Hi I was just wondering why does Opensuse not always update to the latest stable kernel (today 3.14.x) (Opensuse 13.1 kernel 3.11) like Fedora does ? I don’t mean any blame I am just curious and want to know how things work on linux…
Generally the distro is kept a the same level as when released with just security or minor fix patches. However for those that want to live a little closer to the bleeding edge you can always add the stable kernel repo which will have the newer kernels. Or even the unstable kernels if you like to test things.
It is just policy. Remember that the destro changes every 6-9 months so that is generally how kernels get changed. There have been excptions in the past but as a rule the kernel you installed is kept until the next version with minor patching
This is CLOSED and will be moved to Install/Boot/Login.
Moved from Unreviewed Howto/FAQ and open again.
Adding to gogalthorp’s answer.
A openSUSE version is tested before release as an integrated buch of packages. During the lifetime of the version no changes to the versions of those packages will be made because that would require complete new testing with all of the components.
Security patches that are released for a newer kernel only, will be retrofitted to the kernels included in the supported openSUSE versions. Thus there is no security need to go for a newer kernel (same of course for other packages).
openSUSE tries to be a rather stable system where one can do one’s work without to much unpleasant surprises.
But, as gogalthorp says, feel free to combine and test what you like.
There is of course a way to go under the fresh stable kernel. It is enough to add the Kernel stable repository.
See
http://kernel.opensuse.org/packages/stable
http://kernel.opensuse.org/branches/stable
In the past, now and then I found I needed a more modern, relatively untested kernel but wanted to avoid compiling a kernel myself.
A good place to start, just to see what kernels are available can be done on this page
http://en.opensuse.org/Kernel
Although in the past a direct link to a kernel download would often be posted in the right margin somewhere, it looks like now the links merely point to http://software.opensuse.org.
I just clicked on a few links and found that as of today
The Factory kernel is 3.15.x
The Tumbleweed kernel is 3.14.x
Either of those kernels can probably be tested on 13.1 today.
BTW - If you install a number of kernels, your Grub menu list will grow and with the current default layout you won’t be able to see exactly what each menu entry actually describes. I wrote a script with graphics for recent openSUSE versions that modifies the layout so you can read the menu items
http://en.opensuse.org/User:Tsu2/12.3/Modified_GRUB_Menu
TSU