Arch Linux

ogronom

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 123

update kernel, newbie question

Hi guys.

Recently had a lot of problems with wireless (07:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)) on my laptop after upgrading the kernel and the ndiswrapper driver (to 2.6.26-ARCH and 1.53) . The only thing that I could do is to downgrade the kernel (with all the dependencies).  In some ubuntu forum I read that it's better not to upgrade the kernel if everything is working.
What everuone thinks about this?

P.S. Also there is a newbie question. Should I post somewhere about this problem?

Xyne

Administrator/PM

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 6,965

Website

Re: update kernel, newbie question

Sorry that I can't help you with the kernel issues. I just wanted to say that I keep my kernel updated (desktop) and haven't had any problems so far (except when I first installed Arch and didn't pay attention to the pacman sync warnings). Given I've only been using Arch since the middle of the summer, this may not mean much.

I would expect kernel updates to be generally a good idea though, as they contain bug fixes etc. Maybe a good approach would be to wait a week each time a kernel version is released and to watch the forum and bug tracker for issues. If nothing comes up, give it a try... I'm too impatient for that, but it may work for others.

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Raftysworld

Member

Registered: 2008-09-03

Posts: 10

Re: update kernel, newbie question

I would agree that in general, it is not better to update the kernel when everything is working.  It becomes an issue after 6 months, or a year, when lots of patches and changes have been checked into the kernel tree.  But if the system is working for you and a little kernel update comes out, I would say it is far more likely that you will run into problems rather than discover some change that benefits you greatly.

sinister99

Member

Registered: 2007-04-10

Posts: 136

Re: update kernel, newbie question

If you do decide to not update your kernal, make sure you don't update deivers such as nvidia, catalyst, wireless, etc as they are tied to a specific kernel.  Pacman should stop you from doing this though as long as you don't force anything.