I noticed both my leap 15.2 machines are using kernel-preempt instead of kernel-default.
After some research I still couldn’t understand which kernel is better for me.
I am considering to delete kernel-preempt to use kernel-default?
Some other people have reported this. It isn’t happening here.
As a pure guess, perhaps there is some software you are using that is recommending the preempt kernel.
I did not fully follow or understand a few other threads, but I remember hat there are more people that got a preempt kernel. They only found out after e.g. they got a file system full, because it gathered a lot of unused default kernels. After deleteing the preempt one they got back to the default one (and the removing of older kernels worked again). As said a bit vague, but you could search the forums for “preempt”.
That likely happened when VirtualBox got an update to 6.16 and recommended the wrong kmp, causing a mess with the kernel…
If you have no specific need for kernel-preempt (very few of us have one…) uninstall all kernel-preempt packages and install the latest kernel-default available in the update repo.
Then possibly check that VirtualBox is working properly, but you should have no problem.
See here for details.
Myself and a few others suffered some nasty usability issues with the Pre-empt Kernel – I have removed that Kernel and, AFAICS, the others have done the same.
- If you have Oracle’s VirtualBox installed, you also have to remove the “virtualbox-kmp-preempt” package …
Thank you guys. I have uninstalled preempt kernels and am using kernel-default now.
Hopefully it solves some rare random freezing the reason of which is still unknown at the moment. 
edit: And yes I made virtualbox kernel to use the default version too.
I’ve just run into a similar issue with dkms and it’s requirement kernel-devel, which was replaced recently (without my noticing) by kernel-preempt-devel
I think some logic in the solver is (or was) picking the wrong multi-version package.
again, fixed by uninstalling preempt (ignoring warnings about breaking packages), then installing the equivalent but normal kernel packages. Trying to do both (uninstall & install) in one transaction fails.
AFAIK the problem was not in the solver but in some package’s requirement that prevented the -default packages from being installed, so the solver had to choose the next available package providing the same capabilities and -preempt packages were installed.
It would be interesting to know if your system was affected without VirtualBox being installed…
I’ve just checked more fully. Virtualbox isn’t and wasn’t installed.
kernel-preempt-devel got pulled in when I did the dup from 15.1 to 15.2. There’s a long list of stuff which got pulled in during that process, including preempt.
Here’s the relevant zypp history: Dropbox - preempt-zypp-history-log - Simplify your life
I should add that I don’t and never have had kernel-preempt installed.
From my perspective, there are two, separate, solver issues:
- someone did something wrong in packaging
- solver doesn’t recognise that the requirement satisfied by a package (kernel-preempt-devel) can be solved by another package (kernel-devel) which is already installed, so complains when the “unwanted” package is removed. In my case, I had to accept it complaining that dkms would be broken, but when I went back to check, there were no unsatisfied dependencies.
I’ve just done a more thorough check. There’s no mention in either /var/log/zypp/history* or /var/log/zypper* of preempt before this install as part of dup, apart from one dup --downloadonly about an hour before.
kernel-devel and kernel-flavor-devel are two different packages that complement each other. kernel-devel does not replace kernel-flavor-devel, nor does it satisfy requirement for kernel-flavor-devel.
I suspect they both provide the same capability which is required in another package, and the solver “believes” the capability is going away when the kernel-flavor-devel package is removed rather than recognising that it’s still being provided by an alternative package (kernel-devel).
But I could be wrong: I’ve not inspected the code - I’m just surmising from the solver’s behaviour and several years of debugging systems’ unintended or unwanted behaviours.
p.s. this behaviour was from using yast2 sw_single rather than ziper remove, so I may be assigning blame to the wrong piece of code.
These two lines from the attached log are interesting:
2020-12-28 23:13:56|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|84e0925335602d9ef693e175378ba58835bdbcf40360cfe01c6dba56408573d0|
2020-12-28 23:13:59|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|da9daf0e56d2211a3fc4b402aff67ee3aeac1e8342e1aadf0da0dccddcb95962|
AFAIK kernel-preempt-devel and kernel-default-devel should provide the same capabilities (while kernel-devel is a different story).
But those packages are only involved in building kernels or kernel modules from source (you have kernel-source installed…) but don’t provide “running kernel” code.
If, as stated in the title, your running kernel is -preempt, you should have also a kernel-preempt-5.3.18xxx installed but there is no such evidence in the log you posted; moreover, without VirtualBox it is not clear what triggered the install of such kernel-preempt-5.3.18xxx (well IF it is installed at all, kernel-preempt-devel should do no harm by itself…)
One more thought, there is no kernel-preempt in Leap 15.1, so is it possible that during a “dup” from 15.1 to 15.2 the solver cannot decide which upgrade from kernel-default-4.12x to choose and then installs both kernel-default-5.3 and kernel-preempt-5.3 ??
If that is the case, we may see a flood of such cases in the Forums now that 15.1 is approaching EOL…
Thanks @OrsoBruno. Yes, I made a mistake in my post - it was kernel-default-devel I meant not kernel-devel, which is also installed.
The dependency is dkms requires kernel-syms, which requires kernel-devel and kernel-default-devel or kernel-preempt-devel (I assume there’s some kind of one-of-many logic here I can’t see using rpm -q). kernel-devel requires kernel-macros provided by kernel-default-devel or kernel-preempt-devel.
These two defects (one in the solver when removing kernel-preempt-devel and one when doing the dup) could both be the same defect: the solver is either doing things out of order (i.e. solving the kernel-syms > kernel--devel requirement before kernel-devel > kernel--devel pulls in the right flavour); or it’s removing the provided capability from it’s list without checking if that capability is provided by another package which is or is planned to be installed…
Yes, I’d expect quite a few of these, although most people won’t notice as it doesn’t affect functionality.
Statistics on the installation volumes of kernel-devel, kernel-default, kernel-default-devel, kernel-preempt, kernel-preempt-devel downloads or installs (if available) would tell you how widespread the problem is. Specifically the change in the ratios between kernel-devel & kernel--devel and kernel- & kernel-*-devel are indicators.
It requires both.
bor@10:~> zypper info --requires kernel-syms
Information for package kernel-syms:
------------------------------------
Repository : Main Update Repository
Name : kernel-syms
Version : 5.3.18-lp152.60.1
...
Requires : [4]
pesign-obs-integration
kernel-devel = 5.3.18-lp152.60
kernel-default-devel = 5.3.18-lp152.60
kernel-preempt-devel = 5.3.18-lp152.60
bor@10:~>
DKMS is the only package (in standard repositories) that requires kernel-syms and kernel-syms is not really needed at all - to compile external modules for your kernel you only need kernel-flavor-devel which automatically pulls in other required dependencies (and kernel-syms is not among them). I guess it is legacy package which pulls in all flavors to facilitate building kernel modules for every possible kernel variant. I do not have kernel-syms at all and have no problems compiling modules (I do not use DKMS).
In any case, all of this has absolutely nothing to do with the title of your post, because installing kernel-preempt-devel certainly does not make your system run kernel-preempt and in the whole thread there is no single evidence that you are actually running it.
This has just resurfaced. I’ve run zypper update and “it” has added kernel-preempt to my system, starting on 2020-12-28.
Something wrong (again) with the dependencies or dependency resolution.
Any way to completely block installation of all version of kernel-preempt (apart from removing it after every update)?
$ rpm -qa | grep '^kernel' | sort
kernel-default-5.3.18-lp152.60.1.x86_64
kernel-default-5.3.18-lp152.63.1.x86_64
kernel-default-5.3.18-lp152.66.2.x86_64
kernel-default-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.x86_64
kernel-default-devel-5.3.18-lp152.60.1.x86_64
kernel-default-devel-5.3.18-lp152.63.1.x86_64
kernel-default-devel-5.3.18-lp152.66.2.x86_64
kernel-default-devel-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.x86_64
kernel-devel-5.3.18-lp152.60.1.noarch
kernel-devel-5.3.18-lp152.63.1.noarch
kernel-devel-5.3.18-lp152.66.2.noarch
kernel-devel-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.noarch
kernel-firmware-20200107-lp152.2.6.1.noarch
kernel-macros-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.noarch
kernel-preempt-devel-5.3.18-lp152.63.1.x86_64
kernel-preempt-devel-5.3.18-lp152.66.2.x86_64
kernel-preempt-devel-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.x86_64
kernel-syms-5.3.18-lp152.60.1.x86_64
kernel-syms-5.3.18-lp152.63.1.x86_64
kernel-syms-5.3.18-lp152.66.2.x86_64
kernel-syms-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.x86_64
# grep -E '\|(install|remove)\s*\|kernel' /var/log/zypp/history | cut -c 1-132 | less -Si
2020-10-22 17:10:53|install|kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.75.1|x86_64||repo-update|e6c7ee58fb62bc35f4456f12d6fa19152dc9443519dac62
2020-10-22 17:10:54|install|kernel-macros|4.12.14-lp151.28.75.1|noarch||repo-update|93918e237b4a53dbc827ab5d6cccd88342d8922ac7a50696
2020-10-22 17:11:04|install|kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.75.1|noarch||repo-update|3546fa21440cf5c49437794cb6d777100d870f2d22fd00997
2020-10-22 17:11:07|install|kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.75.1|x86_64||repo-update|10a60bc64733b265eea45a32ca18df1b8e7a13b17
2020-10-22 17:11:08|install|kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.75.1|x86_64||repo-update|e9572f5a432446afbd43fd915be899184c4832fc9439987e7c
2020-11-15 15:52:29|install|kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64||repo-update|6c102039cba90050d6b9ab687c9a9edc89ff6b28771bdf7
2020-11-15 15:52:31|install|kernel-macros|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|noarch||repo-update|ce1b5670dc3194b39240d6ebe23dbdf6273beaeae144538c
2020-11-15 15:52:41|install|kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|noarch||repo-update|b60144e5422e7b5b8a03d863b689248ebcf784aae4a2dbe9b
2020-11-15 15:52:47|install|kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64||repo-update|1f384ca36e632fb0acba89efcdc600353ef835958
2020-11-15 15:52:49|install|kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64||repo-update|946b32511181f53a61bdb07f9d7d762c628fcc28209b9a2a59
2020-11-22 10:13:35|install|kernel-firmware|20200107-lp151.2.15.1|noarch||repo-update|c8ebcab84d4cb879760001be2ba47469f47e24659197de
2020-11-27 09:31:19|install|kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64||repo-update|13364b30246fed2b045eaa51388f1e15de9fd2bc34b9458
2020-11-27 09:31:20|install|kernel-macros|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|noarch||repo-update|28f619372cdc11f5aa90e64da05c6eb9be0212e744cddc00
2020-11-27 09:31:38|install|kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|noarch||repo-update|7323b7072555bc367cf45da499f3845702664d095cd258c64
2020-11-27 09:31:50|install|kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64||repo-update|092f8d274a6f37025426cf129a81c4233dc95592a
2020-11-27 09:31:57|install|kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64||repo-update|a3ce481b712ff183ac122788c7d6b5e6939fd0dd73fdd84e4b
2020-12-11 11:48:48|install|kernel-macros|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|noarch||repo-update|aae5dcb109fe421943eca44c5e7e71eb8ad7a20518afe951
2020-12-11 11:49:01|install|kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|noarch||repo-update|51766052dbb7946111fa91be095ad91c750047bd66945671d
2020-12-11 11:49:17|install|kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.2|x86_64||repo-update|f29fad3e10b8126ade0002b47f3adb41fce3cdf17
2020-12-11 11:50:58|install|kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.2|x86_64||repo-update|8b8a013479803e0fc511358cc6149c8d1cf0915bbbc3f50
2020-12-11 11:51:00|install|kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|x86_64||repo-update|f966ff8ce0c8ad39a9fb6639ff191f8c5b90b415c8adb22112
2020-12-28 14:29:57|install|kernel-firmware|20200107-lp151.2.15.1|noarch|root@sandown|repo-update|c8ebcab84d4cb879760001be2ba47469f4
2020-12-28 14:29:58|install|kernel-macros|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|noarch|root@sandown|repo-update|aae5dcb109fe421943eca44c5e7e71eb8ad7
2020-12-28 14:29:59|install|kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|x86_64|root@sandown|repo-update|f966ff8ce0c8ad39a9fb6639ff191f8c5b90b4
2020-12-28 14:30:53|install|kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.2|x86_64|root@sandown|repo-update|8b8a013479803e0fc511358cc6149c8d1cf
2020-12-28 23:11:35|install|kernel-macros|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|noarch||repo-update|436bac84d06156720edbd811580e4c0c477496f38dcdf8323ef1
2020-12-28 23:11:59|install|kernel-firmware|20200107-lp152.2.3.1|noarch||repo-update|95acc10c8e47da14a741c7c4fcd079bca173f0ae8dad18d
2020-12-28 23:12:20|install|kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|noarch||repo-update|65531dc19089556e1e3fb14b9ce11a831e88d1010037c9106bdfa
2020-12-28 23:13:56|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|84e0925335602d9ef693e175378ba58835bdbcf40360c
2020-12-28 23:13:59|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|da9daf0e56d2211a3fc4b402aff67ee3aeac1e8342e1a
2020-12-28 23:14:52|install|kernel-source|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|noarch||repo-update|0e3a0ec45c4b90affa5bd0106f586c772e523006db00bd356c0e
2020-12-28 23:23:20|install|kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|3f861646f9f63ff2c155df679a2bea211253d71f224e7cc5c18
2020-12-28 23:24:39|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64||repo-update|cd5b6d0839a2f08d4bcad2fd10fa6890a8a6b0c1e52b25bf698ca1
2020-12-28 23:41:10|remove |kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2020-12-28 23:41:11|remove |kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2020-12-28 23:41:24|remove |kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2020-12-28 23:41:44|remove |kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.79.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2020-12-29 11:03:43|remove |kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:28:27|install|kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64||repo-update|9229557c9bfb9c524ddc9d4e1a43dd95bff22c87f0a8e077765
2021-01-22 06:28:27|install|kernel-macros|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|noarch||repo-update|ae1169edd8c36e255cc3bc0a2e7f40d6cfde9100c08e371b5936
2021-01-22 06:28:42|install|kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|noarch||repo-update|f317149bd63dd5bceaaaaf7cf1807cfdb9d7c356fc6a4ed331a8c
2021-01-22 06:29:40|install|kernel-source|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|noarch||repo-update|5033bd3922d0a801c1fd10906ff2910aee43a177e17865f22348
2021-01-22 06:29:42|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64||repo-update|a4a168dfc7528dc6e80a4c04a6cfe2f5f3a4f211b91b9
2021-01-22 06:29:45|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64||repo-update|11f8ade79d9c068eca36ea64977550322abf09e6758e7
2021-01-22 06:29:50|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64||repo-update|37db3686d19cfc01c699629584741af08ed16f0fd6335942ecbb2b
2021-01-22 06:40:05|remove |kernel-default|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.2|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:06|remove |kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:07|remove |kernel-syms|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:09|remove |kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:11|remove |kernel-default-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.2|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:14|remove |kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.83.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:40:17|remove |kernel-devel|4.12.14-lp151.28.87.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:44:56|remove |kernel-source|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:45:01|remove |kernel-source|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:45:01|remove |kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:45:02|remove |kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:47:45|remove |kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-01-22 06:47:45|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.60.1|x86_64|root@sandown|repo-update|37db3686d19cfc01c699629584741af08ed16f0fd6
2021-02-07 14:14:11|install|kernel-macros|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|9c7691fb767ef4f440145148682d33c
2021-02-07 14:14:23|install|kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|a0a0d4207a272180342d91cfa7a1bab0
2021-02-07 14:14:30|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|ccab9bc27d9fbd7ef05d862d
2021-02-07 14:14:32|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|6904f9c712db5c5bbffee05d
2021-02-07 14:14:36|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|264eeecd4aba4d7e2883d07ad9e1f5904
2021-02-07 14:15:20|install|kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.63.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|22118b697def146e2be11478bcfc86
2021-03-12 06:28:09|install|kernel-macros|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|69aba45ed532b7790e241572beaf932
2021-03-12 06:28:50|install|kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|5e59d75b409d042614573c01acef5f
2021-03-12 06:28:58|install|kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|59c6fde99dcecd80e8062de952a51a79
2021-03-12 06:29:08|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|df96a5eeb58459d950f714ba
2021-03-12 06:29:11|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|b441cf0df1888d8f6d0d9c00
2021-03-12 06:29:13|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.66.2|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|aaa6eec6dad8714b36b15f13756ef4554
2021-03-12 06:35:10|remove |kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-03-12 06:35:11|remove |kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-03-12 06:35:34|remove |kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|x86_64|root@sandown|
2021-03-12 06:35:53|remove |kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.57.1|noarch|root@sandown|
2021-03-19 09:08:47|install|kernel-firmware|20200107-lp152.2.6.1|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|38c22d9b9154eef9e1366505ee
2021-04-10 14:23:56|install|kernel-default|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|0c748f0f9de627064add487ee862c6
2021-04-10 14:23:57|install|kernel-macros|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|fa3ef8c2849badcec90b623309abb5f
2021-04-10 14:24:50|install|kernel-devel|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|noarch||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|218ca5b97985dffd33e08146fbba3c54
2021-04-10 14:24:53|install|kernel-preempt-devel|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|7d259c184369091a3520faf0
2021-04-10 14:24:56|install|kernel-default-devel|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|0e4b8cdb98a477fc4101e0eb
2021-04-10 14:24:57|install|kernel-syms|5.3.18-lp152.69.1|x86_64||download.opensuse.org-oss_update|8c44bb104509d2a3c74b981a7a1137a8e
No, “it” did not. You do not have kernel-prempt on your system nor was it ever installed as is crystal clear from the output you provided.
Even if “it” was the Patch “openSUSE-2021-532”, the fact remains that –
> zypper info kernel-preempt-devel
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Information for package kernel-preempt-devel:
---------------------------------------------
Repository : Hauptaktualisierungs-Repository
Name : kernel-preempt-devel
Version : 5.3.18-lp152.69.1
Arch : x86_64
Vendor : openSUSE
Installed Size : 4.4 MiB
Installed : No
Status : not installed
Source package : kernel-preempt-5.3.18-lp152.69.1.nosrc
Summary : Development files necessary for building kernel modules
Description :
This package contains files necessary for building kernel modules (and
kernel module packages) against the preempt flavor of the kernel.
Source Timestamp: 2021-04-06 11:41:13 +0000
GIT Revision: d532e33ad3cd1ccdbcd723b24a15207c12525a9b
GIT Branch: openSUSE-15.2
>
Even if, you have the Package containing “Development files necessary for building default kernel modules” installed, you do not need the Package containing “Development files necessary for building PREEMPT kernel modules” installed …
- Simply remove the PREEMPT
Kernel development files package …
I just realized that after an update today, I am running preempt as well. I deleted all preempt packages but what’s getting them installed in the first place?