Pat, could you please tell us the status of 14.1 with regard to the
spectre/meltdown vulnerability? Will there be any package updates to
address the issue? Thanks.

Status is that the 3.10.x kernel seems completely dead upstream, which is a bit odd since 3.2.x is still getting fixes.

I could try to put out a kernel update for 14.1 from a newer branch, but I'm going to be honest here and say that's probably more disruptive for the average user than the spectre/meltdown vulnerabilities are likely to be. I could do it, though.

Opinions welcome

Maybe this might be better addressed to Linus and Co.? But then again considering his attitude/feelings about the whole situation it might be better to leave them alone?

As Slackware 14.1 turns 5 years old this year, I would consider it a legacy release that is approaching EOL, so requiring only minimal maintenance effort.

Speaking of which, we need to declare EOL soon on those 13.x releases. They've become too old to give proper support to.

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I'm not sure if this is helpful, but I compiled gcc-5.5.0 from the 14.2 source on a 14.1 virtual machine. Then I compiled a 4.9.81 kernel.

Seems to be OK.
I'm working on migration of that server to a 14.2 server.

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volkerdi --

Boy ... I don't have an opinion, only questions.

Yes, linux-3.10.y is dead.

Willy Tarrau announced EoL for the 3.10.y Kernel on 4 Nov 2017 but Ben Hutchings is keeping the 3.2.y Kernels going indefinitely.

The last 3.10.y release was linux-3.10.108:

Willy recommended going to the 4.4.y Kernel in his blog but ...

What are the implications of sliding a new Kernel along with the matching Kernel Headers beneath a running legacy system -vs- upgrading Slackware ?

Sadly, the days of installing an maintaining a single version of Slackware until a Machine is retired may be behind us ?

-- kjh

The right decision.
I am probably crying in my cups, but I will always have soft spot for 'leet'. It harks back to when the open source source movement was at a height; before virtual server farms, systemd and cloud computing became the fashion.
Vale 'leet', an historic release, which is a glowing testament to the efforts of all who brought it to fruition.

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My most heavily-used systems are 64-bit 14.1 (office desktop, home desktop, everyday-use laptop, home fileserver), and I have not yet encountered a problem with running them on the 4.4.118 kernel from the 14.2 release.

Of course the packages I use might be different from the packages you use, so your experiences might not match mine. Perhaps try it in a test environment and see if any problems crop up.

The impact of migrating to 14.2 is entirely specific to your situation, but if you haven't started at least testing it, you probably should. 14.1 still has legs, but it won't remain viable forever.

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Pat is one of the exceptions to supporting software long term. Otherwise, developers and distro maintainers in free/libre software seem hell-bent to obsolete software as fast as possible, which obsoletes hardware too.

With respect to 14.1, methinks don't directly expose the system to the a**-wipes of the world. The biggest hole with Meltdown/Spectre is JavaScript in web browsers. Don't use a web browser in 14.1 and that reduces the potential for exploit.

Back in January 2017 I migrated several 14.1 systems to 14.2, well after 14.2 was released. Just one system at a time, noting the hiccups and then moving to the next system. I first transitioned all systems from 14.1 32-bit to 14.1 64-bit before updating to 14.2 64-bit. There were some hiccups but nothing traumatic. I shared some of the details online. Start with "Preparing For The Big Update" in January 2017 and then continue into the April entries. I hope that helps.

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Deleted a 14.2 specific response, I have the flu and a bit out of it and did not notice 14.1

Hope you feel better soon.

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