15/04/2012 17:06 -0700, Konstantin Olchanski wrote: > On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 02:46:49PM -0500, Kevin K wrote: > > Depending on what special features you might use on your system > (virtualization, third party drivers), it might be possible to build a > kernel from kernel.org. I've tried this in the past but since the > latest kernel still didn't properly support the broken hardware I > didn't pursue it further. > > > Yes, what you say is possible. I run a few SL5 machines with a custom > built 2.6.34 kernel (the funny hardware requires non-default access > method to PCI config space). > > Last I remember, it was not too hard to build a vanilla linux kernel that > booted the SL5 userland. I do remember a few gotchas - some boot scripts > expected > some drivers to be loadable modules (I had them compiled into the kernel), > autofs did not work because /dev/random broke (SL5 kernel uses the network > as source of randomness, but vanilla kernel does not, and there is no other > hardware present in the system). Took maybe half a day to sort this all out. > (I am not looking forward to repeat this with the 3.x kernels). > > > > On Apr 15, 2012, at 1:46 PM, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > > > > > I'm running S.L. 5.6 on a few machines, and have grown somewhat > > > dependent on it. However, there are features in the kernel > > > that comes with 6.2 (like USB3) which I would like to have. > > > > > > Is it possible to upgrade just the kernel and associated modules > > > and "miscellaneous"? > > > > > > I assume this is tricky, and fraught with dangers, and the usual > > > cautions (make backups, work on a copy of the disk, tweak yum > > > updates so they won't regress the 2.6.32 kernel, etc) apply. > > > I do not see any danger or special caution - if an SL6 kernel would boot > SL5 userland, it should run okey. But you will run into trouble with > userland stuff required to support the kernel - udev, mkinitrd, mdadm & co - > the SL5 stock tools might be too old for the recent kernels. > > That said, where I am, lack of support for new hardware is the main reason > we move from SL3 to SL4 to SL5 to SL6. > > For new kernel features, you can run mongrel systems with mismatched > userland and kernels, but at some point the cost of diverging > from the mainstream becomes bigger than the cost of moving > all your apps to latest SL. (At which point effort of creating > and maintaining a mongrel system is wasted; while the effort > of moving apps to latest SL is mostly in understanding your apps > and in keeping *them* up to date, which you should do anyway, > regardless).
The most simple solution for this problem -- using virtualized SL5 installation on SL6 host. > K.O. > > > > > > > > > For now, I just want to know whether this is worthy of further > > > consideration, or instead I should set aside a few weeks to > > > upgrade everything then rebuild a lot of poorly written custom > > > apps. > > > > > > Keith > > > > > > -- > > > Keith Lofstrom [email protected] Voice (503)-520-1993 > > > KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" > > > Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs >
