Upgrading kernels

[Fred Barclay]

Hello, everyone,
I grabbed the Debian Jessie 3.16 kernel from here: https://packages.debian.org/testing/ker ... -4-686-pae and installed it via GDebi (it was a .deb file). Yet everything I've read on the internet never mentions upgrading the Debian kernel this way. Is my method also correct, or should I have used a different method?

It does show up as a boot option in grub, and

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sudo uname -a

indicates I'm running 3.16 instead of the 3.11 that LMDE ships with.

Thanks!
Fred

[Pjotr]

Most important question: why would you want a newer kernel at all?

Second question: was it worth it, to jeopardize your system like this?

[deleted]

The Update Manager has a kernel updater.
View-> Linux Kernels
-Hinto

[Fred Barclay]

Most important question: why would you want a newer kernel at all?

Second question: was it worth it, to jeopardize your system like this?

The same reason I ran (before LMDE) Mint 17 instead of 13. I just like newer stuff if I can get it to run. Also, since I used the Jessie kernel, and LMDE is based off Jessie, I didn't expect any ill effects.
I don't see it as jeopardizing my system since I can always boot into the 3.11 kernel and remove the 3.16 kernel if needed. Maybe I'm wrong? And I have backups (plural ) so I can fix a broken system in less than an hour by reinstalling and restoring.
Lastly, I'd twice tried the (unofficial) update to Betsy from here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 40#p987540which did not go well, so I was thinking that I might want to try it again with a newer kernel and see if that made any difference. reference2myself uses the 3.18 kernel so maybe there's something to newer kernels?

The Update Manager has a kernel updater.
View-> Linux Kernels
-Hinto

In LMDE? I've only seen that in the main Mint edition--and I don't think they're adding that functionality to Betsy, as per reference2myself.

[Pjotr]

Most important question: why would you want a newer kernel at all?

Second question: was it worth it, to jeopardize your system like this?

The same reason I ran (before LMDE) Mint 17 instead of 13. I just like newer stuff if I can get it to run. Also, since I used the Jessie kernel, and LMDE is based off Jessie, I didn't expect any ill effects.

Well, I myself wouldn't cherrypick a kernel from upstream without a good reason.... After all, it's the very heart of your system. But each to his own taste.

I don't see it as jeopardizing my system since I can always boot into the 3.11 kernel and remove the 3.16 kernel if needed. Maybe I'm wrong? And I have backups (plural ) so I can fix a broken system in less than an hour by reinstalling and restoring.

That's reassuring, but don't forget that a malfunctioning system might cause you to lose valuable work.

reference2myself uses the 3.18 kernel so maybe there's something to newer kernels?

Apart from the warm, fuzzy feeling of shiny newness, not much, I'm afraid. If it ain't broken, don't fix it....

Comparisons with cars have been done to death, but still: you can compare it with a car. You can't simply remove the engine from an older Mercedes model and put the latest Mercedes engine under the hood of that car, without expecting problems with the existing older motor management computer etc.

[Fred Barclay]

Thanks.
But does anyone know if this is a valid method of installing a kernel?
I saw something on this forum where someone else had used

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aptitude install linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 linux-headers-3.16.0-4-common

, with the main difference from my method being in that they install linux-headers (whatever those are) and, of course, installed 64-bit instead of 32-bit. Other than that I suppose we did the same thing.

[nobodynoze]

It really depends on what the definition of valid is. Supported or recommended for most users? I highly doubt it. Possible? Sure, you did it. Guaranteed to be stable? Anybody's guess.

If I were using LMDE, I wouldn't go beyond using what is available to me via its software manager (so by extension using aptitude or apt-get with the default repositories). And even then, the valid or supported option is really what the update manager is recommending I upgrade. That way, you are relying upon what the desktop maintainers in essence release for the distro. When you go beyond that approach, it can increase the chances of breaking something. Not guaranteed it will, that's why I say if you take the approach you did and are happy with it, then it is valid for you. Others may try the same thing, and find something breaks.

I agree. Since, they are moving to Stable, software versions will be older and you'll use older kernels.

If you want to use newer versions of software and have a more recent kernel, then there's no sense using LMDE, imho. OP, if you want a distro based on Debian *but don't want to use Ubuntu*, there are other distributions to choose from.

P.S. are you using a 32-bit ver. of the OS? PAE kernels are usually for 32-bit?

Yeah, what you did is more or less the same as what the other user did. You can use the later kernels from Debian testing/or even unstable, for e.g., but they won't support any difficulties that related to the kernel.