Feature changed by: Michal Marek (michal-m) Feature #312647, revision 5 Title: Preserve Running Kernel On Kernel Update by Default openSUSE Distribution: Evaluation by engineering manager Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Robert Davies (robopensuse) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: My suggestion is to enable multiversion kernel & preserve running kernel for safer kernel updates, to reduce support problems when new kernels won't boot. This is now possible for 12.1 by 1 line change to zypp.conf. Since Online Update was first introduced (SuSE 7.1?) it replaced the running kernel by default, which can lead to problems booting. For a while multiversion kernel has been supported by libzypp (1 line edit in zypp.conf). The drawback with multiversion was manual deletion required of unwanted kernel packages (see http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-kernel/2011-07/msg00056.html). Now in Factory 12.1 M3 Michel Marek has included & announced - kernel package retention options (see http://lizards.opensuse.org/2011/07/14/improved-kernel-package-retention-in-... ). The default is sane, to preserve the Lastest & Running Kernels. So lets use it and make 12.1 kernel updates safer for all, and by default do the right thing! Use Case: End user upgrades kernel to Tumbleweed and it fails to boot. With kernel package retention, the running kernel was saved and recovery is simply a matter of choosing the "good" kernel from GRUB menu. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: To reduce support caused by kernel upgrade "accidents". To encourage safer testing of Kernel Team "stable" & "HEAD" kernels. To correct a long standing risky choice, made for implementation convenience of deleting old kernel package, before the new was tested. + Discussion: + #1: Michal Marek (michal-m) (2011-07-18 16:56:15) + Note that there are multiple ways a kernel can "fail" for the user. + Right now, the purge-kernels script is run after boot.localfs, that + does not help you if e.g. X doesn't work anymore. To be fully bullet + proof, the script would need to be triggered much later, e.g. once the + user logs in and there is network connectivity. But even the current + implementation can help in many cases. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312647