How to install patches.
 

I need some instruction on how to install patches for the suse/novell kernel

You ahve to install the sources of your current kernel first. That you can do simply with Yast. Be aware that you need to run YOU in case you did a kernel update previously to match the version numbers of source and binary.

Apply the patch to the sources with

patch -p1 /path/to/patch

in the source directory

And now configure, compile and install the kernel. There are many different ways of doing that and also many HowTo's that cover those ways. On SuSE kernels >2.6 I prefer the following way:

delete .config in the sources directory
create new .config with zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
run make oldconfig
configure your kernel with e.g. make xconfig
run make prepare
run make
run make modules_install
copy bzImage and system.map to /boot
make changes in /boot/grub/menu.lst to match the new kernel
reboot

As I said before, there are other ways to do it, but this method has always worked for me. Before you start, read a good howto, so you know what you are doing.

In case I misunderstood you and you wanted to install security updates and patches, simply use Yast Online Update (YOU), which will also install kernel patches if available from SuSE.