On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 11:27 AM james <[email protected]> wrote: > > It works fabulously, but it is time to upgrade, as most codes dependent > on old software, have been migrated. > > So should I skip to a version 5 kernel? > If so which one? I usually run hundreds of testing packages so maybe > make the new system all testing?
If you're more of the mindset of stability over features (as seems to be the case) then I'd stick with a longterm kernel. That means years of updates that basically shouldn't require anything more than running make oldconfig to deal with. Once in a VERY rare while a new option shows up. You should be updating your kernel regularly to address security issues and other regressions. If you stay within the same major.minor series you shouldn't be getting anything other than bugfixes. I personally use the latest longterm, but not until it has been out for a few months. Mainly this is because I use zfs and don't want to deal with what versions of the one are compatible with what versions of the other. Right now I'm on the 4.19 longterm, and I'm getting to the point where I'm contemplating switching to the 5.4 longterm. If I were in your shoes i'd be looking at 5.4 unless there is a reason not to. If you're asking how to actually compile/install/etc a kernel just follow the docs, but you should be doing this regularly. Jumping from 3.18 you're somewhat more likely to run into issues - your biggest headache though will be dealing with the 30,000 prompts you get from make oldconfig and making sure you set all the new options correctly. You won't get that problem going between two patch-level releases (eg 5.4.31 -> 5.4.32). -- Rich
