In the slackware repos I've checked, the kernel for 32bit systems is release 3 of 3.10.17 and the relevant packages are dated October 2013. However for 64bit systems there is an additional patches/linux-3.10.17-2 directory which contains release 2 packages of 3.10.17. These additional packages are dated February 2014 i.e. earlier release tag but later date.

There's a README.TXT for these additional packages which mentions a security bugfix but that doesn't help decide which is the "real" kernel to use since the fix is applied with an earlier release tag and dated some months after a kernel with later release tag.

I see there are no corresponding patched release tag 2 kernel packages in the 32bit file tree - could I therefore assume these additional kernels in the 64bit file tree are aberrations to be ignored?

chris

Hello chris.willing , this topic has a similar subject
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ry-4175504331/

Thanks Paulo2,
That link does point to discussion of same issue. Its "resolution" (its a typo, ignore it) is not very satisfying - although the date differences certainly suggest a typo, its certainly not clear cut. There have been 4 updates to the ChangeLog.txt since that discussion (over a month ago) but the confusing release numbering is still there.

Anyway, I've since found out some more about the security issue involved (https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvenam...=CVE-2014-0038) and it seems the kernel config option X86_X32 is the problem. I see that the kernel configuration for the earlier release tag 3 kernel package has "CONFIG_X86_X32=y" whereas the later release tag 2 kernel has "# CONFIG_X86_X32 is not set". That confirms the "its a typo" resolution for me.

chris