What I would suggest is to run installpkg on the kernel-huge, kernel-generic, and kernel-modules packages from -current to install them next to the existing ones from 14.2. Add an entry to your lilo to point to the old and new kernels (that way you still have the old one to fall back on in case the new one doesn't work properly, which is unlikely, but still possible).

If everything works ok, then you can run upgradepkg on the kernel-firmware package, and, optionally, removepkg on the old kernel-huge, kernel-generic, and kernel-modules packages from 14.2, however, I tend to just keep my old kernels there out of laziness (and I have plenty of space).

i thought i would upgrade the kernel but then i decided to give a try and upgrade the entire distro from 14.2 to current - and it worked ! this was the first time i ever did such a 'total upgrade', i am impressed. i many times compiled my own kernels in the past but never did such a thing as now. anyway, it works !

only issues are that lilo stays consistently dark, pitch black, and i don't seem to be able to chose boot option from its menu, so that i had to put current above 14.2 in /etc/lilo.conf which then resulted in booting a shiny new slackware current. and then fvwm doesn't read anymore my stone-age ~/.fvwm2rc file but starts with a generic screen but that will be easily fixable i assume.

i don't know yet if the ath10k wifi works but i can say that X is superfast with ludicrous-fine pixels at 4K and 13inch, and also the DA300 eth0 hub works. so, next step is the wifi business - tomorrow...

oh, and then the fan is broken too, makes an awful grinding noise as if the ball bearings are gone - there are dozens of websites complaining exactly about this.

in any case - thank you all for your inputs ! bye, pisti

ok, folks, one less item on my TODO list for this Dell XPS 9370 laptop : wifi started to work, out of the box, right after the Slackware 14.2 upgrade to current (as mentioned earlier). i use now NetworkManager's nmcli and nmtiu, and things just work as expected.

next item is now to get the webcam working, but that's for tomorrow... fortunately uvcvideo seems to be working, at least as per lsmod :

does anybody have a suggestion how to test a webcam on Slackware, conveniently using a simple, perhaps on current already installed program ?

the laptop webcam is functional too - after a BIOS upgrade from 1.3.3 to 1.8.1 by using the convenient Dell F12 BIOS flashing feature - and tested it with Alien's VLC and GoogleHangout in Chrome. working all smoothly on current !

getting to the end of the TODO list : last remaining items are to find out how to adjust the screen brightness via keyboard button press, then how to put the laptop into hibernate/suspend/sleep mode, and last how to wake it up again

will keep you posted...

i will close this thread, everything works for slack14.2+ (current) on this Dell laptop.

the problems i had to look into were the following : webcam (works with VLC and chrome and google hangout), screen & keyboard for brightness and timeout on level X and tty (by adjusting the corresponding /sys/class/ files), eth0 dongle & wifi & wicd (not networkmanager!), X driver, and a few more...

most of the stuff started to work out of the box once i upgraded to current. thank you for your various inputs !