Why so many kernels?

james80 · February 27, 2022, 3:55pm

Hi,

I wanted to delete one kernel, so I thought I had only 2 as usual on other linux distros but I see so many kernels here; (IS it possible to remove some ? except default)

:**~**> rpm -qa | grep kernel
**kernel**-firmware-usb-network-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-ueagle-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-ti-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-sound-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-serial-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-realtek-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-radeon-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-qlogic-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-qcom-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-prestera-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-platform-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-nvidia-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-nfp-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-network-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-mwifiex-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-mellanox-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-mediatek-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-media-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-marvell-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-liquidio-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-iwlwifi-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-intel-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-i915-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-dpaa2-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-chelsio-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-brcm-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-bnx2-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-bluetooth-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-atheros-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-ath11k-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-ath10k-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-firmware-amdgpu-20220218-1.1.noarch
**kernel**-default-5.17~rc5-1.1.ga9b2c1d.x86_64
**kernel**-firmware-all-20220218-1.1.noarch
purge-**kernel**s-service-0-8.4.noarch
texlive-l3**kernel**-doc-2021.186.svn57789-48.4.noarch
texlive-l3**kernel**-2021.186.svn57789-48.4.noarch
**kernel**-default-5.16.11-1.1.x86_64

Sauerland · February 27, 2022, 4:29pm

openSUSE has splitted the kernel-firmware in several files, you will see them.

Only 1 kernel is installed:

kernel-default-5.16.11-1.1.x86_64

james80 · February 27, 2022, 4:33pm

ok great, thank you

nrickert · February 27, 2022, 4:43pm

Checking here (a Leap 15.3 system)


 ls /boot/vmlinuz*
/boot/vmlinuz
/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.18-150300.59.46-default
/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.18-150300.59.49-default

Those are the actual kernels installed. And the first (plain “vmlinuz”) is just a symbolic link to the most recent of the others.

Packages with the string “kernel” as part of the name are not all kernels. What you listed were firmware packages.

arvidjaar · February 27, 2022, 5:09pm

kernel-default-5.17~rc5-1.1.ga9b2c1d.x86_64
kernel-default-5.16.11-1.1.x86_64

Sauerland · February 27, 2022, 5:48pm

Yes, not seen…

And its kernel:head???

james80 · February 27, 2022, 9:54pm

yes the 5.17, it is not ok

mrmazda · February 28, 2022, 6:38am

Kernel-firmware had grown to be a big bandwidth hit, often for no reason. e.g. on this Intel IGP 15.3, kernel-firmware isn’t even needed:

# rpm -qa | grep kernel-firmware
# rpm -qi kernel-default-5.3.18-150300.59.49.1.x86_64 | grep Size
Size        : 155,982,433
# zypper info kernel-firmware-nvidia | grep Size
Installed Size : 1.1 MiB
# zypper info kernel-firmware-intel | grep Size
Installed Size : 2.5 MiB
# zypper info kernel-firmware-amdgpu | grep Size
Installed Size : 8.4 MiB
# zypper info kernel-firmware | grep Size
Installed Size : 612.4 MiB
# zypper se -s kernel-firmware | grep mwar | wc -l
33
#

Contrast a 15.2 using NVidia GPU and only FOSS:

# rpm -qi kernel-default-5.3.18-lp152.106.1.x86_64 | grep Size
Size        : 402,143,091
# rpm -qi kernel-firmware | grep Size
Size        : 514,275,829
# zypper se -s kernel-firmware | grep mware | wc -l
7
#

For 15.3, what’s packaged where, or required, was given an efficiency treatment that resulted in a selection of smallish kernel-firmware packages, most or all of which are unnecessary on any given installation. A lot less is needed, or automatically installed, but the option to install it all remains, at further inflated cost. Of course, this increase in efficiency was developed through TW a while before 15.3 development.

Gene_S · February 28, 2022, 5:08pm

What issues are you seeing with 5.17? The biggest one I have is that it often will not resume from suspend. It’s so locked up that sys-request won’t force a reboot, only a hard shutdown seems to work. Are there other issues?

Gene

james80 · February 28, 2022, 9:57pm

no problem here so far