Comment # 8 on bug 1222940 from Stefan Hundhammer

What we can and do offer already is installing one of the other kernels that
are provided and supported for the distribution and release that you installed:
Those you can already install from the YaST software manager.

AFAIK that also includes kernels that are available from OBS (openSUSE Build
System) repositories, from OBS projects (often backed by SUSE developer teams)
as well as openSUSE community users who build and publish kernel packages
there.


But when it comes to third-party (non-OBS) packages, it becomes increasingly
difficult; not only for users like you, also for us as SUSE, or, more
specifically, us as the YaST team.

Where would that end? Would users also expect us to take a tarball of kernel
sources, build them, give them our blessing with the OBS build keys, and then
install them? And how about secure boot signatures, as you mentioned? And what
if the build was not successful?


Also, people using any such a YaST module (even if it wouldn't support building
a kernel from source) would of course - like they have ALWAYS been doing -
write bug reports against YaST (not the kernel!) for every possible problem,
and would insist on us debugging their specific setup.

That alone is reason enough to not even think about offering such a YaST
module.


If a YaST module is there for any purpose, users start experimenting with it,
testing its limits. That already offers enough potential for disaster with
modules like the YaST software manager, the partitioner, the bootloader
configuration. A kernel management module would open up a whole new dimension
of  problems; that is nothing to use casually. But I am very sure that users
would start doing just that.

It's not only an issue of product warranty, there is also considerable risk of
ruining the reputation of SUSE Linux products in general.


So, thank you for your input, but sorry, no, we are not going down that road.
There be dragons.