Re: [gentoo-user] alternative kernels

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Alec Ten Harmsel
<alec@××××××××××××××.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/26/2014 04:16 PM, Canek Peláez Valdés wrote:
>> On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 1:56 PM, Alec Ten Harmsel
>> <alec@××××××××××××××.com> wrote:
>>> On 10/26/2014 03:47 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>>>> Am 26.10.2014 um 20:09 schrieb Alexander Kapshuk:
>>>>> I've been using gentoo-sources for a while now.
>>>>>
>>>>> I remember reading on this list about some users using alternative
>>>>> kernels on their gentoo systems. My understanding is that amongst some
>>>>> of the other alternatives, besides the genkernel, which I'm not
>>>>> interested in using, are vanilla-sources available in the portage
>>>>> tree, and the sources available on kernel.org.
>>>>> I'd appreciate being given some pointers on how the folk here maintain
>>>>> their alternative kernels.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>
>>>>> .
>>>>>
>>>> I let portage update the vanilla-sources and once in a while a build and
>>>> install a new kernel. At the moment I am on 3.12.23. Maybe I install
>>>> 3.12.30 tonight. If I find a good reason to do so.
>>>>
>>> What happens when you run `emerge --depclean`?
>>>
>>> I always un-keyword the exact version of vanilla-sources that I'm
>>> running since I update and depclean on a weekly basis. I'm not a huge
>>> fan of having a bunch of kernels under /usr/src/linux-* but only having
>>> a couple of them compiled, but to each his own I guess.
>> I have sys-kernel/vanilla-sources in package.keywords, unversioned. So
>> depclean cleans away the older versions, and I keep the latest one.
>
> I was mostly asking Volker since he has vanilla-sources unmasked without
> specifying a version but is currently running the 3.12.23 kernel. Little
> crazy imnho, but whatever.
>
>> I'm on 3.17.1 right now, but the moment 3.17.2 comes out I will switch
>> to it in all my machines: with kerninst is all of it mostly
>> automatized.
>
> Wow, daredevil right here ;).

I don't think so: I haven't had a single failure with new kernels
since the early days of 3.x. That's including server, desktop, laptop
and media center.

> I usually wait until the current release
> gets to the 3rd or 4th revision before updating to make sure all the
> bugs are out.

If I understand correctly, that was the smart thing to do in the awful
old days, when we had the even middle numbers for stable releases and
the odd ones for unstable. However, in the new (and IMO, better)
rolling releases, the bugs are ironed out in the RC series.

Specially with relatively new hardware, going with the latest relese
is usually always a good call, IMO.

> Had a few times where my laptop was not a fan of new
> kernels - 3.16.1 wouldn't boot, for example.

That sounds like a bug. Also, sometimes some kernel options change
name or location, and your old configuration file should be updated.
I'm not saying that's what happened, but it could be.

>> And with systemd, rebooting to a new kernel takes just a few seconds ;)
>
> Must be nice; my laptop is so old that it boots slowly regardless of my
> choice of init system.

You should try getting it an SSD. It brings back old laptops from the
grave: most desktop software has been I/O bound for some time, and
with a fast SSD, even an old laptop can become usuable again.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Profesor de asignatura, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México