Re: [gentoo-user] No news on kernel upgrade?

[n952162]

On 2/9/21 2:56 PM, Michael wrote:
> On Tuesday, 9 February 2021 13:25:01 GMT n952162 wrote:
>> On 2/9/21 12:57 PM, Michael wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, 9 February 2021 10:01:04 GMT n952162 wrote:
>>>> On 2/9/21 10:05 AM, Dale wrote:
>>>>> n952162 wrote:
>>>>>> Are extra administrative steps necessary when --sync brings in a new
>>>>>>
>>>>>> kernel, as in:
>>>>>>          https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel/Upgrade
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I currently have this situation:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> $ uname -a
>>>>>> Linux host *4.19.72-gentoo* #7 SMP Tue Jun 9 19:51:52 CEST 2020 x86_64
>>>>>> GNU/Linux
>>>>>>
>>>>>> $ eselect kernel list
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Available kernel symlink targets:
>>>>>>      [1]   linux-5.4.72-gentoo
>>>>>>      [2]   linux-5.4.80-gentoo-r1
>>>>>>      [3]   linux-5.4.92-gentoo
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If an update requires additional steps, shouldn't that have appeared
>>>>>> in the news?
>>>>> It depends I think.  I say think because there may be a binary kernel
>>>>> available which will upgrade itself.  I seem to recall reading about it
>>>>> on a mailing list somewhere.  I have no experience with it tho.  That
>>>>> said, if you use the old method, you have to upgrade the kernel
>>>>> yourself.  There are scripts you can use to help automate it a good bit
>>>>> but some of us still do it the manual way.  When you do updates, emerge
>>>>> will pull in the new sources but the rest is up to you.  I suspect most
>>>>> that do it the old way, copy .config over to the new kernel directory,
>>>>> run make oldconfig and answer the questions, compile the new kernel,
>>>>> copy it to /boot using the right method which there is a few of and then
>>>>> configure your bootloader if needed.  The link you posted explains this
>>>>> in more detail, and may be more complete too.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm trying to remember what that binary kernel thing is called.  I just
>>>>> skimmed the messages so it could be something else or not even in the
>>>>> tree yet.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dale
>>>>>
>>>>> :-)  :-)
>>>> Ah, maybe I have a theory what's going on ... maybe there's no news that
>>>> it's time to upgrade the kernel, because it's not meant that the kernel
>>>> necessarily needs to be upgraded ... except that it seems that the
>>>> virtualbox-modules package might have a (unfortunate) dependency on
>>>> that...
>>> I'm not sure I understand completely why there should be a news item from
>>> portage whenever new kernel sources are updated and downloaded.  It is up
>>> the system administrator to configure and build the new sources if
>>> desired.
>> gentoo policy is that administrators need to keep their systems
>> up-to-date.  The promise is, if they do so, the dependency system will
>> be reliable.
>>
>> The kernel version is apparently an exception to this.  The updating
>> mechanism does not require that this track the synchronization of the
>> portage tree.  Administrators are free to decide what kernel they want
>> to use.  This works - except for virtualbox-modules.
>>
>>> Each time you upgrade your kernel on the host, external modules will
>>> require updating/rebuilding.  The set '@module-rebuild' does that instead
>>> of having to re-emerge manually each external module.
>> Yes, in another context, your tip about this helped me to solve a
>> separate problem with vbox.  A quick survey didn't find mention of this
>> facility in the handbook.  Perhaps I missed it.
> Yes, I just found it in the Handbook here:
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Kernel#Post-install.
> 2Fupgrade_tasks
>
>
> and in the wiki here:
>
> https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel/
> Upgrade#Reinstalling_external_kernel_modules
>

Okay, good.   Thank you.



> Or you could shoot for the latest stable 5.4.92, which
> works fine here, also on a host which runs VBox.


Yes, I'll do that.