Linux Mint Forums

Has anyone else seen this yet?

http://news.softpedia.com/news/10-Kerne ... 4162.shtml

I'm assuming the stated vulnerabilities will also apply to Mint. The required kernal update is available in Update Manager and I'm off to install it.

Available in Mintupdate level 5.

If these are vulnerabilities, why are they only level 5 which most people do not install? Is it because the likelihood of bricking a system outweighs the likelihood of them being exploited?

If these are vulnerabilities, why are they only level 5 which most people do not install? Is it because the likelihood of bricking a system outweighs the likelihood of them being exploited?

Well, I saw where one person installed the updated kernel and their wifi quit working. I upgraded the kernel on 64 bit and everything worked fine for me. If the new kernel does not work, just boot using the old kernel and remove the new one in Synaptic.

Ok I'll do that. I was more wondering why security updates were sorted under a category that the typical user would usually not have a clue of their existence without seeing the news or knowing about the different levels.

EDIT: updated fine, just had to make usual changes to grub.cfg to get graphics card and backlight to work properly

Many of the security updates have no real impact on home users and many here are new to Linux. Kernel updates, especially from Ubuntu tend to cause problems for people. An experienced user like yourself knew what needed to be done after the update, many would not have known how to get their graphics working again. The whole idea behind the update levels is to keep people from having a broken system and to make informed decisions rather than blindly updating and having a broken system.

I installed the kernal update on Mint 8 64 bit and it would not boot. Just an example of why kernal updates are level 5.

I had intended to remove the 64 bit version and reinstall 32 bit Mint 8 in any case (I really don't need 64 bit) so there was no great harm done.

I assume I either got a bad download or, for whatever reason, my system rejected the updated kernal.

After reading about this on Softpedia, I installed kernel 2.6.31-19.56 on x86 via synaptic (the latest version listed there). So far it appears to have gone through without problems, but for the time being I'm keeping 2.6.31-17.54 on my system just in case (I've updated the kernel several times since installing Mint 8).

See my global announcement
As soon as I have installed the final Helena main and upgraded in my laptop I'll add my experience about it

exploder wrote:Well, I saw where one person installed the updated kernel and their wifi quit working. I upgraded the kernel on 64 bit and everything worked fine for me. If the new kernel does not work, just boot using the old kernel and remove the new one in Synaptic.

If that's me you're referring to, it seems my laptop didn't take kindly to the linux-modules-backports-package. I've since updated to -19 and everything is in top shape for me. I was just going to edit my post(s) to reflect this, "for the benefit of posterity" and all. All's well that ends well.

Running on an upgraded 6 year old HP a645c desktop PC: AMD 3200+ (32 bit single core) w/1.0 GB memory, Nvidia GeForce 6200w/256 dedicated AGP video card. Internet connection is via Ethernet cable directly to DSL modem, no network, no proxies.

Kernel upgrade went fine and the system has been running without any apparent problems since. Resource usage at start up runs around 220 MBs w/0-10% CPU.

Can't complain about that.