "linux" package in pacman's blacklist (IgnorePkg=.... in /etc/pacman.conf ) is enough...

With only linux in the blacklist what stops out of tree binary modules such as those provided by nvidia or broadcom-wl from being updated to an incompatible version?

it's definitely not a good strategy the kernel update blocking except for very special cases where the user/administrator wants to check something or avoid a bug until a new version is published..
With the kernel update blocking it is possible to show errors in the system, precisely because of installing packages or modules that require a newer kernel version.
Sure, the best is what, the person above said, the kernel LTS using

Wild Penguin

Member

Registered: 2015-03-19

Posts: 320

Re: I don't want my kernel to be upgraded.

Well, it usually doesn't make sense to not upgrade the Kernel.

However, sometimes you want something upgraded in the tree, but are in the middle of working with something. Upgrading the Kernel on a running system will break at least NVidia HW acceleration, until reboot.

There's one, minor, use case where this is a terrible kludge to workaround - which might break other things.

The -lts kernel might not be viable always ... for whatever reason. But that is a nice suggestion, however!

(I've been doing this. I blacklisted both linux and linux-headers, with no apparent unexpected issues; IIRC linux is not enough if you need dkms kernel packages).

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2018-12-18 16:35:18)