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On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 3:35 PM james <garftd@×××××××.net> wrote: |
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> |
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> I use a 3.18.40 kernel, currently, on one of my AMD systems. It has |
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> thousands of source build packages, not only from portage but many others. |
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Keep in mind that you're running a non-longterm kernel, which means |
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that if there is a known regression or security issue in your kernel, |
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a kernel update to fix it wouldn't be provided upstream. |
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If you were running 3.16 or 4.4 you would get these updates. If you |
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plan to stick with a kernel for a very long time you should try to |
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pick one that is designated as a longterm kernel. 3.16.85 was |
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released just a week ago. It obviously doesn't get very frequent |
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updates, but if something important comes along they'll release a fix. |
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I'd have to check the timelines but you might have unmitigated Spectre |
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vulnerabilities in that kernel. |
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Also, you mention AMD. If you happen to be using a Ryzen processor |
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there were a number of updates to the kernel to better support it. I |
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forget which kernels have these but if you don't have those patches |
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you'd probably benefit from an upgrade. If you have a pre-Ryzen CPU |
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then that won't matter much. |
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I completely agree that you can get away with a longterm kernel and |
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there are a lot of reasons for doing so. I just recommend sticking |
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with one that actually is supported. |
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-- |
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Rich |
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