Debian 7.3 Wheezy stable, kernel 3.2.
Intel 64bit cpu
Samsung 256 GB SSD

Hey guys,

How do I update to a newer Kernel without breaking my system? I think I need to to add backports to repo file (I know how to edit files),but I dont know what i need to add in repo file or if I need to create a new repo file for this.

https://wiki.debian.org/HowToUpgradeKernel

Also, what Kernel should i get for my SSD? there are so many:
http://packages.debian.org/source/wh...ackports/linux
I know I need the amd64 obviously but there are some that say btrfs, cdrom core, ata modules, etc.. I dont know which one I'm supposed to use?

Not sure if this matters or not, but I am using a discreet Nvidia card with driver from Nvidia.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need any info from me.

Thank you.

PS, The reason I am wanting to upgrade kernel is because a linux sys admin friend of mine told me that I should upgrade the kernel for security reasons. Other than that my system is working fine and I am very happy with Debian. But I am no expert, so what I think of "fine" may not actually be fine in the eyes of a pro.

Thanks guys.

If someone tells you that your computer can go on blaze because it is an electrical device, would you keep a fire extinguisher beside it just because someone said so?

Now lets be more technical about it, "security reasons", in what kind of environment, is it a critical? What kind of workload? Does it have public exposure lets say like the forum here?

"Other than that my system is working fine and I am very happy with Debian." Debian is known to be secure and rock solid because it works with stable and secure versions of software. As you said, it is working fine, now unless you want to learn more about kernel and want to have a newer kernel just to get the experience of doing it, then that is something else and that is great.

If that is the case then start here then also check this!

One important hint, do not remove the stock kernel after installing any other, keep it in place because if the new kernel doesn't boot and there is no other kernel to get the machine to work...well you probably got the picture. Besides that it would be better to do such experiments in a virtual machine where there is no danger in harming the system, keep a clone of the virtual hard drive so you don't need to reinstall in case system is trashed.

Regards

If there is a security problem with your kernel you can be sure that the Debian developers fix it, as soon as it becomes known. There is no reason for you to upgrade to a newer version.

I use the default kernel with an SSD. No issues that I'm aware of.

it is just my home PC, not critical, avg home use work load, no public exposure.

Thank you for the comments. I am in a learning Linux mode, but dont want to do any big changes to this OS as it is my everyday-use computer and do not want to risk breaking it as I have done in the past with other distros when I was a super-noob.

I don't know what he meant by "security reasons". I guess then I will stay with what I have for now. I care much more for stability than cutting edge and am happy with my system, everything works.

thank you guys

1 members found this post helpful.

If just a tinkerer Texan like me.

Not afeared of breaking anything while taking a journey. To learn new things or see new sights.
Like mentioned before. 1st keep a good working booting kernel in your menu list.

Uninstall new kernel if no sound, overheating, whatever.

I run SMXI which is not Debian Purist standards, but I am a bit
adventurous. I play with Sid and Liqourix Kernels. But I am a bear in a china cabinet Texas Bikerlinux user. Just a example to show what I am posting with

On some of my older gear. I run a older kernel because of kernel regression (dropped ko support for older chipsets). I guess ya got some studying to do first before risking anything for the fun of it.

Happy Trails, Rok

Edit: I should have mentioned I don't run stable anything. Debian testing or Unstable is my drink of choice.

Rok, that sounds really awesome. I will be creating some VM's with various distros in the near future to play around with and learn. Thanks for the comment!

There may be some advantages of a newer kernel. Going to 3.12 in Wheezy sounds somewhat radical however.

As a serial multi booter (probably need some 12 step program for this) I would suggest you dual boot something with your current install for this sort of experimentation.

You can do that easily and you don't need a lot of room.

You can even, assuming your are installed with a / and /home partition with your Wheezy install, share the /home with another install. You HAVE to use a different user name for the other OS. This makes it so you have a /home/<user name> directory for each install. This is critical because you need separate ~/.foo files (the "hidden" user config files).

Doing it that way you could install Debian testing or Sid (or any Linux distro) on a small (5GB) / and give it a shot. They are both using 3.12.

If you want to do a completely separate install it will still need only 15 or 20GB.

Either way you could either install another Wheezy and add the kernel or install something running the kernel you want.

As far as Debian is concerned, when you use the backports repo, or any other repo not included in the original install, you are not really running Debian stable. I use Sid with testing as my backup. I have an install of Wheezy, with contrib and non-free repos enabled, on another drive. It is possible that I will break Sid and testing (I had to use Squeeze for a whole week during the time Wheezy was testing because of idiotically breaking both testing and Sid) and I want a stable install to fall back on.

If you are happy with the performance of Wheezy I would leave the bugger alone. If you want to play, have FUN and learn something with a more "interesting" install, dual boot.

Linux is intoxicating to a new, or even older, user just because of the ability to mess with it. And I think you should mess with it. We started using Linux with Ubuntu 8.04. I broke the thing, playing with all my new power to "improve" things, with no real idea what I was doing, five times in the first 7 days. My wife was not amused. Seems to think you should be able to USE the computer. One that seventh day, I reinstalled once again as any good Windows user would, but also did a second install.

I didn't do a thing to the new main install without trying it first on that second, throw away, install. My current Wheezy install is actually still using the /home partition from that "real" install of 8.04.

With a second install you are completely freed of any need for that install to work. You can break it and have no presure on you to fix it. So you can attempt to fix it. You can do that with Linux. You can learn to do things from the tty prompt that you get with the thing won't boot to the desktop. You can learn to chroot from your stable installation if it won't boot at all.

Bsically you can learn without fear of messing with your "real" installation because you won't be messing with your real install. Simple as that. Safe and FUN.

You can also try some of the cockamayme things recommended in blogs on that throw away install. Most are bad ideas. A few aren't. Why find out which is which on your real install. This gives you, very quickly, the knowledge you need to spot idiots.

Particularly if you are a gamer the Liquorix kernel is great. Guy does a nice job. I don't game but run boinc (distributed computing application that uses a lot of resources and the Liquorix kernel handles in nicely). I am not running it currently but certainly think it is something folks should consider. I do not recommend it for Debian stable and the Liquorix guy doesn't either. I know people that do use it on Wheezy though. It is built with Sid as the target OS.