What is the best practice for a kernel beginner who needs a considerable amount of time to understand how it works? The solution I adopted temporarily was to lock the kernel and stop accepting kernel updates. What effect does this decision have on the system? Are there programs that use parts of the kernel that need updating? About locking the kernel: what is the command that unlocks the kernel?
Add a lock
zypper al
List locks
zypper ll
Remove locks
zypper rl
Can also be seen in the zypper manpages…
The zypper ll
command gives you a numbered list of locked packages. To unlock a package you only need to add the right number to the ll
argument. As example zypper rl 1
There are programs that don’t work with a kernel too old, but since we are on 6.8.1 currently it is unlikely to happen until at least kernel 7.x arrives.
You miss driver and security updates though, so it depends on your system use. I would not be much worried about a personal laptop that is currently working OK, but I would not miss a kernel update on a business system, as an example.
A softer option is to keep a known version of the kernel so that it will always appear on the boot menu.
Look for file /etc/zypp/zypp.conf
Edit line:
multiversion.kernels = latest,latest-1,running
so that it reads:
multiversion.kernels = latest,latest-1,6.8.1-1.1,running
That way in the grub boot menu you should always find “Tumbleweed with 6.8.1-1.1” among the “Advanced options” if an updated kernel has problems.