I am a Linux newbie, and I have a PC that has a processor (Intel Core i5-3550) that is too new for the Linux 3.1.10 kernel that comes with OpenSUSE 12.1. Working under the KDE desktop is much too slow, the latency of everything is just painful.
I want to install the latest stable Linux kernel that is available in the OpenSUSE repositories (which I believe is at least 3.4.x). To be on the safe side, I have activated the multiversion kernel feature of OpenSUSE 12.1, following the splendidly detailed writeup in SDB:Keep multiple kernel versions - openSUSE.
From this point on, I really am not sure how it would be best to proceed. I found a few of threads here in the OpenSUSE forums that in one way or the other deals with upgrading the kernel of OpenSUSE 12.1, but details for a newbie are missing, and the discussions are perhaps even dated by now. Firstly, I don’t know which repository would be best for me to add. Would http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard/Kernel:stable.repo be good? A couple of forums mentioned that they used the Tumbleweed repository. Would that be better, and if so, how exactly does one add that? Finally, after I add the appropriate kernel repository, can I then simply just “zypper dup” to install the latest kernel?
Many thanks in advance.
Sounds like you have a nice machine. But I doubt the kernel is the problem. It would be good that we could actually be sure about that before going ahead with a kernel upgrade.
Kernel upgrade are pretty simple especially if you have some experience and say a Intel graphics chip. Which brings me to that subject, you will absolutely need to install a proprietary graphics driver for nvidia or ATI. Had you done that? What graphics do you have.
Thanks for the response. I actually posted my concern initially in the hardware forums (see http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/hardware/476958-new-i5-3550-pcs-slow-disk-cache-usage-high.html) and the consensus was getting a new kernel. I thought it best to ask my kernel-upgrade concerns here instead of extending that hardware thread.
I anyway have pretty basic machines, using the Intel integrated graphic card, no fancy Nvidia ones here.
Then no harm trying this
su -
zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard/ kernel
zypper ref
(a) to accept
zypper dup -r kernel
then reboot
Problem solved!! PCs running smoothly. Many thanks for the detailed commands – these are exactly what I needed.
Happy to help
Keep in mind that the repo you are now using is a little bit out there and I’ve found sometimes you need to wait a day or two once updates start feeding through. It seems they will sometimes put updates in there without waiting for the complete build of dependencies. If you come up against a problem updating, give it a day or two and try again.
Thanks caf4926 from me too.
I found this thread while searching for commands how to upgrade kernel in OpenSuSe.
I was able to successfully upgrade kernel in my OpenSuSe 12.1 from 3.1.x to 3.5.x using above commands.
I used it in virtualbox. 
I also did a good upgrade in opensuse 12.1 from 3.1 to 3.5.Need to remember these codes:)
