[arch-general] Keep older kernel intact while upgrading to new kernel

[Thomas Dziedzic]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 10:38 AM, Victor Lowther
<victor.lowther at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-07-17 at 23:10 +0800, Ng Oon-Ee wrote:
>> On Sat, 2010-07-17 at 09:17 -0500, Victor Lowther wrote:
>> > On Sat, 2010-07-17 at 18:05 +0400, Евгений Борисов wrote:
>> > > I think it's a bad idea, because the directory /lib/modules/$oldVersion$
>> > > will be removed when the package is upgraded kernel. Trivial solution not
>> > > exists.
>> >
>> > My solution is to hand-roll my own kernels and initramfs'es after
>> > removing the kernel and mkinitcpio packages.  The way Arch handles its
>> > kernel packages is a weak point -- Fedora and Ubuntu get this bit right.
>>
>> Yeah, why not keep all previous kernels and headers around. We could
>> automatically extend menu.lst too!
>
> It wold be better than updating to a new kernel, rebooting, and having
> to boot to a LiveCD to get back into your system because the new kernel
> fscked things up.
>
> Keeping versioned header files also comes in handy -- I take it you heve
> never tried any sort of testing with out-of-tree drivers or kernel
> subsystems? Using DKMS on arch is a pointless waste of time because
> older kernel headers are not kept around.
>
>> I'm not sure what you like about Fedora and Ubuntu handling of kernels,
>> but I found it very annoying to have all that stuff hanging around.
>> Would be worse with rolling release I'm sure.
>
> I like knowing that I will not have to hunt for a LiveCD or a rescue USB
> drive if a kernel update renders the system unbootable.
>
>

This wouldn't be a problem if you have a backup kernel :)