<Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

chickenPie4tea · 2014-11-19 12:53:09

After a recent system upgrade to kernel 3.17.3-1 I noticed my laptop would not resume from a standby like it used to.
So I downgraded to kernel 3.17.2-1 and it's working again.
Therefore I added to the pacman.conf
IgnorePkg=linux
So that I dont get an upgrade again. How long is it safe to hold the kernel? can I just keep this working kernel for say 6 months?!
Anyone held there kernel with no bad effects and for how long?

Last edited by chickenPie4tea (2014-11-19 20:40:09)

clfarron4 · 2014-11-19 12:57:26

chickenPie4tea wrote:

How long is it safe to hold the kernel? can I just keep this working kernel for say 6 months?!
Anyone held there kernel with no bad effects and for how long?

I wouldn't be that happy holding a kernel for 6 months, because of the potential for security vulnerabilities to be found.

I'd personally try and find the specific patch from 3.17.2 to 3.17.3 which is affecting your system and report it as a bug.

Have you tried either the mainline kernel in the AUR or the LTS kernel?

chickenPie4tea · 2014-11-19 13:05:22

thanks for the reply,
No I haven't tried the mainline kernel I may do that. I had LTS installed on an older install of Arch, havent gotten around to it this time. Ok then I won't hold it for months! I will install the long term support kernel.

Last edited by chickenPie4tea (2014-11-19 13:15:33)

drcouzelis · 2014-11-19 13:54:37

chickenPie4tea wrote:

IgnorePkg=linux

I also add "linux-headers" to that list. I don't knof if it's necessary, but it just seems right to keep the kernel and the header files in sync.

How long is it safe to hold the kernel? can I just keep this working kernel for say 6 months?!

Since you use Arch Linux and are a responsible user you can use the kernel as long as your computer still works properly. You can check Linux kernel security announcements to see if your kernel is at risk. Finally, my assumption is that both your kernel bug and my kernel bug will be fixed in a kernel release in the not too distant future, so in reality it will be a lot less than six months away.

WorMzy · 2014-11-19 14:04:12

Looks like it may be this bug: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=88391

chickenPie4tea · 2014-11-19 20:39:44

@drcouzelis thanks, yes of course I should add linux-headers
@WorMzy Yes that's my problem with that kernel

Last edited by chickenPie4tea (2014-11-19 20:46:27)

Potomac · 2014-11-20 01:20:52

the best thing to do when you have a bug with the kernel is to do a "git bisect" in order to find the commit who has introduced the bug

https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm … k2009.html

then you can create a bugreport in kernel's bugzilla, and add a link to this faulty commit, which will help the linux developpers to find quickly a solution,

when the faulty commit has been found you can also try to create a patch that will revert the changes made by this faulty commit, this patch can be used with a PKGBUILD in order to build an archlinux kernel package

Last edited by Potomac (2014-11-20 01:40:32)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-11-19 12:53:09

<Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#2 2014-11-19 12:57:26

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#3 2014-11-19 13:05:22

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#4 2014-11-19 13:54:37

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#5 2014-11-19 14:04:12

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#6 2014-11-19 20:39:44

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

#7 2014-11-20 01:20:52

Re: <Solved>how long can I hold the kernel?

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