MX kernel upgrades

Other Distributions
1

I started with MX 21.2 “ahs” . it had kernel 5.18
When MX 21.3 “ahs” was released, it automatically upgraded to 21.3… at least it upgraded all the packages… but the kernel stayed at 5.18.
I expected it to upgrade kernel too… but no, the apt commands only upgrade packages.
I had to go to the MX upgrade GUI, and find the kernels that were listed as available… it had 5.19, 6.0, and 6.1. listed. i chose 6.1, said install, and it did it accompanied with dozens of warning messages about possible missing amdgpu binaries. It said completed successfully, so I booted… grub menu offered the 6.1 kernel, I chose that and it was OK.

Right, so what is so different about upgrading kernels? Void linux just treats linux kernel as another package, so a regular system upgrade with xbps-install -Su rolls everything , including the kernel. The whole system is automatically updated.

MX ( and Debian) take another approach. apt is just for packages. Kernels are special.
I can understand that in Debian, where kernels never change except with a new release, but MX is supposed to be semi-rolling. I expected the kernel to roll. Maybe that is the difference between semi-rolling and rolling?

No that cant be it. In Gentoo kernels are treated separately… an emerge -avuND world updates everything except the kernel. To get a newer kernel you have to compile it. Yet Gentoo is considered rolling release?

I am confused. It seems Void is rather special in treating kernels as just another packsge to update. What do other distros do? Are there any rules for good kernel management?

2

Only if you are running sys-kernel/gentoo-sources, if sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin is used, then it updates
with the emerge -avuND world command. You only then have to run eselect kernel list and eselect kernel set and grub-mkcong -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg and chose the kernel at boot.

3

Oh, that makes Gentoo same as Void, providing you use kernel binaries it will all roll.

I have never tried to do a kernel source compile in Void, but I bet it doesnt roll either.

I was surprised by MX… I expected it to all roll. Its kernels are binaries.

4

That does not surprise me!!!

1 Like
5

@4dandl4

Well , actually it does some compiling… it compiles all the modules, but not the kernel itself? No idea why. This may only apply to the “ahs” version that I have? It took about 20 mins… far longer than a fully binary kernel update.

I expected MX to roll the kernel… it does not… not if you use apt anyway. I think that is what semi-rolling means.